The 2012 apocalypse

[RACKnRAIL]

Do you believe there is any merit to the hype? We have the Mayan calendar that ends Dec 21, 2012. There's also several other theories, which include solar flares and Yellowstone's super volcano all due to wipe us out around 2012.

What do you think?

[Drew Wilson]

Let's see if I can get these dates straight... 1995, 1998 (Terminator), 2000, 2010 and now 2012. Looks like the prediction success rate thus far is 0%.

[RACKnRAIL]

You missed a couple...1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975 and 1994 just to name a few more.

[mfgbypooter]

Just think, if the world ends Dec 21, 2012 then there won't be any need to buy anyone any Christmas presents next year.

*

[Signa]

Nah, It's just the countdown for when the aliens return. Just sayin'.

[Potato]

Something about the sun and earth and milky way and eclipse.

[mountain_rage]

The date is meaningless. But there is a lot of instability in the way the world is being run today. Our food supply is now reliant on non renewable resources, most notably Potash. Once this resource is depleted, millions of people will starve. Other sources of food such as fish and wild game are quickly becoming endangered as well. Sooner or later there will be a famine, and many people will die and likely a war will break out with those needing sustinance for their people attacking those who have sustenance.

Another possible death scenario is fresh water supply. Fresh water supply is becoming increasingly polluted through our agricultural, and waste management practices. We are seeing significant nitrogen and phosphorous loading in most lakes in North America. There is also predictions that salt water basins will begin mixing with fresh water basins due to the rise of the oceans due from global warming, as well as an increase in acidity of our waters due to carbon saturation. This will put a strain on the availability of water, increasing the need for desalination plants, leading to some instability. This could cause anything from an increase in food prices, to a all out war for water as a resource.

Then we have global warming on its own, if scientists are right, and I believe they are, we could face a very inhospitable environment in the coming future. Crops will be harder to manage and grow, storms and disasters will be more frequent and destructive, and as mentioned above, and as mentioned above, our water supplies will be affected.

We also have a number of other possible dooms day scenarios from other scientific avenues. There is the constant fear that a meteor could collide with earth, destroying all life. Yellowstone, a very large active volcano, could erupt turning the earth into a inhospitable world. We could accidentally create a black hole by smashing atoms. We could accidentally communicate with unfriendly intelligent life in other parts of the universe, leading to our demise by phaser blast. The sun could become overly active and microwave us with solar flares. A virus or bacteria could mutate and infect all life on earth wiping it out. etc...

Beyond the environmental and non human challenges we may face, there is also a growing threat from war and political issues. Governments in the middle east are falling. This could be good or bad. If these countries become controlled by extremists it could create a very dangerous war. It could however lead to a more stable middle east and world. Only time will tell. We are also starting to see the emergence of a Chinese super power, and the death of the American super power. How this will affect the world is still unknown. Might be insignificant, could bring a major shift in human rights and world stability. Iran is trying to build nukes, and I am sure other countries have biological weapons in production. Under the wrong circumstances this could lead to a doomsday scenario. Finally, people are no longer in control of their government. Corporations have basically bought most governments leaving us with little control. Corporations are run by investment firms that take much of their wealth from you and I through investment and pension funds. Since we take no active part in those funds, corporations are basically companies with the sole purpose of generating revenue, with no one leading any moral guidelines. We the investors are supposed to be the ones dictating the moral direction of the company, but how many people are actually directly involved in the management of their investment and pension funds? This leads to a scary scenario where companies are here just to make money and gain more power. Who knows what harm they may cause in the future.

So we might not die in 2012, but chances are we will someday. Even if we have been very resilient bastards.