Is the world going to end in 2012? Well, if you scan the internet or believe the marketing campaign behind Roland Emmerich's upcoming movie 2012, you might just want to cancel that five year insurance cover for your new telly. There are currently dozens of books and fake science websites which are prophesying for the arrival of doomsday in that year in the form of a rogue planet colliding with the Earth or maybe some other cataclysmic event. Which, to be honest, doesn't really narrow it down much for us.
According to the Los Angeles Times, a few scientists have become so concerned at the level of fear they are seeing that they decided that something had to be said.
"Two years ago, I got a question a week about it," said NASA scientist David Morrison, who hosts a website called Ask an Astrobiologist. "Now I'm getting a dozen a day. Two teenagers said they didn't want to see the end of the world so they were thinking of ending their lives."
So what are the rumours? Well, the big one is that a planet called Nibiru or Planet X is going to crash into the Earth. Or there's the fact that the Maya calendar ends in 2012, suggesting that the Maya knew something we don't. And what with a film coming out called 2012 then, well, let's just say that all those end-of-the-worlders are having a field day.
In answer to these, David Morrison has posted a list of 10 questions and answers on the website of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific ( www.astrosociety.org) titled 'Doomsday 2012, the Planet Nibiru and Cosmophobia'. He says that astronomers would long ago have spotted a rogue planet headed for Earth, that the so-called photos of Nibiru on the Internet are fictitious, and that just because the Maya calendar in question ends in 2012, it doesn't mean the Maya were predicting the end of the world.
"The calendar on my desk ends on December 31, 2009," he says. "I do not interpret that to mean the world is going to end that day."
What ever your believe, 2012 will safely arrive in cinemas on 13 November. Why not watch the trailer now and see if you can spot your house being obliterated in the ensuing armageddon...
Reader Comments (271)
Jean at 2:30AM on Oct 21st 2009
I have heard about this Mayan calendar and those positive thinking people including me believe it is the end of the world as we know it, and peace will descend not the ACTUAL end of all things but the beginning of good new things.
The film director and all should have thought about what he was doing before he unleashed a stupid hysterical film like 2012
dram buie at 3:22AM on Oct 21st 2009
stupid and hysterical????? OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! u must be a bundle a fun to be with
merle at 3:40AM on Oct 21st 2009
I hardly think the makers of this film are actually expecting the majority of sensible film goers to beleive this is a predictive film. You take it as it is meant just a ficticious story. There are always those that beleive the end of the world is nigh and of course those people will jump on anyones band wagon to support their theory. Dont you think that in general we should all be worrying more about war, poverty and famine or floods across the globe than what has been depicted in a ficticious film. Also there has been many fils made of world destruction and past film makers have not been slated for it. I think as a species some where in the back of our minds with no real predetors we do realise we have some fragilities and losing the planet we abuse so readily all the time is one of the biggest ones. Perhaps we do have some guilt over the way we treat the planet after all.
Jodimags at 4:06AM on Oct 21st 2009
What I beleive doesn't count, but I do know for sure that vunerable and easily led people of all ages will believe in this theory. My mentally disable son of 18 told me the other day, ''there's no point in me finishing college Mum, cos there won't be an Earth to use my training''. It took me days to try reason with him that it was just a film. Some of todays generation ACTUALLY DO believe what they see in films as factual.
Chris at 10:45AM on Oct 21st 2009
Dude. the director didnt need to think about anything like that...
films arent made to show people what is real, but to show them something that isnt.
This film is made for enjoyment and thrills(and ofcourse the HUGE income it will recieve), not to forsee the end of the world
George at 11:13AM on Oct 21st 2009
Jean,
Come back into the real world. How many times in my life crackpots have predicted the end of the world I can't count. Even if they are right, who are they going to say "I told you so!" to?
Just get on and enjoy life until 12/2012 and for many years after.
John Ward at 1:26PM on Oct 21st 2009
Calm down sweetheart....it's only a film!
David and Ellen Liles at 2:45PM on Oct 21st 2009
GOD REQUIRES THAT TODAY BELIEVERS IN CHRIST RIGHTLY DIVIDE THE WORD OF TRUTH;
Mark at 3:05PM on Oct 21st 2009
Get a life please! Film makers will always make things seem worse, anyway, Arsenal winning the Champions League is more imprtant to me. You all have a nice day now.
kim at 4:54PM on Oct 21st 2009
I agree from what i have read and led to believe, it will be the end of the old world and a new positive cycle for us. Trust the movie makers & media to always go for the dark side & get it all wrong, & probably cause some kind of hysteria. Yawn Yawn!!
Tony at 5:02PM on Oct 21st 2009
The only thing I can say is that you typify the absolute morons who cannot free themselves from the pathetic fairytale that is religion. Shame on you fool
Loaded at 2:40AM on Oct 21st 2009
The rights and royalties contracts go way beyond 2012 for this film, so take from that what you will about what the makers of the film think about the world atually ending in 2012 :-)
Paul at 1:49PM on Oct 21st 2009
Spot on Loaded! I think the discussion is now over!!
littlepea at 3:28AM on Oct 21st 2009
you dont need the mayan calendar to see what is happening..you dont need a film or two...read your bible.
Angus at 5:09AM on Oct 21st 2009
Matthew 24:36 is quite clear that no one knows when the earth will end except God Himself. The question we all should be asking ourselves is not when it will end but whether we are prepared to meet God or not. This is the nly question we can answer and should be concerned about
Jackie at 5:15AM on Oct 21st 2009
What dose the bible say, i have been reading up on 2012 and i have to say things do seam to add up.
Andrew Heather at 3:49PM on Oct 21st 2009
Worship the Gourd!
Non-Believer at 5:10PM on Oct 21st 2009
Anyone who thinks the answers to today’s problems can be found in a book of fictitious lies put together a few thousand years ago in order to supply some small minded men with sufficient means and power to control the weak minded fools stupid enough to believe in them rather than themselves, is seriously and pathetically deluded, read the Bible? You've more chance of finding the solutions to your problems on the side of a packet of Cornflakes.
COSMO SMALLPIECE at 2:52AM on Oct 21st 2009
the world will end when our sun turns into a red dwarf millions of years from now, in the interval tillthen Earth will get hit by objects big and small as it always has, thats a fact . I hope that when planet x/niburu is dfiscovered they pay Morgan Freeman to do a world address and tell us all about it ! what a load of tosh
David at 6:12AM on Oct 21st 2009
A red dwarf? Try a red GIANT. Get the science right.
Learn some nuclear physics and astro-physics before comnmenting