Is the World Coming to an End This Year?

Several weeks ago I found my twelve year old grandson lying in bed sobbing his poor heart out.  "What's wrong?" I asked.  "The world is coming to an end next year and I'm worried about it," he said.

I did my best to reassure him that there was no truth to that vicious rumor, but quite honestly I didn't have any facts to back up my viewpoint.  I'd heard the 2012 Doomsday predictions, but had been too busy to pay much attention to them.

As New Years approached, rumors flew across the Internet faster than a nest of mad hornets, so I figured I'd better educate myself on the subject.  I got hundreds of hits when I googled 2012 Predictions, but I figured that information on NASA's website would be the most reliable. From NASA, I learned that the dire predictions are based on a number of widespread beliefs.

1. Nibiru (Planet X) is supposedly headed on a collision course with Earth on December of 2012. 
2. In December there is supposed to be an alignment of the Sun, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
3. A cycle of the Mayan calendar ends on the winter solstice, December 21, 2012.

My blood pressure lowered as I continued to read and discovered that when the Mayan calendar ends in December 2012, it will be no different than when our Gregorian calendar ends on December 31 and resumes on January 1. I was also relieved to learn that Nibiru and other wayward planets are an Internet hoax.  In a related link, E.C. Krupp, Director of the Griffith Observatory, stated that he expects no planetary alignment to occur on the winter solstice. 

An article in the Jan. 1, 2012 edition of the L.A. Times reported that according to NASA, solar storms do occur every 11 years, and the next cycle is expected to occur around 2012-2013.  However, effects of solar storms have been exaggerated.

I have to admit that I was one of those who ran around like Chicken Little crying "The sky is falling" during the Y2K scare of 1999.  After the hurricane force winds that tore through my neighborhood in early December of 2011, I plan to be better prepared for natural disasters, but I am determined not to panic.

After all with our economy still in a disaster and a Presidential Election on the horizon, I have enough to worry about.