2012: Eh, It's Not the End Of the World

Film & Internet Rumors Fuel Doomsday Babble

By Joel Achenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 16, 2009



The world is coming to an end.

In, like, 4 or 5 billion years. The sun will get old and cranky and eventually immolate the entire planet.

The world, however, is not coming to an end on Dec. 21, 2012, contrary to the viral Internet rumor propounded by pseudo-scientists, hoaxers, Hollywood movie promoters and assorted void-between-the-ears people who wouldn't recognize a scientific fact if it tried to abduct them.

The notion that 2012 heralds the End of Time has something to do with a mysterious Planet X that will supposedly hurtle into, or perhaps merely perturb, Earth. Also, there might be geomagnetic storms, a Pole Reversal, and a newfound unsteadiness in the planet's crustal plates. All of that, or variations thereof, can be studied in depth in scores of books now jostling for eschatological primacy with such titles as "Apocalypse 2012," "The World Cataclysm in 2012" and "How to Survive 2012."

This is no joke to David Morrison, senior scientist for NASA's Astrobiology Institute. He's counted 200 different books for sale about 2012. As the author of an online feature called Ask an Astrobiologist, he's gotten nearly 1,000 e-mails from people who think something dire is about to befall the planet. One teenager wrote to Morrison that he'd rather commit suicide than see the world destroyed. Many of the letters, Morrison said, presume that the government is covering up the imminent catastrophe. Letters begin, "I know you can't tell me the truth, but . . . "

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:D

Why do you think NASA is in a big hurry to build another rocket capable of putting another manned mission on the Moon?

They're going to build a secret Moon base, and start sending all important members of the government there first.

Starting with Dick Cheney and his family, then all the Bushes. We could get them all off-planet in about eighteen months or so, if we hurry up.

Don't spill the beans.

some time in the early 60s.

National Geographic did a great show on cults, focusing on a group of crazy people here in NM whose leader has since been convicted of child molestation within the cult. Apparently he'd predicted the end of the world and the whole cult was in a dither fasting and praying and shouting glory that their deliverance was at hand, all captured on tape. When it didn't happen, they went on as usual. When the filmmaker tried to bring up the subject, they just brushed him off and walked away, said it never happened.

When your memories don't conform to facts, I guess, you just eliminate the memory.

Once all the wooheads wake up on January 1, 2013, they will likely do exactly the same thing. End of the world? What end of the world? We're here on vacation!

and they're appalled and disgusted by all the woohead activity around their calendar cycle's ending.

It's not the end of the world, any more than it was when 1999 rolled over to 2000. It's just a change of numbers, resetting back to the beginning with a different prefix.

Unfortunately, hysterics are always looking for something to get hysterical about, so the Mayans are going to have to endure crackpots from all over the world descending on their old cities for the next three years.

They do have my sympathy.