What will happen in 2012... will the world come to an end? Will December 21, 2012 mark doomsday for humans as a species, the whole planet, perhaps the whole universe? What's going to happen and what should we do to prepare for it?Let me spare you the wait.
The real truth behind 2012 is that it's a hoax. Whether you are caught up in the Mayan prophecy, planetary alignment, super volcanoes, or polar shifts, all these theories emerged only after 2012 was targeted as yet another doomsday date.You've probably heard a lot about the supposed end of the world on December 21, 2012 and may even be a little anxious about it. But there's no need to worry.To shed some light on the subject, here are the most popular end-of-the-world claims and how they are connected to what may well become one of the greatest doomsday hoaxes of modern times (...and there have been A LOT of them).
The Discovery of Planet X (Nibiru)
The reason so many people are asking "what will happen in 2012?" goes back to 1976 when Zecharia Stichin published The 12th Planet. In this book, he stated that the Sumerians had identified a twelfth body called Nibiru with a 3600-year orbit.
It's worth noting here that this claim totally contradicts what real experts on the Sumerian civilization have found. The Sumerians, while a mighty race, knew very little of astronomy and most certainly didn't even know about the existence of Uranus, Neptune or Pluto. So the idea of them discovering a twelfth body in the solar system is well off; this was just another wildly inaccurate claim spun by Stichin.
Nonetheless, this is all it took for the great hoax to begin. A self-declared psychic named Nancy Leider (who claims to speak with aliens) announced on her website that Nibiru, also known as Planet X, is on a collision course with Earth. The catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was pushed back to December 2012.
So what does NASA have to say about this erroneous planet? In 1984, when news of a potential tenth planet hit the news headlines, the term Planet X became a popular way of describing the unidentified mass spotted via infrared survey. However, after closer inspection, the mystery object was identified as a distant galaxy.
Unfortunately this has not stopped doomsday fans from drawing lines between Stichin's ill-founded claims, the woman who believes she regularly speaks to aliens, and NASA's temporary misidentification of a galaxy far, far away.
The End of The Mayan Calendar
With Planet X and 2012 in the public eye, it wasn't long before conspiracy theorists realized the year coincided with the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar. Surely this was real proof that the world will end in 2012! Erm... no.
Calendars keep track of the passage of time - they do not predict the future. Though the Mayans were very advanced and made solid astronomical observations, there was never any doomsday prophecy made. This has been confirmed by genuine Mayan scholars. The Mayan calendar - like all calendars - simply had to end somewhere. Not only does it end, but it begins again in a new cycle, just as your calendar ends on December 31 and begins again on January 1.
No matter what New Age fans doggedly spout about the Mayan prophecy, always ask yourself: how do they know what will happen in 2012? Where did their information come from? It certainly wasn't the Mayans, who, as we have established, made no such claims about the end of the world.
At the end of the day, this is a hoax propagated by the internet, TV documentaries, and even blockbuster movies (see below). People love to jump on the bandwagon even when their true understanding and first-hand knowledge is suspect.
To that end, many Spiritualists extend the prophecy to metaphorical levels: "We may face catastrophes of epic proportions... super volcanoes, earthquakes, solar storms," they say knowingly. "Or mankind may enter a new era of consciousness; we'll stop being so materialistic and focus on our spiritual selves."
What an awesome get-out clause to bring up when nothing happens ;)
Planetary Alignment
For some reason, a lot of people think that all the planets will fall into perfect alignment on December 21, 2012. Could this spell the end for mankind?
According to NASA, there are no planetary alignments in the next few decades. Earth will certainly not cross the galactic plane in 2012 - and even when any alignments do occur, their effects on Earth would be negligible.
The truth is, every year in December, the Earth and the sun do align with the approximate center of the Milky Way Galaxy but that has never created any effects here on Earth before and neither will it in December 2012.
Polar Shift
Planet Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field which undergoes a reversal (north switching magnetic poles with south) on average every 400,000 years. Judging by the current level of movement, we can predict the next reversal will be within the next 1,000-3,000 years. But definitely not within the timeframe of 2012.
Even if a reversal were to occur, it will likely not cause harm to life. If polar shifts were deadly, it would show up in the fossil record as numerous mass extinctions since the beginning of life on Earth... which it hasn't.
Solar Storms
Perhaps the most credible theory of all is solar storms. And yet it still doesn't not spell doomsday of the end of life as we know it.
The sun has regular peaks and troughs of activity, with peaks occurring about every 11 years. In the past, solar flares occurring during the peak period have caused some disruption of satellite communications, but these days engineers are building electronics that are protected from most solar storms.
There is no denying the next peak in solar activity will occur in 2012-2014, but it is expected to be an average cycle. In any case, we are well prepared for solar flares and these should be no different from any other period in history.
Hollywood, The Media and 2012
If all the 2012 doomsday theories can be so easily discredited, then why on Earth are we so whipped up into a frenzy over it?
This is partially human instinct - to be constantly on the lookout for threats to our survival. It's partially Spirituality and New Age religions - using fear to create a bigger buzz about their belief system. And it's partially the effect of the media - glorifying pseudo science to create drama in the news and action-packed movie plots.It's a powerful combination.
Which of these Hollywood movies have contributed to your fear of 2012? Or are you willing to separate fact from fiction?
Knowing starring Nicholas Cage depicts how a young girl, conversing with aliens, is able to predict a massive solar storm that eradicates all life on Earth.
- 2012 starring John Cusak features, among many disasters, Yellowstone National Park, famous for its hot springs and geysers. This is because it's sitting atop the worlds biggest volcano, which has a habit of erupting every 650,000 years.
The Core starring Aaron Eckhart suggests that, due to a science experiment gone wrong, the core of the Earth has stopped spinning. This in turn disrupts our magnetic field, wreaking all kind of fictional havoc with artificial pacemakers and satellite navigation.
- Deep Impact starring Tea Leoni draws on our fear of a meteor impact. In reality, the closest danger is 433 Eros, a Near Earth Asteroid over 10km wide (bigger than the impactor that created the Chicxulub Crater in Mexico, which has been linked to the extinction of the dinosaurs). However, 433 Eros is calculated to pass by Earth at 70 lunar distances in 2012, which is a heck of a long way.
Angels and Demons starring Tom Hanks features a fictitious anti-matter plot straight out of CERN, home to Europe's Large Hadron Collider. Though this kind of physics research has given us major medical breakthroughs, doomsday fearmongers insist that CERN and co are going to destroy the Earth with their pesky scientific meddling in 2012.
What Will Happen in 2012?
So what will happen in 2012? No catastrophe that you could predict today, that's for sure. Experts (ie people who know what they're talking about) from many disciplines have dismissed the idea of any predictable cataclysmic events occurring in 2012.
The 2012 phenomenon is a hoax - and a dreadful one at that. Take a few minutes to look at the evidence behind the bizarre 2012 claims and you will find a complete lack of it. People love to make stuff up; to sound important or to make themselves feel in control or just to make some easy money.
There will always be natural and man-made threats to our survival and we should be reasonably prepared for these. Fortunately for you, the fact that you are reading this suggests you live in a relatively stable environment with food, water and a roof over your head. You are already thriving in a way that billions of people in the world don't.
As Karl Pilkington put it: is 2012 just your way of filling your "problem hole"? :)
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