2012 apocalypse rumors are crazy

This past year, there have been a large number of disasters and conflicts springing up across the globe. It seems like far more than usual.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, uprisings in the Middle East, and a failing economy are just a short list of the total number of disastrous events taking place across the globe.

Amidst all of this, many people might be wondering, “Maybe that 2012 Mayan prophecy stuff is true.”

First and foremost, the fact that typical events such as earthquakes and wars get linked in with unfounded prophecies is ridiculous.

While the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was devastating to the region and to the country, it surely isn’t a sign of the apocalypse or the fulfillment of some ancient prophecy.

There have been many oil spills in which millions of gallons of oil have been lost — like the Gulf War spill in 1991, where between 240 and 366 million gallons of oil spilled into the Persian Gulf.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, about 1 billion gallons of oil is spilled into oceans each year.

While an oil spill isn’t the best thing for the environment, one incident certainly isn’t the start of an apocalypse.

While the earthquake and tsunami in Japan have truly been devastating, there is no reason to start calling the events apocalyptic.

The earthquake that struck parts of Japan was listed as a 9.0; as a result, at least 9,000 dead and thousands of more people are still missing.

According to earthquake.usgs.gov, the largest earthquake took place in 1960, and was listed at a 9.5.

While it was a devastating disaster that crippled a nation, events like this have occurred before, and Japan can recuperate from this disaster with the help of other nations. It is not a sign of apocalypse.

In terms of the uprisings in the Middle East, events like this have been happening since the dawn of civilization.

The people of Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, and other nations across the Middle East are simply exercising the right they have as human beings to question the decisions made by their governments.

Oppression and repression lead to revolt, which is obvious across the Middle East. That surely isn’t a sign of the apocalypse.

Now, if that isn’t convincing enough to discredit the whole 2012 Mayan prophecy connection to current events, maybe a little science and math will help.

One of several Mayan calendars was the Long Count.

On the calendar 0.0.0.0.1 is one day, 0.0.0.1.0 is 20 days, 0.0.1.0.0 was one year, 0.1.0.0.0 was 20 years, and 1.0.0.0.0 was about 400 years.

On Dec. 21, it will read 13.0.0.0.0 — which is about 5126 years.

Some say that this is the end of the world, but Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki sees a problem with this proposal.

“When a calendar comes to the end of a cycle, it just rolls over into the next cycle,” Kruszelnicki said in an article published on ABC science.net.

“In our Western society, every year December 31 is followed, not by the End of the World, but by January 1.

“So 13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan calendar will be followed by 0.0.0.0.1 — or good-ol’ December 22, 2012, with only a few shopping days left to Christmas.”