It's December 22, 2012!

Congratulations. If you're reading this, you survived the apocalypse.

All that fuss over a calendar.

Now, look here. December 21, the shortest daylight time of the year, was a common marking of the new year. It makes sense that it would be the last day on a calendar. You guys don't assume the world will end on the 31st because it's on the modern day calendars, do you?
No?
Exactly.

The Mayans were are not psychics. These "predictions" were made by using astronomy. We still use astronomy today - did you know? - to determine when a solar/lunar eclipse is going to happen, to locate stars we couldn't see before, to find new planets, etc.
It's not magic. It's science. An ancient, basic, respectable science that we are rediscovering as time goes on.

Oh, wait. You still don't believe me, do you?

Take a look at the Mayans today.
They'll tell you that you saw the end of a calendar and assumed it was the end of the world. But you won't listen, because "they ain't real mayans 'cause they died years and years ago."

It's so much easier to listen to a centuries old calendar than a real group of people. A calendar can't call you out on your stupidity.

Now, would you like me to lay out some real doomsday possibilities?

No?
Too bad.

See, the Earth will come to an end someday. But it's not going to happen without some big natural disasters happening more often than they have this year. It's not going to go from calm to insanity and beyond. It's not going to be a hurricane named Sandy or a bunch of public massacres that predict the end.

• Our planet could end up like Mars. Mars was stripped of its atmosphere by solar winds and quite suddenly exposed to sudden death by the awesome vacuum that is space. All that would survive are the organisms that thrive in the underground gaseous caverns which are toxic to us.
• We have become very careless with resources on Earth. We could drain it completely, and pollute all its water. Eventually, we will end up destroying the planet ourselves, creating an unlivable barren land.
• The most likely end to the world would be when the sun dies. Our sun is the type of star that will expand into a red giant before it dies. The fire will consume the planet completely.
• And if by some rare impossible chance that the sun doesn't expand that far (like that could ever happen), the "habitable zone" will move with the sun's surface; outward. And Earth will not move with it. When we are thrust out of our little strip of life-sustaining temperatures, the Earth will burn.

I know what you guys are probably arguing now.
"There was more than one year on that calendar!"

I know.

The end of that calendar marks the end of an era.

Shut up.