Major earthquakes, floods, cracking continents, pole shift and an imminent impact of an unknown “Planet X” over the Earth, all on 21st of December 2012? Just not going to happen, according to the specialists.
“Most of what’s claimed for 2012 relies on wishful thinking, wild pseudoscientific folly, ignorance of astronomy, and a level of paranoia worthy of the Night of the Living Dead” reveals an article of E.C.Krupp, Director of Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. In a new attempt to calm down the public opinion and reassure that nothing catastrophic is going to produce in the last month of the 2012, the article, suggestively entitled “The Great 2012 Doomsday Scare” brings to light some of the reasons why the end of the world is anywhere near.
Using clear examples from the past, E.C.Krupp refers to the “end-of- the-world” as to the “birth of a notion”, a movement that tends to repeat periodically and feed people’s imagination with scenarios. Moments like March 1982, when the so-called “Jupiter effect” was expected to bring out major transformations to the Earth, 1990, 1999 or the well-known date of January 1st 2000, the apocalypse predicted by Nostradamus, are just a few out of “hundreds of thousands events at the very least” as Krupp said, which commanded headlines, but never had any consequences.
According to Krupp, the doomsday prediction for 21st of December 2012 has its roots in the Mayan calendar, which relates this moment to the end of a cycle, and even to the end of the calendar itself. Baktun 13, as the Mayans used to
call it, represents the end of the 13th cycle of a baktun, which is approximately equivalent to 144 000 days, a little more than 394 years. However, it is still not sure whether the calendar ends here.
“Although some ancient inscriptions turn 13 baktuns into an important reset milestone, others imply that the calendar simply keeps running. For instance, it takes 20 baktuns to make a pictun.” says Krupp.
Moreover, there is clear evidence that certain events beyond this day are seen to happen by the Mayans, as an inscription commissioned in the 7th century A.D. by King Pacal of Palenque predicts that an anniversary of his accession would be commemorated on Oct. 15, 4772.
Is the end of the world a bit further now? Krupp brings up even more arguments. Some of the advocates for the 2012 see the nature of the predicted catastrophic phenomenon in the cosmic event of “planet alignment”. However, the Director of the Observatory of Los Angeles states that such an event is neither foreseeable, nor possible, as “there is no precise definition of the Milky Way’s edges.”
Whether the year 2012 will prove to be more special than the previous ones or not, it remains to be seen. One thing is sure; “the clock is ticking”, as Krupp ironically concludes. “Maybe the Maya were on to us after all. And it’s the end of the world, as we know it.”
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