2012 : is the world ending? and what happens after that?

[Deborah]

Something weird is going on I think (see the fish and birds and all the sheer amount of natural disasters/odd weather lately). But I hope it is not the end of the world! Eeeek. But I think a lot of it is our own fault.

 

[tigerrouge]

What's increased is the number of media outlets who need to fill blank space and get readers, so if there aren't enough proper stories to cover, they'll start making 'news' out of any event. All they do is present something from a certain angle, knowing that it'll appeal to the same part of your mind that gets a thrill from horror films - the process isn't that much different from the entertainment industry.

It's certainly more exciting to suggest that mystical forces are behind things, rather than some natural effect, or a boring incident of pollution that no-one wants to take responsibility for.

These days, most media outlets don't need to properly investigate or spend time proving anything, it's just a story that fills a space until Kim Kardashian comes out in her latest change of clothes. Although some might say she's also a sign that the end of the world is upon us.

 

[WonderfulTonight]

^^ exactly

 

[TianSoFine]

Karl Lagerfeld's Chanel contract ends 2012. The fate of the world depends on whether or not he renews that contract. There cannot be a world without Karl for Chanel.

Just wondering, how many people here believe in 2012?

 

[alonsoJonathan]

i hope none of this happen i really,really think of going to Brazil for the next world cup in 2014!

 

[m.j.]

i don't believe that the world is ending... but sth might happen... well sth weird is already happening, so maybe it will just grow. anyway, its all our fault.

 

[ailin]

A lot of the bird dying fish dying items are pollution related there were some fish that were tested with high amounts of alchohol in their blood

 

[shoesexy]

...there were some fish that were tested with high amounts of alchohol in their blood

Exactly.

This is where the term "drinks like a fish" came from.

 

[ailin]

the bizzare thing I read was that there were trace amounts in birds as well. How does that happen?

 

[Mary-Anne]

really... how does it happen?! I mean, over A MILLION fish died OVERNIGHT - that cant just be normal pollution related...otherwise it wouldnt have been such a large amount (of a specific kind of fish) in such a short amount of time. Plus - didnt the water reports come back normal? ie-there was no chemicals thrown into the water, nothing different from the day or night before anyway.
How do people wake up one morning and there's thousands of dead birds or fish all over the place?? Regardless of the 2012 and the end of the world talk... this is just so damn strange to me.

 

[WonderfulTonight]

there is some sort of algae that grows in the water and minimizes oxygen levels..causing massive die-offs. it happened before in 2007

 

[amour_amour363]

Japan... this is just horrible. New Zealand only just had a horrible earthquake.

All these natural disasters really make you think something will happen.

 

[Squizree]

^ Yeah the Japanese earthquake is absolutely terrible, and the tsunami that followed is just devastating. Meanwhile they predict that another earthquake will hit Christchurch soon. What have they done to deserve this?

 

[tigerrouge]

I also wonder if they're all connected, in terms of a pattern of tectonic stress moving around the world, where a sudden release in one area shunts the pressure somewhere else, as a knock-on effect that's inevitable, but sadly not immediately or specifically predictable.

I've seen a theory that the bigger picture is that the continents are to converge again into another super-landmass over hundreds of millions of years, just as they were torn apart over the same immense period of time, and this process has been going on for 4.6 billion years.

 

[tigerrouge]

Space.com takes a look at the supermoon theory:

Will March 19 'Supermoon' Trigger Natural Disasters?

On March 19, the moon will swing around Earth more closely than it has in the past 18 years, lighting up the night sky from just 221,567 miles (356,577 kilometers) away. On top of that, it will be full. And one astrologer believes it could inflict massive damage on the planet.

Richard Nolle, a noted astrologer who runs the website astropro.com, has famously termed the upcoming full moon at lunar perigee (the closest approach during its orbit) an "extreme supermoon."

When the moon goes super-extreme, Nolle says, chaos will ensue: Huge storms, earthquakes, volcanoes and other natural disasters can be expected to wreak havoc on Earth. (It should be noted that astrology is not a real science, but merely makes connections between astronomical and mystical events.)

But do we really need to start stocking survival shelters in preparation for the supermoon? The question is not actually so crazy. In fact scientists have studied related scenarios for decades. Even under normal conditions, the moon is close enough to Earth to make its weighty presence felt: It causes the ebb and flow of the ocean tides.

The moon's gravity can even cause small but measureable ebbs and flows in the continents, called "land tides" or "solid Earth tides," too. The tides are greatest during full and new moons, when the sun and moon are aligned either on the same or opposite sides of the Earth.

