2012 Doomsday? | Teen Ink

2012 Doomsday?

December 11, 2011
By ThePhoenixRising BRONZE, Macomb, Michigan
ThePhoenixRising BRONZE, Macomb, Michigan
4 articles 3 photos 14 comments

Favorite Quote:
It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.
—Albert Einstein
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
—Albert Einstein
I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
—Bill Cosby
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur. (Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.)
—Unknown Author
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
—Pablo Picasso


You sit silently on your bed, counting down the seconds to 12 o’clock midnight. Just ten seconds away. Your breath comes out harsh and ragged. Sweat slides down over your pale face. Just three seconds away. You squeeze your eyes shut, waiting for the blast. The last two seconds slip by. Nothing happens. You wait for another ten seconds, and then exhale in relief. Guess what? You’ve just survived the supposed apocalypse of December 21st, 2012, otherwise known as 2012.

2012, according to the Mayan calendar, is when the Earth will come to an end. Several possible theories, such as a ninth planet Nuribi colliding with our Earth, thus ending life, or a planetary magnetic reversal, switching the poles, ignite the controversy.

But I ask you, where is the proof? Where is the hard-core evidence that there will be a doomsday? There is no reason to believe that Nuribi would collide, or our scientists would be tracking it since 2000. A planetary magnetic reversal, however more plausible than the other theories, would not end life, because we have proof that the Earth has indeed experience more than one magnetic reversals.

Believers immediately say, “The Mayans predicted it! They’re never wrong!”

The Mayans never actually predicted the end of the world. Their calendar just stops at December 21st, like ours stop at December 31st. The New Year would come right after December 21st, like any other year. It is a time for birth and renewal, according to an expert on Mayan culture. The Mayans’ hypothetical prediction just isn’t enough evidence.

The fact that history repeats itself is not to be overlooked. Let us remind ourselves eleven years ago, our nation was plunged into a state of chaos, over the supposed bug Y2K, which would cause computers to crash and create wide-scale panic. But look at us. We’re still here today. This panic was completely unnecessary, but it seems like a melodramatic start to the new millennia.

Furthermore, any other theory of a planetary alignment could be squashed. According to NASA scientists, a planetary alignment wouldn’t drastically affect life on Earth, much less end it. Another theory illustrated beautifully in the movie 2012 (directed by Roland Emmerich) is that the core is heating up because of increased solar storms. In reality, we do get increased solar storms, approximately every eleven years, because of the sunspot cycle. The most harm increased solar storms can do is disrupt communications.

So in conclusion, the 2012 doomsday is rendered inconclusive by experts. The doomsday has several theories, but they the evidence supporting them is very little. Even if there is a doomsday, we would always come out alive. Like John Hammond said, “Life will always find a way.”
Source: www.nasa.gov



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