2012 Science
Planetary Alignment
Some proponents for the doomsday prophecy of 2012 turn to a planetary alignment as being the central event that will kick off the end of days. On December 21, 2012, some believe that an astronomical event will occur that takes place only every 26,000 years. During this time, the planets of our solar system will be aligned in a row as the rising winter solstice sun passes through the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
From this point, people have surmised different possibilities that all have bad news in store for mankind. One of the beliefs is that the alignment will disrupt the Earth’s natural ability to filter out much of the solar radiation that is constantly bombarding our planet. The increased radiation is believed by some to be able to knock out large parts of our electrical grid and will render many electronic devices useless. Even with some repair effort being made after the occurrence, this may buy enough time for the world to go into complete upheaval. Being very dependent on all things electric and electronic, this phenomenon would immediately disrupt the transportation of food and necessary supplies that we take for granted. Within a short period of time, all stores would be looted and emptied of food supplies, resulting in mass hysteria as we are reduced to a fearful society of people that literally will fight and kill to keep themselves and their families alive. Without any way to hear of emergency supply stations and relief supplies, we would all very much be on our own and the resulting panic would indeed cause the loss of several millions of lives.
Another belief related to planetary alignment is a pole shift of the Earth. Put simply, the imaginary pole that our planet rotates around would be caused to shift several degrees from where it is now resulting in a new North Pole, South Pole, and Equator. The devastation this could cause is easy to imagine. If most regions of the earth were to shift into a new climate, much of the animal and plant life that has adapted to live in its current climate over millions of years most likely would not have time to adapt to new surroundings and perish. Likewise, this shift is also believed to be likely to set off massive earthquakes and volcanoes as a result of the new setting. These would occur on such a great scale that many buildings would be destroyed and all the ash in the atmosphere would cause a long period of the sun being blocked out that would result in the demise of any species that survive the initial shift and climate change.
