2012 Predictions

The 2012 Doomsday Prediction is a cultural phenomenon consisting of present-day speculation that cataclysmic and apocalyptic events will occur in the year 2012. The forecast is based primarily on a claimed end-date of the 5,125-year Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, which is December 21, 2012, and incorporates warnings from climate experts and other environmental scientists that the Earth has reached a "tipping point" that could generate mass extinctions, as well as interpretations of assorted legends, scriptures and prophecies.

Proponents of the doomsday premise argue ancient Mayan astronomers were aware of a rare alignment of the Earth, Sun and center of the Milky Way on the December solstice in 2012. According to this belief, the alignment is tied to the precession of the equinoxes and signals a transition from one world age to another. A New Age interpretation of this transition posits that, during this time, the planet and its inhabitants may undergo a physical or spiritual transformation rather than an apocalypse.

Skeptics of the apocolyptic forecast include scholars of Mayan civilization. Those versed in the study of classical Mayan civilization dispute the apocalyptic interpretation of the Long Count calendar end-date and the precession-alignment interpretation, insisting that the date 12/21/2012 simply marks a resetting of the calendar to Baktun 13.0.0.0.0...read more