2012... Doomsday??

[Deesalie]

My Dad is seriously on this 2012 thing ATM. Has anyone heard of the predictions? He's buying land, becoming self sufficient, stockpiling food etc etc.. I figure, hey, it can't be all bad. Even if nothing happens in 2012, its not a bad way to live. Google 2012... you will be inundated with info.

Heres his latest email to me...


Changes in the Sun’s Surface to Bring Next Climate Change
Space and Science.net ^ | January 2, 2008 | PRESS RELEASE: SSRC 1-2008

Posted on 01/12/2008 10:24:01 AM PST by SamAdams76

Today, the Space and Science Research Center, (SSRC) in Orlando, Florida announces that it has confirmed the recent web announcement of NASA solar physicists that there are substantial changes occurring in the sun’s surface. The SSRC has further researched these changes and has concluded they will bring about the next climate change to one of a long lasting cold era.

Today, Director of the SSRC, John Casey has reaffirmed earlier research he led that independently discovered the sun’s changes are the result of a family of cycles that bring about climate shifts from cold climate to warm and back again.

“We today confirm the recent announcement by NASA that there are historic and important changes taking place on the sun’s surface. This will have only one outcome - a new climate change is coming that will bring an extended period of deep cold to the planet. This is not however a unique event for the planet although it is critically important news to this and the next generations. It is but the normal sequence of alternating climate changes that has been going on for thousands of years. Further according to our research, this series of solar cycles are so predictable that they can be used to roughly forecast the next series of climate changes many decades in advance. I have verified the accuracy of these cycles’ behavior over the last 1,100 years relative to temperatures on Earth, to well over 90%.”

As to what these changes are Casey says, “The sun’s surface flows have slowed dramatically as NASA has indicated. This process of surface movement, what NASA calls the “conveyor belt” essentially sweeps up old sunspots and deposits new ones. NASA’s studies have found that when the surface movement slows down, sunspot counts drop significantly. All records of sunspot counts and other proxies of solar activity going back 6,000 years clearly validates our own findings that when we have sunspot counts lower then 50 it means only one thing - an intense cold climate, globally. NASA says the solar cycle 25, the one after the next that starts this spring will be at 50 or lower. The general opinion of the SSRC scientists is that it could begin even sooner within 3 years with the next solar cycle 24. What we are saying today is that my own research and that of the other scientists at the SSRC verifies that NASA is right about one thing – a solar cycle of 50 or lower is headed our way. With this next solar minimum predicted by NASA, what I call a “solar hibernation,” the SSRC forecasts a much colder Earth just as it has transpired before for thousands of years. If NASA is the more accurate on the schedule, then we may see even warmer temperatures before the bottom falls out. If the SSRC and other scientists around the world are correct then we have only a few years to prepare before 20-30 years of lasting and possibly dangerous cold arrive.”

When asked about what this will mean to the average person on the street, Casey was firm. “The last time this particular cycle regenerated was over 200 years ago. I call it the “Bi-Centennial Cycle” solar cycle. It took place between 1793 and 1830, the so-called Dalton Minimum, a period of extreme cold that resulted in what historian John D. Post called the ‘last great subsistence crisis.’ With that cold came massive crops losses, food riots, famine and disease. I believe this next climate change will be much stronger and has the potential to once more cause widespread crop losses globally with the resultant ill effects. The key difference for this next Bi-Centennial Cycle’s impact versus the last is that we will have over 8 billion mouths to feed in the next coldest years where as we had only 1 billion the last time. Among other effects like social and economic disruption, we are facing the real prospect of the ‘perfect storm of global food shortages’ in the next climate change. In answer to the question, everyone on the street will be affected.”

Given the importance of the next climate change Casey was asked whether the government has been notified. “Yes, as soon as my research revealed these solar cycles and the prediction of the coming cold era with the next climate change, I notified all the key offices in the Bush administration including both parties in the Senate and House science committees as well as most of the nation’s media outlets. Unfortunately, because of the intensity of coverage of the UN IPCC and man made global warming during 2007, the full story about climate change is very slow in getting told. These changes in the sun have begun. They are unstoppable. With the word finally starting to get out about the next climate change, hopefully we will have time to prepare. Right now, the newly organized SSRC is the leading independent research center in the US and possibly worldwide, that is focused on the next climate change. Some of the world’s brightest scientists, also experts in solar physics and the next climate change have joined with me. In the meantime we will do our best to spread the word along with NASA and others who can see what is about to take place for the Earth’s climate. Soon, I believe this will be recognized as the most important climate story of this century.”

More information on the Space and Science Research Center is available at: www.spaceandscience.net

[Jakaluma]

What a crock of &*&%! There have always been these predictions, but they are mostly just shite. And pseudo science. The Mayan calendar is entering a new phase, oh the world must be about to end. Someone had a dream, oh, the world must be about to end. Numbers all line up a certain way - oh the world must be about to end.

Yeh, the buying land, being self sufficient etc is all great.

Sorry to be so harsh, but I am way to much of a skeptic to take this sort of thing seriously.

[Marmee]

I'm skeptical too. Amazing we are still alive after all the crap that has been predicted in the past, heh?

[Nyree]

We should have all been dead a few times in the last decade!

[~Luna~]

apparantly we will all see the light then..
I reckon everyone will finally stop believing the dooms day predictions once and for all.

