Its a hoax

The end of the world isn't coming just yet.

Gregory Arkos, professor of physics and astronomy at Vancouver Island University, has studied the Mayan calendar armageddon prophecy for 2012, and he has some advice: don't rack up that credit card yet, because there is nothing to indicate the end of the world is coming.

Numerous predictions have been made based on the "long count" Mayan calendar, which believers say predicts the end of the world on Dec. 21, 2012. On that day, the Mayan calendar will shift into its 13th cycle. A new cycle begins every 394 years, but supporters of the apocalyptic theory say the beginning of the thirteenth cycle will spell the end of humanity.

Arkos decided to look at the evidence critically, from a scientific perspective, to see if there was anything to support the theory. After weighing the evidence Arkos concluded that apocalyptic predictions based on the Mayan calendar are the result of bad science and the "cherry-picking" of evidence.

"There is something that fascinates us about the gruesome," he said. "People are always ready to jump on the next bandwagon."

Arkos will present his research at a free talk tonight at VIU's Nanaimo campus. He said the armageddon theory is based on very limited evidence.

Theorists site Mayan carvings that refer to the end of the world in 2012, but Arkos said those carvings have been taken out of context and interpreted in a way that may be incorrect. The carvings do not explicitly say the thirteenth cycle will bring about the end of the world, said Arkos, but rather do not refer to dates after that time. In addition, those few carvings make up only a small portion of the written evidence left behind by the Mayans, the majority of which does not refer to the end of the world.

What will happen on December 21 2012?

Quick answer: Nobody knows, but probably not much.

There have been a lot going on regarding the 2012 prophecy recently, including the movie “I am legend”, but  surprisingly, not much information about what is really supposed to happen on that date is available. This is Probably because nobody knows and also because probably not much will happen. Most information available about 2012 is making reference to mass destruction of the world as we know it, earth’s pole shift/magnetic field reversal, Nostradamus predictions, end of Mayas calendar, etc.

The base of all the predictions is the end of the Maya calendar in 2012, which is supposed to mean the end of the world or a period of radical changes. In fact, the end of the Maya calendar is known as the end of the Great Cycle. People find it easy to believe in that theory because Maya civilization is known for advanced writing, mathematics and astronomy. It can seem like they really know what they’re talking about, but the truth is that the end of the Great Cycle is not the end of the world, it’s in fact a great celebration for the Mayas:

For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle” says Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies in Crystal River, Fla. To render Dec. 21, 2012, as a doomsday or moment of cosmic shifting, she says, is “a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in.”

Pole shift/reversal, the only 2012 end of the world possibility

The only rational “2012 End of world” possibility is actually pole shifting. A Pole shift is a rare phenomenon and is characterized by the north and the south poles swapping places. Such reversals, recorded in the magnetism of ancient rocks, are unpredictable. They come at irregular intervals averaging about 300,000 years; the last one was 780,000 years ago. 

Such event could really disrupt our planet that’s true. Imagine the North pole and South pole swapping places: Telecommunications, animals, humans, etc. would all be affected and it would be a really important change. There’s only one thing you need to consider… I’ve read in a lot of different places that a polar shift is going to happen on December 21 2012 and it is totally false:

Polar shift is a process that roughly takes 5,000 years to complete and doesn’t start on a specific date and time. The real truth is that nobody knows when the next one is due.

The process takes time and another myth wants the earth’s magnetic field strength to be near zero during that transition time. It would actually be as strong as it is now but simply a lot more complicated. 

Will I die on December 21 2012?

I can’t tell, the Mayas can’t, Nostradamus can’t and the aliens can’t. On December 21 2012, a comet won’t hit the earth, a pole shift won’t happen instantly and a massive gravity burst won’t happen either. The only thing you can fear is a pole shift and it can take up to 5,000 years to complete…

What if you’re wrong?

In the case that I am wrong, that every scientist on this planet is wrong and that the NASA can’t figure out a simple galactic alignment that would put our world to an end then I guess we are all in the same situation. You, me and everyone will die. Scary isn’t it? Well, no one can tell what will happen tomorrow or in 2012.

2012 End of World & PROOF ITS NOT TRUE!!!

Here is the conspiracy theory. 

