Season Two - E.6 - The End of the World and Other Hooey

The first time I met Dr. Brian Pihack, he was giving a lecture.  Someone in the audience asked his opinion of the supposed end of the world according to the Mayan calender and his response was "don't even get me started on that". 

"Let's Talk About It" didn't exist at that point in time, but later when we decided to do a show about the whole idea, I knew we needed Brian to be there. 

In the summer I had been to the ROM in Toronto to see the Mayan exhibit on loan to them with my son.  At the end of the exhibit, there was a giant clock on the wall, somewhat similar to the Doomsday Clock created in 1947 at the University of Chicago. It was counting down the seconds until December 22nd, 2012. 

The whole idea of the Mayans predicting the end of the world has always annoyed me.  The reason their calendar stopped is because they were virtually wiped out as a civilization about 1200 years ago.  And when it comes to all the Hollywood hype surrounding the issue, well, as Brian said, don't even get me started.  Still, I was interested to see what some other schools of thought were on the subject. 

As I expected, Brian completely ridiculed the idea of the Mayan's predicting the end of the world.  So, we started looking at some of the other scenarios we'd read about as far as the world ending in December. 

Alien Invasions?  Apparently, more people believe this one than I would have thought possible.  If you happen to be one, you should probably head to Bugarach in the south of France where apparently aliens will save the faithful who flock there when it all goes bust in December.

Then there are Solar Flares and Storms.  This at least seemed scientific.  Brian pointed out that they occur all the time and have since the beginning of time, so there is no reason to suppose they will suddenly become more dangerous. 

Giant meteorite?  Well...one is supposed to pass quite close to Earth...but that's not until February.  Besides which, it will miss us. 

The Magnetic Poles flipping?  This is supposed to happen in December, but according to Brian (and NASA, I looked it up), this also happens all the time with no hazardous outcome for earth. 

If you would like to contact Brian to discuss any of this further, you can find him at:
http://astronomyniagara.com/html/contact_us.html