Prior to this class, I only ever heard of two times the world was supposed to end, and those were in 2000 and 2012. I had no idea about all of the other predictions for when the world would end. I also heard that maybe there was a mistranslation and that the 2012 Mayan prediction was actually 2021. People even wondered if 2020 was the start to the end of the world with predictions of apocalypses when the virus spread around the world. This was spurred on by the Doomsday clock being moved forward and the closest it has ever been to the end of humanity.
There are hundreds of predictions of the end of the world ranging from the first millennium CE to the 21st century. The truth is that none of them have come true, and many of the predictions were not based on science. Many of them were (as are future predictions) based on religious and spiritual beliefs. Many scientists believe that the Sun will be the reason that the Earth is destroyed. The Sun is getting hotter and will eventually evaporate all of the water on Earth. However, scientists predict that it won't happen for another billion years. Climate change is another predictions for the end of the world, but those predictions are 500 million years in the future. Almost every single future scientific prediction for the end of the world is thousands to billions of years away.
However, the end of humanity might be a different story. It is possible that the Earth will outlive humans. Super-volcanoes, wars, climate change, a plague, nuclear weapons, evolution, and overpopulation are just some ways that humans can be wiped out before the Earth is wiped out. The truth is that no one will ever really know for sure when the Earth will end or humanity will go extinct.
2012/2021: https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/2021-apocalypse-bizarre-logic-history-23442462
2020 (Doomsday): https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2021/2/1/end-world/
Science Predictions: https://www.science.org/content/article/earth-wont-die-soon-thought
Human Extinction: https://futurism.com/end-of-life-on-earth-2
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Great post! I really enjoyed reading it since 2012 was such a relevant year in our lives. I remember growing up thinking the world was going to end in 2012, and thankfully it didn't. I never knew that the world was also predicted to end in 2020/21 and 2000 as well. Very informative, good job again!
ReplyDeleteThe end of the world was something kids talked about when I was growing up so I was intrigued when I saw we had a topic on it. So many people believe the world is going to end but no one can agree on a specific day/year. I still remember years ago when the "world was supposed to end on December 21st". That just so happened to be my brothers birthday and he was so upset. Reading about the lecture on the end of the world, there were new days//years that people believe the world will end. We will never know an exact day/year but it was pretty cool to read about it.
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