LOS ANGELES — With segments of the population worrying that today, Dec. 21, 2012, will mark the end of the world, NASA has pulled out all the stops to answer questions from those concerned the apocalypse is imminent.
The space agency has a Web page devoted to debunking the myth and has made scientists available for interviews.
They’ve also produced several videos posted online, including one confidently titled,“Why the World Didn’t End Yesterday.”
Though the title of the video implies a Dec. 22 release date, NASA spokesman Dwayne Brown said the four-minute clip was purposefully posted last week to help the agency spread its message: Dec. 21 will be a normal day.
“Dec., 22, 2001. If you’re watching this video, it means one thing: The world didn’t end yesterday,” the video begins.
The video goes on to cite information from Dr. John Carlson, director of the Center for Archaeoastronomy at the University of Maryland.
Carlson explains how the Mayan calendar became linked to the doomsday myth.
Many believe that because the calendar “ends” on Dec. 21, 2012, the world too will end on that day. But, Carlson says, the Mayan calendar will essentially roll over on this day.
In other words, the calendar won’t end, Carlson says, and neither will the world.
“None of the thousands of ruins, tables and standing stones that archeologists have examined foretell an end of the world,” the video says.
Don’t believe Carlson? You should, NASA said. The video cites his credentials, calling him a “hard-nosed scientist” who began studying the 2012 theory 35 years ago.
And if that isn’t convincing enough, the video goes on to cite scientists who dispel a few of the other end-of-the-world scenarios floating around, saying no asteroids, comets or rogue planets are on a “collision course” with Earth, and solar flares won’t be a problem.
Brown said NASA typically receives about 90 calls or emails per week containing questions from people.
In recent weeks, he said, that number has skyrocketed — 200 to 300 people are contacting NASA per day to ask about the end of the world.
“We’re doing all that we can do to let the world know that as far as NASA and science go, Dec. 21 will be another day,” Brown said.
-Los Angeles Times
The doomsday myth, which supposedly originated with the Mayan calendar, says the world will end on Dec. 21. Scientists say the concerns are completely unfounded.
8 Comments to “Dec. 21, 2012: Experts Dispel End of the World Theories”
December 21, 2012 at 8:02 AM
thank you for the information made avialible and putting an end to the End thing.. Appreciate it and has settled alot of folks around where I live.
December 21, 2012 at 8:27 AM
What we should be studying is not how to interpret the Mayan calendar, but why so many people believe that the world will end just because some pre-Columbian stone-age people made a calendar. It’s magical thinking. It’s like saying that if someone draws a picture of the sun, then tears the picture apart, that it will cause the sun to rip asunder. Reality does not work like that, and it seems we are unwilling to debunk such magical thinking, perhaps because so many government programs today depend on it.
December 21, 2012 at 3:10 PM
uptil I looked at the receipt that said $5836, I didnt believe that…my… neighbours mother was actualie erning money part-time from there computar.. there uncle had bean doing this for only about 16 months and at present repaid the morgage on there house and bourt themselves a Lotus Esprit. go to……. Bit40.ℂOℳ
December 21, 2012 at 4:08 PM
Experts! NOT!
December 21, 2012 at 5:15 PM
YEH,,,,,,,NO S**T !!!!!!!!!!!!!!……LOL
December 22, 2012 at 12:24 AM
Ugh oh, I told my boss what I really feel about him yesterday. Anyone know how to get to the unemployment office?
December 22, 2012 at 12:21 PM
Ps. 37:29 & Ps.104:5 Should answer All True Christians worries about this.