Thanks to Stephen Hawking we now know that a black hole exists in the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way. On December 13th 2012 the Earth will come in to perfect alignment between the sun and the centre of the galaxy, this much is true. This alignment will cause the earth to be affected by additional gravity, this is also true. So the theory goes that the additional gravity created by the alignment will knock the earth out of it's orbit, and possibly into the path of a comet BOOM!! There you have your end of days theory.

However, there is one teeny weenie point that seems to have been overlooked by the people who propound this theory, well, er, two points actually".

1: The additional gravity created by the alignment is teeny weenie. It's minuscule on the cosmic scale and would barely register.

2: This alignment that's supposed to send us spinning out of control, happens EVERY December 21st. It happened last year in 2008, it also happened a couple of months after the battle of Hastings in 1066, and again in 1067. It will happen again this year on December 21st 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, 13, 14, 15 and so on. 

So!! - on December 21st 2012 you can sleep easy, you WILL SEE December 22nd and go on to have a nice Xmas.

I'm sorry to be a kill joy to the masses who love this theory. In fact I'm so sorry that I'm prepared to make amends. If you REALLY AND TRULY want something to worry about, keep in mind April 13th 2036 this is when Comet Apophys REALLY COULD slam in to the Earth.

          2012: Beginning of the End or Why the World 

Won't End?

Remember the Y2K scare? It came and went without much of a whimper because of adequate planning and analysis of the situation. Impressive movie special effects aside, Dec. 21, 2012, won't be the end of the world as we know. It will, however, be another winter solstice.

Much like Y2K, 2012 has been analyzed and the science of the end of the Earth thoroughly studied. Contrary to some of the common beliefs out there, the science behind the end of the world quickly unravels when pinned down to the 2012 timeline. Below, NASA Scientists answer several questions that we're frequently asked regarding 2012. Question (Q): Are there any threats to the Earth in 2012? Many Internet websites say the world will end in December 2012.Answer (A): Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012. Q: What is the origin of the prediction that the world will end in 2012?A: The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012. Then these two fables were linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012. Q: Does the Mayan calendar end in December 2012?A: Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then -- just as your calendar begins again on January 1 -- another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar. Q: Could a phenomena occur where planets align in a way that impacts Earth?A: There are no planetary alignments in the next few decades, Earth will not cross the galactic plane in 2012, and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the Earth would be negligible. Each December the Earth and sun align with the approximate center of the Milky Way Galaxy but that is an annual event of no consequence. Q: Is there a planet or brown dwarf called Nibiru or Planet X or Eris that is approaching the Earth and threatening our planet with widespread destruction?A: Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the outer solar system; the closest it can come to Earth is about 4 billion miles. Q: What is the polar shift theory? Is it true that the earth’s crust does a 180-degree rotation around the core in a matter of days if not hours? A: A reversal in the rotation of Earth is impossible. There are slow movements of the continents (for example Antarctica was near the equator hundreds of millions of years ago), but that is irrelevant to claims of reversal of the rotational poles. However, many of the disaster websites pull a bait-and-shift to fool people. They claim a relationship between the rotation and the magnetic polarity of Earth, which does change irregularly, with a magnetic reversal taking place every 400,000 years on average. As far as we know, such a magnetic reversal doesn’t cause any harm to life on Earth. A magnetic reversal is very unlikely to happen in the next few millennia, anyway. Q: Is the Earth in danger of being hit by a meteor in 2012?A: The Earth has always been subject to impacts by comets and asteroids, although big hits are very rare. The last big impact was 65 million years ago, and that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Today NASA astronomers are carrying out a survey called the Spaceguard Survey to find any large near-Earth asteroids long before they hit. We have already determined that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs. All this work is done openly with the discoveries posted every day on the NASA NEO Program Office website, so you can see for yourself that nothing is predicted to hit in 2012. Q: How do NASA scientists feel about claims of pending doomsday?A: For any claims of disaster or dramatic changes in 2012, where is the science? Where is the evidence? There is none, and for all the fictional assertions, whether they are made in books, movies, documentaries or over the Internet, we cannot change that simple fact. There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012. Q: Is there a danger from giant solar storms predicted for 2012?A: Solar activity has a regular cycle, with peaks approximately every 11 years. Near these activity peaks, solar flares can cause some interruption of satellite communications, although engineers are learning how to build electronics that are protected against most solar storms. But there is no special risk associated with 2012. The next solar maximum will occur in the 2012-2014 time frame and is predicted to be an average solar cycle, no different than previous cycles throughout history.