December 21, 2012 - The End of the World?

I do not believe for one second that the world will come to an end on 12/21/12, as many fear-mongers would like you to believe. I do however find the topic a fascinating conversation piece. With all of the turmoil in the world today, it's no wonder people (fear-mongers) are profiting nicely from the possibilities.



While humanity faces multiple Extinction Level Event threats (remember that term from Deep Impact?), there's no way of knowing if or when any of them will have us begging for mercy.

Yes, the Mayan Calendar ends on this date, but unless they had knowledge of a large asteroid or comet on a collision course with Earth that modern astronomers haven't discovered yet, there's no way they can accurately predict our demise on this date. Considering the lack of technology in their heyday, you can dismiss this possibility pretty easily.

I will go into more detail in future blogs about some of these threats, but for now, here's a brief synopsis of what we DO need to worry about.

• Asteroid/Comet/Rogue Brown-Dwarf Star/other space rock colliding with Earth
• Super Volcano explosion (Yellowstone anyone?)
  
• Gamma Ray Burst from a distant star aimed at our Solar System
• Supernova star explosion in our close proximity
• Coronal Mass Ejection/Solar Flare from the Sun (do you have SPF 1000?)
  
• Magnetic Pole Shift (all these dead birds and fish COULD be a sign of this)
• Alien Invasion (not likely, but POSSIBLE, right Ana of "V" fame?)
• Nuclear War (bad Russia!)
  
• Viral/Bacterial Plague (but she said it was just a canker sore!)
  
• Technology (iRobot?)
  
• Extreme Climate Change (ya happy Al Gore?)

So what threat to humanity concerns you the most? Which of these threats would you like to read about in further depth with a future post?