I think some of you are misled about this 2012 thing. The world isn't going to end.. its not going to be the end of human civilization.. nor is the human race going to go extinct.. period.
However, here are a few things that we CAN expect to take place in 2012:
- Solar flares <--- extreme solar flares can be dangerous to the human race.. if the flares are strong enough to make it through our atmosphere. They can cause global power outages among other things. Even though we're protected by the Earths atmosphere.. the satellites up in space are not protected.. so if a huge powerful solar flare was to burst out and head our way.. the first thing its going to destroy/hit.. is going to be the satellites that we have up in orbit. During powerful solar events such as flares, rates of ionization between X-rays and atmospheric gases increase in the D and E region layers of the ionosphere. There is a sudden surge in electron production in these layers. These electrons can cause interference to the passage of radio waves through the atmosphere, absorbing short wave radio signals (in the high frequency range), possibly blocking all global communications. These events are known as “Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances” (or SIDs) and they become commonplace during periods of high solar activity. Interestingly, the increase in electron density during a SID boosts the propagation of Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio, a phenomenon scientists use to measure the intensity of X-rays coming from the Sun.
- The Earth has evolved in a highly radioactive environment. The Sun constantly fires high-energy particles from its magnetically dominated surface as the solar wind. During solar maximum (when the Sun is at its most active), the Earth may be unlucky enough to be staring down the barrel of an explosion with the energy of 100 billion Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs. This explosion is known as a solar flare and the effects of which can cause problems here on Earth.
Can our sun produce a "killer" flare? In short... No, it can't. The longer answer is a little more involved. Whilst a solar flare from out Sun, aimed directly at us, could cause secondary problems such as satellite damage and injury to unprotected astronauts and blackouts, the flare itself is not powerful enough to destroy Earth, certainly not in 2012. I dare say, in the far future when the Sun begins to run out of fuel and swell into a red giant, it might be a bad era for life on Earth, but we have a few billion years to wait for that to happen. There could even be the possibility of several X-class flares being launched and by pure bad luck we may get hit by a series of CMEs and X-ray bursts, but none will be powerful to overcome our magnetosphere, ionosphere and thick atmosphere below.
“Killer” solar flares
have been observed on other stars. In 2006, NASA’s Swift observatory saw the
http://www.universetoday.com/910/killer-solar-flare-on-another-star/largest stellar flare ever observed 135 light-years away. Estimated to have unleashed an energy of 50 million
trillion atomic bombs, the II Pegasi flare will have wiped out most life on Earth if our Sun fired X-rays from a flare of that energy at us. However, our Sun is not II Pegasi. II Pegasi is a violent red giant star with a binary partner in a very close orbit. It is believed the gravitational interaction with its binary partner and the fact II Pegasi is a red giant is the root cause behind this energetic flare event.
Doomsayers point to the Sun as a possible Earth-killer source, but the fact remains that our Sun is a very stable star. It does not have a binary partner (like II Pegasi), it has a predictable cycle (of approximately 11 years) and there is no evidence that our Sun contributed to any mass extinction event in the past via a huge Earth-directed flare. Very large solar flares have been observed (such as the
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/06may_carringtonflare.htm?list10018201859 Carrington white light flare)… but we are still here.
In an added twist to things, solar physicists are surprised by the
lack of solar activity at the start of this 24th solar cycle, leading to some scientists to speculate we might be on the verge of another Maunder minimum and “Little Ice Age”. This is in stark contrast to NASA Solar physicists 2006 prediction, that this cycle will be a “doozy”.
This leads me to conclude that we still have a long way to go when predicting solar flare events. Although space weather prediction is improving, it will be a few years yet until we can read the Sun accurately enough to say with any certainty just how active a solar cycle is going to be. So, regardless of prophecy, prediction or myth, there is no physical way to say that the Earth will be hit by
ANY flare, let alone a big one in 2012. Even if a big flare did hit us, it will not be an extinction event. Yes, satellites may be damaged, causing secondary problems such as a GPS loss (which
might disrupt air traffic control for example) or national power grids may be overwhelmed by auroral electrojets, but nothing more extreme than that.
But hold on, to sidestep this issue, doomsayers now tell us that a large solar flare
will hit us just as the Earth’s geomagnetic field weakens and reverses, leaving us unprotected from the ravages of a CME.
With all that said, I have to say.. I highly doubt that the human race is going to go extinct. Now, that's not to say that something spectacular won't happen in 2012.. but again, its not going to be the end of time or the end of the world.. or the human race... period.
Think back just 11 years ago.. in the year 2000. The same year I graduated from high school... we were expecting some kind of 'world ending' event back then.. and what happened?? Nothing.. absolutely nothing.
So until I hear from a reliable source.. that we're expecting something EXTREME to take place in 2012.. I'm going to consider it all as being bullshit.. just like back in the year 2000.
peace.