What quality sets apart the modern conception of the apocalypse from the older versions?

While for thousands of years, the apocalypse has been thought of as a sudden and quick event, O'Connell asserts that this is no longer true. The true end of the world, brought on by climate change, is coming on in a slow and plodding way. Each hurricane season gets a little more violent and another major ice cap melts every so often, but the way in which we experience the apocalypse will be much different than the earlier conceptions of what the end of the world would look like.