[MissPrint]

I think that it's impoartant to be open minded - not necessarily to the extent where your brains actually fall out, but you get my drift...

There are a lot of theories out there and some are "more plausible" than others... Personally I believe that "something" (and I use that term very loosely) will happen between now and 2020 that will change life as we know it.

Being self sufficient should be a priority for everyone, even if the world isn't "going to end" tomorrow or in 20 years from now! Stockpiling food etc just in case isn't that bad an idea either - if nothing happens you won't need to go food shopping for a while

[Deesalie]

I'm undecided one way or the other... I do tend to agree though, about the self sufficiency thing. I watched an interesting doco called the End of Suburbia... talking about how unsustainable our way of living is, particularly once fossil fuels are become an expensive resource.

As for 2012...

[Deesalie]

ha... your son has the same birthday as me, miss print!

[Meridith]

Hmmmm....

I found this info in the Q&A section on the NASA site.

The 2012 thing seems to have some origins with the Maya calendar, which starts a new cycle during winter solstice of that year. It seems they have predicitions/superstitions etc similar in intensity to what many people had surrounding the year 2000. One such belief is that things will happen in the sky such as has not been see before or for a long time and will not be seen again for a long time.

The actual aborigines of Guatemala believe that they are the descendants of the Mayas, and some have created a very strange mixture of "New Age" and "Maya spirituality." Some of them announce a new era, which is to commence six years from now (2012), when the axis of the Milky Way will form a "very beautiful poem" in the sky: a right angle with the axis of the ecliptic. In fact, I looked in Wikipedia for some information and I found that the angle must be greater than 20 degrees (I didn't do the accurate calculations that you showed to me).

This site here has some interesting information too.

The only other information I could find in my brief dig was also on the NASA site. There is some indication that the years 2011-2012 could be the start of a new solar sunspot.

NASA Satellites Capture Start of New Solar Cycle

NASA scientists say a new solar cycle is beginning, and this could have important repercussions for space-based technology ranging from GPS navigation to weather satellites. On Jan. 4, a reversed-polarity sunspot appeared, signaling the start of Solar Cycle 24. A sunspot is an area of magnetic activity on the surface of the sun that appears as a dark spot on its surface. Solar activity waxes and wanes in 11-year cycles and the previous solar cycle, Solar Cycle 23, peaked in 2000-2002 with many furious solar storms.

Lately, the sun has been experiencing very few flares, sunspots, or activity of any kind -- a period of quiet called solar minimum. Now, the sun’s seasons are changing again. David Hathaway, solar physicist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., says, "New solar cycles always begin with a high-latitude, reversed polarity sunspot."

"Reversed polarity" means a sunspot with opposite magnetic polarity compared to sunspots from the previous solar cycle. "High-latitude" refers to the sun's grid of latitude and longitude. Old cycle spots congregate near the sun's equator. New cycle spots appear higher, around 25 or 30 degrees latitude.

The sunspot that appeared Jan. 4 fits both these criteria. It is high latitude (30 degrees N) and magnetically reversed. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has named the spot AR10,981, or "sunspot 981" for short. Sunspot 981 was small --only about as wide as Earth, which counts as small on the grand scale of the sun -- and it has already faded away. But its three-day appearance Jan. 4-6 was enough to convince most solar physicists that Solar Cycle 24 is underway.

The onset of a new solar cycle is significant because of our increasingly space-based technological society.

"Solar storms can disable satellites that we depend on for weather forecasts and GPS navigation," says Hathaway. Radio bursts from solar flares can directly interfere with cell phone reception while coronal mass ejections (CMEs) hitting Earth can cause actual power outages.

Air travel can be affected, too. When airplanes fly over the poles during solar storms, they can experience radio blackouts, navigation errors and computer reboots all caused by space radiation. Avoiding the poles during solar storms solves the problem, but it costs extra time, money and fuel to take the longer route.

NASA is gearing up to study the active sun during Cycle 24 with the launch of a new spacecraft, the Solar Dynamics Observatory. "SDO is a very special observatory," says project scientist Dean Pesnell at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "Using a technique called helioseismic imaging, the spacecraft will be able to look inside the sun where solar activity begins. SDO will join SOHO, STEREO, Hinode and other missions already in orbit to improve our understanding of solar storms and lay the groundwork for better space weather forecasts."

"The beginning of the new solar cycle occurs just as the STEREO Mission is completing its first year of operation," said Mike Kaiser, STEREO Project Scientist at NASA Goddard. "The twin STEREO spacecraft are now 45 degrees apart and are in good position to triangulate on solar activity from the new cycle to provide better understanding of solar storms that can disrupt our electronic lives. Ultimately, the research done by STEREO and other solar missions will lead to more accurate predictions of when solar storms will impact Earth."

"Intense solar activity won't begin immediately," notes Hathaway. "Solar cycles usually take a few years to build from solar minimum (where we are now) to Solar Max, expected in 2011 or 2012."

I shall also note that snopes had nothing to say of interest.

So....I can't find any NASA doomsday warnings as such, but selfsuficiency is never a bad thing, even if the reasons might be a bit extreme.

[Heartwood]

If your father wants to set himself up for self-suffeciency, let him. As long as he doesn't invite several wives, and a hoard of others to join him in his quest to "survive", he's not harming anyone

I think it's the Mormans who stockpile an abundance of grain in accordance with their religion. Not a bad idea anyway if you ask me. Can't be bad to have a cupboard full of food.