The end is nigh...

As the minute hand stands poised to usher in the date that the Mayans believed would signal the end of time (21.12.2012) the mechanism of our imminent destruction still seems to be largely academic.

The last apocalyptic disaster (Not the great deluge / flood alluded to in the Old Testament and subsequently confirmed by scientific enquiry as being a real global event) saw the destruction of the 'terrible lizards' and was caused, scientists believe, by a huge extraterrestrial object striking the Earth and entombing us, hidden from the Sun, by the resulting fall-out.

There appears to be nothing on the horizon in regards to some wayward meteorite or comet - unless it is a 'dark comet' composed of dust and rock rather than ice and rock and imminently more difficult to spot moving at speed through the Solar System towards us; but at least we are looking to the skies. What if the danger is already with us..?

Whilst we continue to speculate about what will wipe humanity from the face of the Earth there are some who are considering that rather than 21.12.2012 being 'the end of days / time' that Mayan prophecy may only serve as a pointer to indicate the beginning or onset of the end of days.

We seem to be obsessed with a quick painless end to life on Earth - after all, who wants to imagine our extinction to be a long, painful drawn out affair - when in reality we have been slowly killing the Earth for hundreds of years and that slow death is already well underway.

Pollution, war, genocide, famine, chemical poisoning, global warming, deforestation, overpopulation, destruction of non-renewable resources, the extinction of species after species, disease (naturally occurring, man-made and those ignorantly proliferated by mankind's arrogant belief in their own insusceptibility) environmentally induced stress, declining fertility...

The list of the Earth's ailments is endless...

Sadly the common denominator linking all of the problems above (which is by no means exhaustive) is man himself.

21.12.2012 is an auspicious date indeed, it heralds in a new age. An age of decline that if not checked, if allowed to continue unresisted will be the our undoing and ultimately our end. Painful as that might be.