Apocalypse 2012: An optimist investigates the end of civilization [Paperback]

Is the world really coming to an end in 2012? According to the Bible, the I Ching and the Mayans it is. And, wouldn't you know it, there are already several rock bands, including Houston's very own Downfall 2012, getting ready to party. Apocalypse 2012 is cheerful sceptic Laurence E Joseph’s investigation into the 2012 Doomsday phenomenon.

With its mixture of hard science, investigative reportage and cast of colourful characters, ‘Apocaplyse 2012’ is ‘Fast Food Nation’ for the terminally paranoid.

Journalist and science writer Laurence E. Joseph is our incisive and witty guide unravelling the religious, astrological and mystical prophecies behind the potentially earth-shattering events of 2012. And at the core of this book is Joseph's investigation into the growing number of scientific researchers trying to figure out why conditions around our planet are becoming so bizarre.

His adventures include:

• Hooking up with the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement whose cheerful motto 'Live Long and Die Out' is now available as a tattoo.
• Meeting the scientists who are trying to figure out why the present state of the sun is so worrisome – is it just going through a phase or is something major going on?
• Visiting Yellowstone National Park to see whether the seething supervolcano could soon stop civilisation dead in its tracks.
• Exploring the possibility of a terrorist attack that could plunge the whole Northern Hemisphere into the equivalent of a nuclear winter.

So, if 2012 really is going to be a year of unprecedented catastrophe, what can we do to increase our odds of surviving it? Should we head for the Kentucky hills or hightail it to Western Africa, where an Australian Doomesday 2012 enthusiast is already staking his claim, or perhaps we'd be better blasting off for solar systems unknown?

It won't help. You can't get out of the way, you can't dig a hole deep
enough to hide. The end is coming, and there's nothing you can do about
it.

So why read this book?
Because you can't look away when not just the religious fanatics are saying
we're all going to be destroyed but the scientists are in on the act too.
Here's what they're saying:

* We're a million years over due for a mass extinction.

* The sun at radiation minimum is acting much worse than at solar maximum,
and one misdirected spewing of plasma could fry us in an instant.

* The magnetic field--which shields us from harmful radiation--is
developing a mysterious crack.

* Our solar system is entering an energetically hostile part of the
galaxy.

* The Yellowstone supervolcano is getting ready to blow, and if it does, we
can look forward to nuclear winter and 90 percent annihilation.

* The Maya, the world's greatest timekeepers ever, say it's all going to
stop on December 21, 2012.

So, see? There's nothing you can do, but you might as well sit back and
enjoy the show.

That's why you should read this book.

*****

Dear Reader,

If there were a chance that opening this book could set off a chain of
events that would lead to Apocalypse, to the end of Life as we know it,
would you be tempted? Finger poised uncertainly above the flashing red
button? How about if the Apocalypse promised to result in a new age of
enlightenment, a Heaven on Earth like never before?

Personally, I'll take the security of my cozy life over a chance at
nirvana. But status quo may no longer be an option, for any of us. This
book will convince you that there is a nonnegligible chance that the year
2012 will be more tumultuous, catastrophic, and, quite possibly,
revelatory, than any other year in human history.

Parts of this book are best read with a bowl of popcorn: looking into the
jaws of a great white shark in search of the meaning of death; touring a
picturesque Guatemalan town with Mayan shaman just weeks before it is
utterly destroyed. Other sections go better with a tranquilizer, such as
the impending eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano, or the mass
extinction headed our way--on the scale of the great collision that
destroyed the dinosaurs and 70 percent of all other species, our best
scientists contend that it's now overdue. Nail-biters should beware the
fact that the next peak in the sunspot cycle, due in 2012, is widely
expected to set records for the number and intensity of solar storms
pummeling the Earth with radiation and igniting natural calamities such as
earthquakes, volcanoes, and Katrina-sized hurricanes. And that our entire
solar system appears to be moving into a dangerous interstellar energy
cloud.

Is it a coincidence that the burgeoning war between Christianity and Islam
seems hell-bent for Armageddon? Or that numerous other religions,
philosophies, and cultural traditions are signaling that the end is near,
with 2012 emerging as the consensus target date? A new era is about to be
born, with all the pain and blood and joy and release that birth naturally
entails.

Facing oblivion, or at least mega-metamorphosis, is something that few of
us are emotionally prepared to do. Thus my excuse for the gallows humor
that pervades this story. In a memorable Mary Tyler Moore episode, Mary
cracks up laughing at the funeral of Chuckles the Clown who, dressed as a
peanut while marching in a parade, was shucked to death by an elephant. If
Mary can giggle in the face of death, so can we.

With kind regards,
Lawrence E. Joseph