A Canadian earth scientist confirms that the end of the world is coming. Just not in time to meet the latest doomsday deadline.
With the termination of the Mayan calendar approaching, speculation about Dec. 21 marking Armageddon – a prediction believed by nearly one in 10 Canadians – is kicking into high gear. Even skeptics are expected to join in, with experts noting that it’s only natural to entertain the question of, “what if?”
A recent Ipsos survey of 16,262 people in 21 countries found 10 per cent of global citizens agree that “the Mayan calendar, which some say ‘ends’ in 2012, marks the end of the world.” Of the roughly 1,000 Canadians polled, nine per cent held that belief. But if Judgment Day is imminent, there’s little sign of it in popular science.
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NASA has refuted all claims that the planet could meet its end, or experience any kind of “blackout,” on Dec. 21. And McLeman notes that the next asteroid that poses even a mild threat isn’t likely to be a danger until 2040.
“I don’t think the ancient Mayans knew anything more about the end of the world than we do today,” said McLeman, adding with a laugh that he’s “prepared to be wrong and face the punishment of the gods.”
Colin Goldblatt, an assistant professor in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria, said the planet is indeed operating under a deadline. Just not the same one professed by “2012ers.”
“Ultimately, the apocalypse will be something called a runaway greenhouse,” Goldblatt said. “Venus in the past is like Earth in the future.”
Evidence suggests Venus’s early history was marked by a warming effect similar to what we’re experiencing now, with temperatures eventually soaring to more than 1,000 C – boiling the ocean – as a result of more energy getting in than out. Gold-blatt said the same thing will happen here, making Earth uninhabitable, but likely not for another billion years.
“I wouldn’t change your Christmas plans,” he says wryly.
Matt Sharp, executive producer of the TV show Doomsday Preppers, points out that epic disaster scenarios that once seemed absurd – say, New York subways being flooded by a Frankenstorm – are increasingly being proven plausible.
“There are a lot worse things to do than store food, water and come up with some sort of plan ‘just in case,'” said Sharp, who notes that the survivalists once seen as punchlines are causing others to reconsider who’ll have the last laugh.
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