According to John Vidale, a seismologist at the University of Washington in Seattle and director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, particularly dramatic land and ocean tides do trigger earthquakes. "Both the moon and sun do stress the Earth a tiny bit, and when we look hard we can see a very small increase in tectonic activity when they're aligned," Vidale told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to SPACE.com. At times of full and new moons, "you see a less-than-1-percent increase in earthquake activity, and a slightly higher response in volcanoes."

The effect of tides on seismic activity is greatest in subduction zones such as the Pacific Northwest, where one tectonic plate is sliding under another. William Wilcock, another seismologist at the University of Washington, explained: "When you have a low tide, there's less water, so the pressure on the seafloor is smaller. That pressure is clamping the fault together, so when it's not there, it makes it easier for the fault to slip."

According to Wilcock, earthquake activity in subduction zones at low tides is 10 percent higher than at other times of the day, but he hasn't observed any correlations between earthquake activity and especially low tides at new and full moons. Vidale has observed only a very small correlation.

What about during a lunar perigee? Can we expect more earthquakes and volcanic eruptions on March 19, when the full moon will be so close?

The moon's gravitational pull at lunarperigee, the scientists say, is not different enough from its pull at other times to significantly change the height of the tides and thus the likelihood of natural disasters.

"A lot of studies have been done on this kind of thing by USGS scientists and others," John Bellini, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey, told Life's Little Mysteries. "They haven't found anything significant at all."

Vidale concurred. "Practically speaking, you'll never see any effect of lunar perigee," he said. "It's somewhere between 'It has no effect' and 'It's so small you don't see any effect.'"

The bottom line is, the upcoming supermoon won't cause a preponderance of earthquakes, although the idea isn't a crazy one. "Earthquakes don't respond as much to the tides as you'd think they would. There should actually be more of an effect," said Vidale.

Most natural disasters have nothing to do with the moon at all. The Earth has a lot of pent up energy, and it releases it anytime the buildup gets too great. The supermoon probably won't push it past the tipping point, but we'll know for sure, one way or the other, by March 20.

 

[CherryNights]

Apparently, a number of people predict that Auckland will vanish from the Earth on the 20th of March 2011. Quite scary, but I, personally, do not to believe all these predictions. The Christchurch earthquake and the tsunami in Japan are extremely disturbing events!

 

[chic stranger]

all this news here are so scary. just watching the coverage in Japan right now and holding my breath for all my friends out in Hawaii; while I don't believe the end of the world will happen in 2012 I do believe there is a massive balance shift happening on earth right now and sadly I think we have more catastrophies coming our way.

 

[t-rex]

What's increased is the number of media outlets who need to fill blank space and get readers, so if there aren't enough proper stories to cover, they'll start making 'news' out of any event. All they do is present something from a certain angle, knowing that it'll appeal to the same part of your mind that gets a thrill from horror films - the process isn't that much different from the entertainment industry.

It's certainly more exciting to suggest that mystical forces are behind things, rather than some natural effect, or a boring incident of pollution that no-one wants to take responsibility for.

These days, most media outlets don't need to properly investigate or spend time proving anything, it's just a story that fills a space until Kim Kardashian comes out in her latest change of clothes. Although some might say she's also a sign that the end of the world is upon us.

Here is common sense - proof that the world isn't ending! I can't wait until 2012 comes and people stop their panicked shenanigans.

 

[*Bianca*]

I also wonder if they're all connected, in terms of a pattern of tectonic stress moving around the world, where a sudden release in one area shunts the pressure somewhere else, as a knock-on effect that's inevitable, but sadly not immediately or specifically predictable.

The NZ and Japan quakes are connected:

THE massive earthquake that shook Japan last night was almost certainly related to New Zealand's devastating Christchurch earthquake last month, following a similar pattern to the 2004 Boxing Day quake, which caused tsunamis that killed more than 200,000 people around the Indian Ocean.

The magnitude 8.9 tremor struck off the northeast coast of Japan's southern island of Honshu at 2.46pm local time (4.46pm AEDT).

Brian Evans, a geophysics professor at Curtin University, said last night the 2004 Boxing Day earthquake off Sumatra - another island along the Pacific ring of fire - was also preceded by an earthquake in New Zealand a few weeks earlier.

"Two weeks before the Boxing Day tsunami occurred, there was an earthquake in New Zealand," Professor Evans said. "Two weeks later, off you go with a tsunami."

He said it was normal for quakes and tsunamis to occur in succession, because tectonic plates were always moving and a shift in one place could cause a transfer of stress elsewhere.

"This latest one was almost definitely related to the (Christchurch) quake in New Zealand," Professor Evans said.

theaustralian.com.au

 

[kokobombon]

I don´t believe that the world would end in 2012 but more and more often this type of news makes you wonder... the life we know will change, as it´s changing for all the people affected in Haiti, Chile and now Japan.
Now they´re saying that the Earth´s axis has shifted 10 cm, what consecuences would that bring? change in tides?