The End of the World

First off - Leelee.......the Mayans never predicted the end of the world. That was all very clever marketing for the purposes of a few religious cult builders. So be clear on that. Many of the purported end of the world prophecies were never identified as pertaining to these times at all - but the proliferation of the 2012 propaganda makes it seem like they all point to present times.

As far as how I feel the actual earth will end? Super-nova. Our sun's mass puts it into the class of stars that super nova when they die. Super nova is a sure finish to any planet in a solar system. The planet either is engulfed in the star during it's expansion, gets blasted by fire when the star's exterior layers are blown off, or just freezes beyond redemption when there is no more heat from the star coming to it. So as far as certain death for the planet - that will do it.

As far as the human species. I'm not sure how we will eventually be taken out completely -- or if we will be before the supernova of the sun. We might just survive with our technology long enough to be able to send colonies to some other habitable planet to continue the species in an event this planet becomes completely uninhabitable.

I do see our numbers being cut in extreme levels before too long. You can't strain resources like we're doing without some sort of repercussions, and you can't have the greed causing poverty, wars, and environmental poisoning without eventually passing the turning point of survival of the masses at 7 billion people.

Right now we are exiting the inter-glacial period (the period of warmth between ice ages). It is the warming that allowed populations to grow to the outrageous proportions they have -- and cold will not allow them to remain there. As it gets colder, crop failures are going to become widespread and famine is going to take out a hella huge portion of our populations. The onset of the famine was tabulated at 2020 - but the onset is already being felt. For awhile it will be more of a man-made famine, with distribution being politically tampered with. Later, there just isn't going to be enough to go around period. Most of the world's stockpiles are already severely depleted, and are actually non-existent in many countries. Some countries have relied on import to feed their people for quite some time already - and those areas have not been practicing population control. If trade is cut off to them, their people will either get the hell out or die. Unfortunately, mass migration puts other areas over carrying capacity and the problem just snowballs. You can't continually put more draw on resources while cutting land area available to grow food and think that that continuum is sustainable forever. Somehow, humans, in masses, have gotten the idea that you can. Oh well - live and learn. Or die if you don't.

On top of famine - clean water supplies are running out. There is this grand idea of de-salianation of oceans - but how long can you tamper with a source before you deplete and ruin it completely, too?
Keep the clean water supply depleting as people become more and more hungry and you will see disease taking over. People's immune systems are going to crash and make it harder and harder to stave off disease.

There isn't any way I can look at what is going on now from a scientific view and see a lot of hope for the future of 7 billion humans. Every dominating species goes through this cycle. They become over-populated in times of abundance, strip their very means of survival and either go completely extinct or die off in major proportions, depending on how widespread their habitats are. Somehow humans also got the idea that they are above nature and will not be touched by the realities of what happens to other lifeforms who deplete their environments of ability to sustain them. Wrong. Dead freaking wrong and ignorant idea. We had the ability to avoid all of what is going on and didn't do it. Sucks to be us.

On the other hand. We are a widespread species (to say the freaking least). We are extremely adaptable. Although we lose most of our population, the remaining portions will be able to survive and if they learn even one whit of anything useful from our self-destruction, they will adopt more ecologically friendly means of living and a bit more common sense about breeding habits and patterns. Then all they will have to do is create the technology to get people, and maybe some other of earth's species off the planet before the sun super-novas in order to continue survival elsewhere. It can only be hoped that elsewhere they will also adopt religions that teach them to respect the gift of life and their habitats rather than the egotistical idea that everything is there for their use and abuse as ever their greed and whim desires.

I have always viewed the religious notion of judgement day, a day of our own making, not a deity's reckoning. The extent of our self destructive tendencies just boggles my mind every time I think about this stuff.

I wasn't thinking negatively, Indiana. I have an insatiable curiosity about things I don't or can't know. I spend way too much time thinking period.

I agree with you Justin and Sal. I don't think some greater power has it "in" for us. We are doing a good enough job destroying ourselves without help.

So while there are all kinds of predictions being made or tied into this year, the likelihood of us pinpointing the end of the world is pretty much nil.

I think your idea of war makes a lot of sense. I have to wonder how much longer we can control the actions of some of these crazy despots.

And if not launched by a nut job, war makes sense in Sal's scenario, too. Nothing like shortages to get people motivated to march.

I don't see the planet ending unless something crashes into us. The sun is going to continue for a long time.

And I get that the Mayan calendar is ending a cycle. As I understand it, the Mayans did not see time as linear but rather circular.

However, there is no question in my mind that events natural and man made are going to challenge our thinking this year. We lived too long as in a dream with no process map. Finally, we may actually question who we are, where we have been and where we want to be. Though I have my doubts that we are evolved enough.

Profits. Marketing in this niche will never end.

i guess a similar publicity stunt happened in 2000 too,i guess it was more worse than this ,the basic reason is every one is afraid to die (so as me)

FAKE. . No one knows when will the world end really.. Only God knows!

North and South America my be the first to go instead of the whole world. Yellowstone's
maga culdara is about to blow. When it does, it will trigger world-wide environmental
problems. Man will survive, probably, but the world as we know it will disappear.

I survived the Y2K and I'm not gonna let the Mayans 2012 me bros!

There will be an and of the world.
It only become closer. How?
Look at the past and look at now, youll understand.

A LOT of people are working to try to avert Y2K. It is really kind of misnamed. There are THREE main phases set to hit!

1997-- Luckily, people got advanced notice, and it was an easy fix. I have heard of no problems.
2000-- Luckily, people got advanced notice. This was often FAR from easy! I HAVE heard of some problems. There WERE shortcuts people could take, so it is anyone's guess as to where THAT leads.
2038-- Many are IGNORING it. We can only hope that they fix it before then. OBVIOUSLY, there is advanced notice. It may affect like 80% of programs internally processing dates. Luckily, I think the bug is gone from all major database servers.

As to the fate of this planet...

But MILLIONS of people are working to ensure that there is NO arable land, LOTS of pollution, NO clean water, lots of pestilence, lost of disease, WAR, and possibly irradiated land, etc.... REGARDLESS of the claimed final goal, their immediate desires, supposed good intentions, the fact is they are working towards it.

I am surprised that it hasn't happened yet, but humans have generally had a lack of ability and too few helpers. Well, the ability goes up nearly every year, and the number of helpers is also increasing. IWICSM

Steve

Well, I think we would have to face the question of pollution and energy.
The ecosystem wouldn't be end but be a great changed in the future.

If we don't change, I can imagine that the end of human but not the world.
......

I don'y believe it. That's bull****.

i do not think of this-
i live each moment as it comes