THE DAY THE EARTH ENDS; 21st December 2012

“So, are you ready for the big event? Have you ticked everything off your bucket list? No, not yet? Well, you may want to hurry up, the end of the world is nigh, in 45 days to be precise.”

That’s right, Archaeologists have found carvings in a stone staircase at the La Corona dig site in Guatemala which confirm the ‘end date’ of the Maya calendar, December 21, 2012.

It is only the second known inscription which confirms this ‘end date’; where the alignment of certain planets completes and Armageddon on earth will begin.

Thousands if not millions around the world believe that the earth will be hit by an asteroid, will start spinning in reverse, or be enveloped by a black hole. News of this cataclysmic event has seen sales of blast shelters sore with many investing in underground bunkers  and stock piling for the apocalypse. And there are so many believers that there’s even a very successful show on Sky that follows these doomsday preppers?

So, what exactly is supposed to happen when the clock ticks over 00:00 on the 21^st (which by the way, is just one day after my birthday. Thanks for that Mayan people; at least I’ll get one last celebration in).

There are all sorts of theories, including those detailed above, but which are actually ‘based’ on fact?  Well, we need only turn to Hollywood for some inspiration.

And, if the disaster blockbuster movie 2012, is anything to go by the end of the world starts in Yellowstone National park in Wyoming USA. The park is home to what scientists have dubbed a ‘super’ volcano. Apparently, it (the volcano) has been rising at a record rate since 2004 – its floor has gone up three inches per year for the last three years alone, the fastest rate since records began in 1923. Presently, scientists are not unduly concerned as the volcano’s magma is believed to be buried over 6 miles under the earth. However they do know that the volcano’s crustal magma chamber is filling but, due to lack of data, have stopped short of predicting when exactly the chamber will fill to less than 2 miles under the earth ( That’s when we should all start worrying). Indeed, if and when the eruption finally happens it will dwarf the effect of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which erupted in April 2010, causing travel chaos around the world.   Whilst it’s not anticipated that this would extinguish all life on earth, it’s expected to ‘change’ the world as we know it.

 So, if not the volcano then what?

In yet another disaster movie, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, multiple weather fronts converged to create the perfect storm. The result was the ‘return’ of the ice age.  When the movie was released, there were few that viewed it for any more than a piece of fiction. However, a few weeks ago, ‘super storm’ Sandy smashed records for the greatest hurricane to have ever formed in the Atlantic basin. The ‘frankenstorm’, so dubbed because of its size, energy and its mutation from hurricane (which normally dies out at land fall) to super storm, consisting of hurricane, warm and low pressure fronts that merged to wreak havoc on the eastern seaboard of the United States causing billions of dollars’ worth of damage,   leaving millions without power, many homeless and, tragically, loss of life.  Sandy was 900 miles wide and was the strongest hurricane north of Cape Hatteras. Sandy, was the most debilitating event to be suffered by the New York sub way system, caused the largest number of power outages (over 8 million homes), was the longest weather related shut down of the New York stock exchange, and has the record for highest number of Instagram images (nearly half a million photos with the Sandy #tag were uploaded at the rate of nearly 10 per second).

Yet, despite all of these statistics, Sandy still didn’t manage to make the world stand still or the whole of the United States for that matter. Many of us other folks were able to safely watch the terrifying images from the safety of our homes.

And it is precisely this false sense of security that we’ve allowed ourselves to be lulled into that will spell our doom according to the doomsday cults who would have us believe that Sandy is just the beginning of the end.

Indeed, in their quest to bring us ‘informative’ news, the BBC went to the trouble of generating a graphical representation of what Sandy would have looked like had she landed over Europe, the result was somewhat chilling; the storm swallowed the United Kingdom, Paris, Zurich, Prague, Copenhagen and beyond, a truly terrifying reminder to us all of the awesome power of nature.

There’s certainly a sense of apprehension in many not over what did but what could happen now that we’ve seen a pretty devastating example. Indeed, it’s this very theory that has reignited the debate over global warming whilst most do not believe that it played a part in the conception of Sandy, there’s a lot of credence in the fact that it may well have exacerbated it.  So much so, that it’s believed that the presidential candidates are seizing the opportunity to capitalize on the media coverage of Sandy’s devastation to push their so called green credentials to win the vote of the climate warriors, although neither would clearly admit to it.

So, if it’s not by volcano or by super storm then how will the so called predictions be realised?

Well, the doomsday preppers will have us believe that we’re all going to be swallowed by a black hole, if that’s the case then they may as well not bother ‘prepping’ at all because it will all be for nothing, instead they should spend their remaining days making the most of life as  they know it.

Another theory is that we’ll all suffer the fate of the dinosaurs and be hit by a giant meteorite (also known as the planet Nibiru) that will annihilate on life on earth. Again, if that’s the case you may prep and even survive the blast but you won’t necessarily survive the blackout of dust which is believed to have lasted years previously. Also, as a minor detail, who exactly will you be hiding out with?  Just your family? Is that how you plan to propagate the species?  Eww!   That said, the possibility of us being hit by a giant asteroid is far more plausible given the fact that the earth is hit by thousands of ‘space’ rocks every year although many of them benignly burn out before they even enter our atmosphere.

So, is this the way it’ll all end?

NASA scientists have stated very clearly that there are no known objects presently on a collision course with earth and if there were then they would have been tracking them for years maybe even decades and not just at the last minute because, apparently, giant asteroids reaching earth isn’t something that they’d notice overnight.

A massive solar flare that will burn everything on earth to a cinder has also been suggested but again NASA has clearly stated that for many years solar flares have followed a specific cycle with peaks and troughs. Some of the peaks have been known to affect some satellites but scientists are working hard to build equipment that is immune to these spikes .

Feel safer?

Well, whatever you believe, the truth is that the whole Mayan calendar theory was blown out of proportion by conspiracy theorists.  This actual date predicted by this intelligent race of mathematicians was that the 21^st December 2012 is regarded as the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar and that not unlike the calendar on your wall, it simply resets to 1 and not to obliteration!  Professional Mayanist scholars state that predictions of impending doom are not found in any actual Maya account. Furthermore, Astronomers and other scientists have rejected so called doomsday predictions as pseudoscience, stating that they clearly conflict with genuine astronomical observations and are nothing more than distractions from important science concerns, such as global warming and biological diversity.

The New age interpretation of this date is that the Earth and its inhabitants will undergo and positive physical change and that 2012 marks the beginning of a new era. The doomsday prophets decided to take the interpretation to the opposite extreme.

Whatever you believe, one thing is for sure, our climate and, by association, our world is changing and it’s changing because of the way we go about our daily existence on this planet; our hunger for food is matched only by that for energy and fuel. As the population grows, supply will struggle to meet with demand and only the naïve would believe that we should not explore alternatives, such as renewals energies, now to safeguard our future.

Unlike hurricane Sandy, this is something that is within our control, the only question is whether or not we choose to do something about it.

Have a serene Sunday.  🙂