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Asked by croweman to Meeks, Pete, Stephen, Steve, Tom on 14 Jun 2010 in Categories: General. This question was also asked by crystaaaaaaaalll, elizabethjanee, popthebottle, zackaroo222.
Question: Will the world end in 2012
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Stephen Curry answered on 13 Jun 2010:
It is highly unlikely. I’d bet on it still being here in 2013 so recommend you stick with your studies at school.
Sorry I can’t provide a more upbeat answer. 😉
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Tom Hartley answered on 13 Jun 2010:
Hi Croweman,
No, I am pretty sure it will not. The earth has already been in existence for several billion years, so (assuming that the potential causes of world destruction have not changed much over this period) the chances that it will end in any particular year are vanishingly small.
It would take a huge force to destroy the world. I guess maybe a nearby supernova could do it, but evidently these do not happen very often otherwise the world would have already gone.
It would take much less to wipe out all life on the surface of the Earth, and this could come from e.g., a meteor impact, but I don’t think this is any more likely to occur in 2012 than any other year. The impact that’s thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs took place 65 million years ago, so again it seems unlikely that a big one will hit in 2012. Even that did not wipe out everything.
When I was growing up, the biggest threat to life on Earth came from ourselves and the very real prospect of global thermonuclear war. Thankfully this has now receded a little, but if you want to worry about a global catastrophe wiping out mankind, this is one which we can actually do something about!
As you can tell I am not an expert on this.
What would you do if the world was going to end?
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Steve Roser answered on 14 Jun 2010:
I think the chances of the world ending in 2012 are slim. Mind you if Rooney has another game like Saturdays………
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Marieke Navin answered on 14 Jun 2010:
Don’t think so! We’ve got a fair old while until the Sun starts to run out of fuel and turn into a red giant and engulf us on the inner planets.
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Pete Edwards answered on 14 Jun 2010:
No!
The world will end when our sun runs out of gas and swells to become a red giant. But don’t panic, this won’t happen for a few billion years yet………..
Comments
francisca commented on :
I as a student can not say No to that question fully but have come to the conclusion that the world having existed for billions of years cannot just end but will go through many natural disasters as technology and the impact that we are having on our habitat take its toll. What I propose will happen during 2010 is that more natural disasters will occur but the world will not just END. Looking back on history you will find that many species have died off, dinosaurs, there was the ice age, these disasters occured wiping out a whole race and that is more likely than the world coming to an end. I believe what we see as the world coming to an end is not the end but the beginning of things to come. As everything has a beginning it too must come to an end and life is no different, just the same way people and animals have evolved to fit into their changing environments we too will have to not only evolve but find a way to enable our future to be better. 2012 is not an end but a way of helping our future race.
smokeyjoe commented on :
i saw this documentary that said there would be a massive polar shift wcich may very well cuase massive earthquakes as well as meteors probably hitting the earth becuase of the disruption in earths magnetic field
Tom commented on :
francisca, smokeyjoe: thanks for your comments, it’s good to read them and to know someone is looking at what we’ve written. I am prepared to bet £10 that the world won’t end in 2012. If I am wrong I will pay you straight away of course 😉
francisca commented on :
I will agree to that bet 🙂