Threats to the Human Species

The Mayan calendar doesn’t predict humanity’s date with doomsday, but it does give us an excuse to party like it’s 2012.

The last day of fall 2012: will it be the last day of all time?

The mystical calendar of the ancient Mayan society ends on December 21, 2012 – and on that day, the Sun will erupt in a super-storm that will destroy all life on Earth.

Sounds like the plot of a Hollywood blockbuster, doesn't it? It was. But it was also a serious report on Fox News.

Could a solar storm actually end all life in 2012? The Sun does release powerful blasts of charged gas that envelop the Earth. Solar flare activity rises and falls on an 11-year cycle, and we're approaching the next stormy season in space weather. But thankfully, we have an umbrella.

Like a natural force field, our planet's magnetic field deflects the deadly rain of charged particles from the Sun ("Shields up, Captain Earth!"). The high-energy protons don't penetrate close enough to harm us, but gusts of solar wind can squeeze the Earth's magnetic umbrella enough that those charges turn the ground into a giant natural battery. That battery can overload transmission lines and crush transformers, triggering widespread power failures. Is this serious? Yes. Is it worth preparing for? Yes. Will it be the end of life on Earth? No.

The Mayans carefully recorded the motions of the Sun, Moon, and stars to track time in a sophisticated calendar. If the Mayan calendar ends, and the calendar tracks time, then doesn't time itself end?

The Mayan calendar doesn't actually end. Mayan astronomers saw cycles in the motions they observed in the sky. These cycles are like the hour, minute, and second hands on a clock, which move at different rates and point in the same direction every 12 hours. Celestial bodies also move in cycles, but there are more “hands” on the clock in the sky and they advance more slowly than the ones on your wristwatch. The Mayans called the longest cycle they found in the cosmic clockwork "the long count," which lasts 5,126 years. The first cycle ends on Dec. 21, 2012. The calendar doesn't end then – just the first long count.

But why didn't the Mayans make any physical records of their calendar that went past the first long count? Were they warning future generations of the end of time?

Think about it. If I want to make a calendar today, I calculate it with a computer and print it on a laser printer. This takes, say, 10 minutes. What if I want my calendar to start in the year 7,000 AD? I set aside an extra five minutes.

Now imagine you're a Mayan astronomer making a calendar. First, you have to find a huge piece of stone that you can carve into a wheel measuring four metres across and weighing over 20 tonnes. Then you chip the pattern of your calendar into the rock. Chip. Chip. Chip. Then repeat. And repeat. You'll need a calendar just to plan this, because it'll take you months.

Given the amount of time and effort required, why would a Mayan have made a calendar that doesn't start until millennia after he (and everyone he ever knew) was dead and buried?

Experts in Mayan culture confirm that the Mayans considered the end of the long count in their calendar to be not an omen of the end time, but rather an excuse for the biggest celebration ever. A super-humongous New Year's Eve party, like when all the numbers on the odometer of your car roll over to zeroes. The Mayans want us to dance, not fill out our last will and testament.

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