10 Ways The World Could End In 2012

by porchlife
10 Ways The World Could End In 2012
Article by Jeff Hudson

10 Ways The World Could End In 2012 - Education - Science












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Could the world end in 2012? Put aside the goofy prophecies of Mayan calendar doomsayers and join us on a journey into the cold, hard science of civilisation ending catastrophe. Predicting the end of the world is both a sure bet and a fool's errand. Eventually, the total destruction of civilisation, the human race, and, indeed, the world is a near certainty. The tricky part about predicting the apocalypse is the timing. But that hasn't stopped people from forecasting impending doom throughout human history. Holy men, ancient astronomers, and even modern computer scientists have all occasionally read the leaves in their occupational cups of tea and concluded that the end is nigh. And, without exception, they have all been wrong.But maybe this year is going to be different. On Dec.21, 2012, the Mayan calendar will reach the end of a 394-year cycle called a Baktun, which has sent end-time aficionados into a frenzy. Archaeologists laugh off that doomsday scenario, explaining that the Mayan calendar is no more momentous than our own calendar ticking over from 1999 to 2000. So that's a relief. Still, just because the Mayans didn't predict the end of the world this particular year doesn't mean our safety is assured. There are plenty of other risks to life on earth that scientists do take seriously. These might range from disasters that threaten millions or billions of people to an all-out "extinction-level event" that wipes out the majority of life on the planet. Below we will take a look at the top 10 ways the world will end in 2012.Asteroid ImpactSpace objects strike the earth all the time, but extinction-level impacts occur only once every 100 million years. After the spectacular collision of the Showmaker-levy 9 comet with Jupiter (and a host of asteroid-disaster flicks) in the 1990s, NASA set out to map all large near-earth objects. But it appears that there are far fewer potential catastrophes in earths neighbourhood than once thought. "A civilisation-killing asteroid would have to be a mile across," says Spahr of the Minor Planet Center. (The space rock that ended the dinosaur era is estimated to have been six times that size.) "There just aren't any asteroids that size out there," he says. There is, however, a large population of as-yet-undiscovered objects several hundred yards across. One that we do know about, a 300-yard-wide asteroid called 99942 Apophis, will pass within the orbits of earth satellites in 2029 and could one day strike the planet. "Worst-case scenario?" Spahr says."You hit Los Angeles, kill millions of people, and shut down the entire West Coast."PandemicFor a disease to be globally destructive, it must undergo a flare-up of contagiousness and lethality like the 1918 influenza pandemic, which in the course of two and half

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