December 19, 2012
60 hours until the Not-pocalypse
Posted by Austin Elliott
This morning I woke up to this alarming warning, reminding me that the world as we know it will come to an end on Friday.
Fortunately my nerves have been calmed by all manner of authorities reminding me in official terms that the world is in all likelihood not going to end on Friday. Phew. Dodged a bullet there.
First off, the U.S. government says it’ll be okay:
Scary Rumors about the World Ending in 2012 Are Just Rumors – USA.gov
The modern Maya themselves are downplaying the concerns:
And finally, even more authoritative sources weigh in with some informed messages, just in case you have really detailed concerns to dispel:
USGS: Will the World End on December 21? (“beliefs aside, what we know with certainty is that Earth has a tremendous capacity to generate natural disasters on any day of any year.”)
NASA: The Great 2012 Doomsday Scare (this one includes great historical examples of not-pocalypses past)
NASA and the USGS are both well versed in the doomsday phenomena that threaten our planet. Other than the changing climate, most of these natural catastrophes are local or regional doomsdays, not the end of “the world” per se, but certainly the end of the world for some. It’s encouraging to see these agencies step forward and use the hype (as silly or as serious as it may be) as an opportunity to inform and do some checking in about what we really do know can harm us and what we really do know about how to deal with it.
While you’re preparing for the fake end of the world, take a moment and make sure you know what to do if a real disaster struck your home.
I honestly don’t know anybody who’s talking about this let alone concerned about it. I think this has always pretty much been a media-led story. Y2K was a whole different story. A lot of people were concerned and wondering what would happen and I was definitely anxious to see what would actually happen.
Yeah, from what I can tell pretty much everyone is tongue-in-cheek about this one. I haven’t heard anyone–even the media really–that sounds like they actually think this is a thing.
Heck, it’s a great excuse for a themed party.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-nasa-doomsday-20121220,0,2616828.story
I would not worry about the world ending. If you have not tried to save the world in the first place. But, the world is find it’s humans I’m concerned about with all the problems of life. Our food, water, and air are all contaminate with something man made that’s a man made problem. The world is doing what the world do, it’s Spinning. Thank God for that!