2012 catastrophe possibilities?

[flobadob]

There is always some nutjob claiming the end of the world is coming probably 3-4 times every year. However I think we all have to agree that the 2012 Mayan thing will probably be the most widely accepted apocalyptic prophesy in history. So I'm just wondering what sort of feasible scenarios are out there which could contribute to this coming to pass. Some that I feel could fit the bill are

1. World/European economic meltdown
2. Major earthquake along American east coast
3. A major scientific breakthrough which questions everything we know
4. Contact with extra terrestrial life
5. Some issue with the LHC

I'm not saying you have to believe that anything is going to happen next year but what sort of things do you think could feasibly happen which would have major and dramatic repercussions for life as we know it?

[boxtops]

I think 2's a possibility

[flobadob]

Not that I put them in any order boxy but I would think one is a high possibility too.

[Postdog]

LHC?

[daisya]

I have to agree with you there and more persuaded towards a natural disaster that will be the worst thing to happen.

[jno]

in 1000, Christians thought the world was ending. The Mayans weren't worried at all. They aren't worried now, they'd just start a new calendar.

I don't think they get a lot of quakes on the US east coast. West coast, yes, lots. But would LA being marmalised really be the end of the world?

[jno]

LHC large Hadron collider

[flobadob]

postdog LHC is the Large Hydron Collider. Basically a big machine that is trying to find out how the universe came about by bashing loads of atoms and stuff together.

[cazzz1975]

I really hope nothing at all happens, a boring mediocre year, it would shut all the doom merchants up ;)

[jomifl]

Floods, droughts, tsunamis, volcanoes, locusts, all the usual ones that crop up somewhere

[daisya]

Always been wary of them messing with things that could create something they can't handle....seems they just can't help themselves. I like a get out clause but not sure there would be one with the LHC unless anyone knows better....

[Postdog]

OIC. Personally I think if it's gonna happen it's gonna be a cumulation of many things. Natural disasters, middle east, and financial stuff have all been getting worse over the last few years.

[erin-x]

We had our friend convinced the world was going to end when the LHC was turned on for the first time.. was really funny :)

In all seriousness though I would go with no 1. I just don't understand how something we created has gotten so out of control. I don't know if that's just me being silly and uninformed but I just don't get it.

[cazzz1975]

the tevatron in america has been running for years http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tevatron

[David H]

Your single word 'nutjob' there summed up prophesies in total. How many major events in history were predicted or predictable? A few, like the world wars, had the seeds, but then again the closest anyone got to WW2 would be it would be over by Christmas.

Otherwise in order

1) Can't happen. The economy is a fixed amount at any time, and only moved around to different beneficiaries. So if the west grows poorer, someone will get richer. The money in the crash didn't vanish, much went to people who got free houses as they didn't pay their mortgages and in the US the prices went down so didn't cover the sum from negative equity. But the money wasn't lost as the actual assets have never changed in nature.

2. Who can predict an earthquake?

3. Why now or any other time? Never happened, no reason to in the future.

4. See 3

5. That would have happened as soon as it kicked in. Nope.

Sorry to Fosters on your chips but if you're bored with life watch reality TV or read a book, we are not designed to see the future.

[atalanta]

A colossal lump of the island of la Palma in the Canaries will drop into the sea causing a bigger tsunami than you could ever imagine. The wave or waves will totally drown all cities on the eastern coast of US, and most of the Canadian E coast cities. It will also rush dozens of miles inland - maybe hundreds. It will divide and sweep round the Atlantic coasts, losing some strength as it goes, but it will still devastate the West Indies and will eventually swing the way of the UK, causing waves on our south and west coasts, on the west coast of Ireland and much of wales, and possibly Greenland and Iceland, too. Thousands of boats and ships will vanish without trace. Millions of people will drown or be smashed to their deaths.
This is not fiction - it is just a matter of time.
Search the archives of the new Scientist for further details.

[atalanta]

I have just thought of another one. The "Richard Montgomery" will explode as the powers-that-be begin to build an airport in the Thames Estuary. This half-sunken ship holds over a thousand tons of wartime high explosive, which is too dangerous to salvage. London will be swamped, with the tube lines being filled with river water.
many casualties will result.

[flobadob]

Sweet atalanta, you've really thought about it. Now just put it into quatrains and it's a goer. David H, if you'd read the question I didn't claim any of it would happen, I just wondered what sort of things could possibly occur that could have a major affect on humanity.

[askyourgran]

Oh boy atalanta, I feel really happy now. I had my feelings of doom over the unrest in the middle east, it is a real hornets nest there. Our relations with the European Union are also troublesome, should we stay or should we go? And more to the point if we go, are we geared up enough to return to our own industries, clothing/steel/farming/fishing (where are they now) for a competitive trading export/import with other countries. Britain needs to stand on her own two feet and start being productive not bowing to Europe.

[David H]

Sorry flobadob, all I meant was that besides such events being almost unknown in human history the ones which happen on smaller scales happen randomly and without any advance notice like the tsunamis and plane crashes etc. The media love speculation and even when something is possible due to known circumstances like the Euro falling apart they can't see if and when it will as it's impossible to read the future.

The Canary Island theory has been defused time and time again but still goes on (I am fascinated by such things so have a morbid curiosity to debunk them each time based on what I just explained) and nothing bucks the system of not being able to tell what'll happen ahead.

http://www.iberianatu...rial/megatsunami.html

It was apparently based on a single report some years ago designed to attract funding and since pretty much debunked by actual geologists who said the eruptions were many thousands of years apart and the area is not essentially unstable if there was one. This article is quite balanced but others I've read are absolutely certain it can't happen.

[sunny-dave]

http://www.alpheus.or...es/Mayan-Calendar.jpg