• Question: heyy scientist :D i dont now what one of you now this so i am asking you all why is the world changeing the it is and is the world going to end this year ??? that may sound like a strange question but everyone is going on about how the world is gonna end in 20012 ??? xxxx

    Asked by xxmazoxx to Indi, Jarv, John, Ken, Vicky on 14 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by neelz97, chutneyoxo, 450splash.
    • Photo: Ken Dutton-Regester

      Ken Dutton-Regester answered on 13 Mar 2012:


      Yeah, I guess the whole 2012 thing came from the predictions of the Mayans. As a civilisation when they were around, they were quite advanced- i.e. figured out planet movements and all that jazz and came up with a calendar which ended somewhere at the end of 2012. I think at this point, their cultural and religeous beliefs come into play and they wrote that at the end of their calendar a big disaster would happen. I am of the opinion that this is very unlikely, I don’t think there is evidence to suggest that on that day there will be some catastrophic event, but then again, I am not too versed in the mayan story. I regard it as a bit of hype- similar to the Y2K bug in the year 2000.

    • Photo: Indi Ghangrekar

      Indi Ghangrekar answered on 13 Mar 2012:


      Yes, exactly what Ken said. I don’t think that it will happen either and if it’s that bad that it would destroy the planet, I doubt there’s any way to prevent it!

      I saw a funny cartoon actually that showed some Mayans drawing out their calendar on large stones and one says to the other, ‘Oh I’ve run out of space and only got as far as 2012’ his friend says, ‘Never mind, I’m sure by that time they’ll have devised another way to keep calendars, just leave it at that!’

    • Photo: Jarvist Moore Frost

      Jarvist Moore Frost answered on 13 Mar 2012:


      We’ll be just fine 😀
      I think these whole doomsday scenarios are just a distraction from the serious issues of global warming, loss of biodiversity and water supplies that we can actually do something about! Only they occur so slowly on such a big scale and so chaotically that you almost can’t see them.

      The way we’ll lose this Earth is “not with a bang but a whimper.”

    • Photo: Vicky Young

      Vicky Young answered on 14 Mar 2012:


      There has been about 514 leap years since Caesar created it in 45BC. Without the extra day every 4 years we would now be in August 2013.

      The Myan calendar did not account for the leap year so if the world was going to end, it would have happened 8 months ago!

    • Photo: John Prytherch

      John Prytherch answered on 18 Mar 2012:


      I think this cartoon sums it up:

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