Student Full Speech 10: Valyn Reinig, End of the World

“It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.” I've always been passionate about history, so when I started to hear rumors that the Earth's history as we know it would all be changed in just a few short years, I began to do some research on the topic of 2012. Today, I'd like to persuade you to believe that the world isn't going to end on December 21, 2012, by disproving the three main theories of destruction: the end of the Mayan calendar, collision with Planet X, and the polar reversal of the Earth. First off, let's look at the end of the Mayan calendar. Now, before I talk about the calendar, you should probably know some basic information about the Mayan culture. The Mayans were an involved civilization that lived in the southern part of Mexico from 250 to 900 AD. Religion was a very important part of the Mayan culture, and it influenced almost everything that they did. They had many architectural achievements, such as the pyramids, that remain, to worship the gods. Even today, some of the Mayan rituals and traditions are still being practiced. Now, you may wonder how this background information will help you understand the making of the Mayan calendar, so I'll tell you. The Mayans were polytheistic, meaning they worshiped more than one god. According to mayancalender.com, April 5, 2010, the Mayans based their calendar off the rain god Chac and the rain cycles used to cultivate their corn. The calendar that the 2012 prophesy refers to is called the Mayan Long Count calendar. Before the Long Count, Mayans had several other calendars that were shorter in length. Universetoday.com, on April 5, 2010, reports that this new calendar used 13 and 20 as base units, which would mean that the whole calendar lasted 5,126 years. And, can you guess what date those 5,126 years ends on? If you said, December 21, 2012, you are correct. But, what does the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar prove? When my calendar at home reaches December 31, I just recognize that I have to get a new one, not that the world is going to end. At abcnews.go.com, on April 6, 2010, Steven Houston, a specialist of Mayan hieroglyphic, stated that the Mayan descriptions barely even talk about this event. Like Houston, I agree that the end of the Mayan calendar isn't going to wreak any havoc on our world as we know it today. The Mayans were advanced and wise for their time, but through no evidence found was there a connection with major events in history corresponding to the Long Count calendar. The only thing that will happen December 21, 2012, is that the current cycle will end and a new, 5,126-year cycle will begin. It's just as simple as that. Okay, so we've discussed the Mayans. Now let's talk about something a little more astronomical. If you haven't already heard about Planet X, you're about to. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, November 18, 2009, Planet X, sometimes called Nibiru, is scheduled to hit the Earth on—you guessed it—December 21, 2012. Upon researching, I discovered that Nibiru was found by the ancient Sumerians, who claim that the planet orbits the sun every 3,600 years. But the only proof of this discovery comes from Zecharia Sitchin, a sketchy fiction writer that wrote about the ancient Mesopotamians and claimed that he translated Sumerian documents that prove the planet Nibiru was real. In one of his books, The 12th Planet, published in 1976, aliens called the Anunnaki actually visited the Earth. Researchers and astrobiologists both agree that Nibiru is not real and that there isn't any scientific evidence to claim that it is. Now, I don't know about you, but who am I going to believe: a fiction writer that says aliens are going to destroy the Earth, or an educated scientist that studies planets? Another reason there's so much confusion surrounding Planet X is that, in the scientific world, Planet X is just a temporary name that scientists use before they find a permanent name for a planet or other unknown object. For example, the dwarf planet Eris was called Planet X before the name Eris was given, thus some people believed that Nibiru, Planet X, and Eris are all the same planet and will collide into the Earth, creating the end of the world. Now, what you might not know is that the previous date of Planet X's impact with Earth was May of 2003. But, when nothing happened, the date was pushed back to December 21, 2012. Coincidence or not that the date was changed to the same date that the Mayan calendar ends on, there's still another theory that claims the end is near. The last of the three theories of world destruction is the polar reversal of the Earth. According to universetoday.com, geomagnetic reversal is when the orientation of Earth's magnetic field becomes reversed, or, in plainer terms, the North and South Poles switch. This can be caused due to outside interferences or even effects of nature on the poles. But, whatever the case, a polar reversal would not harm anyone. Scientists researching geomagnetic reversal found that, in the past, the magnetic field has reversed multiple times. The last reversal happened roughly 780,000 years ago and was not life-threatening. In an article found on abcnews.go.com, April 6, 2010, Patrick Geryl, a devout supporter of the polar reversal theory, says that the three theories will combine and that earthquakes, tidal waves, and volcanic eruptions will all happen at the same time, creating mass chaos, ending the world. But, what's so strange about this is that there's no physical proof that any of this will happen. Planet X can't be proved, nor can an actual polar reversal of the Earth be determined on December 21, 2012. In fact, the only true bit of information from all three theories is that the Mayan Long Count calendar will end. That's it. No more, no less. Today you were able to learn about the end of the Mayan calendar, collision with Planet X, and the polar reversal of the Earth, each suggesting the end of the world in 2012. Hopefully, with all the information I provided you, you can be assured that the end of the world is in fact not anywhere close to being in your near future.