Countdown to the Apocalypse: Mayan Doomsday Prediction (S1, E1) | Full Episode | History

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It's a funny thing. Either we don't want to think about doomsday or the civilization falling, or we want to obsess about it. Is it human nature to want to know when the end will come? I think we all want to know. We'd love to know how much time we have left. NARRATOR: Ancient doomsday prophecies. Each world age was supposed to end in a destruction. I think the Maya were saying something about December 21st, 2012. NARRATOR: Now, prophecy collides with modern science. There's storms on the Earth of unprecedented proportion. No species lives forever. We are in a major extinction right now. NARRATOR: Around the world, people are preparing. Every single person in America needs to be doing something to prepare for what's coming. What we fear will happen in 2012 is gonna happen. NARRATOR: This is "Countdown to Apocalypse." 2012, a time of unprecedented change and turmoil throughout the world. Some are turning to ancient prophecy to foretell their fate. Perhaps no other prediction currently holds more power than the Maya calendar, with its looming end date of December 21, 2012. What is the Maya 2012 thing about? It's a perfect storm. It's a coincidence of scientific speculation. The ancient Maya predicted that the end of December, 2012, specifically December 21, 2012, would be a time of great reckoning for us. And they said that that would be because of the sun's behavior. [music playing] NARRATOR: The Maya were an ancient civilization that rose to prominence deep in the jungle of Central America. The ancient Maya lived between about 300 BC and 900 AD in the present nation of Guatemala and Belize and the adjoining parts of Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador. NARRATOR: With limited technology, they built great temples and mastered the mapping of the stars. By 800 AD, their population had grown to more than a million people in 6,000 cities. While they are known for their advanced writing system and meticulous record-keeping, much of their knowledge was lost when this ancient civilization mysteriously vanished. It wasn't until hundreds of years later that surviving Maya texts began turning up in museums, and the work of translation could begin. Then in the 1960s, an ancient tablet, referred to as Monument 6, or the Tortuguero Stone, was unearthed from an archeological site in southern Mexico. Inscribed on this tablet, a date when time seemingly runs out, December 21, 2012. To many, this stone represents a chilling prophecy about the end of the world. However, some details from the stone remain shrouded in mystery. Right when it gets to the crucial part where it says what's going to happen, the stone is broken. We call this Murphy's law of epigraphy. NARRATOR: But what we discern from the surviving portion of the tablet is that the Maya calculated December 21, 2012, to be a critical point in human history. Their prophecy in a nutshell was that on December 21, 2012, it would be like the birth of a new era. And like any other birth, it would be accompanied by joy, blood, and pain. NARRATOR: Obsessed with the cycles of the sun, moon, and stars, the Mayan method for recording time has many modern-day scholars in awe. The Maya were not just astronomers. They were astrologers. And they weren't just mathematicians. They were numerologists. And they had fabulous ability to record things mathematically. ROBERT M. SCHOCH: They were great observers of the sky, observers of the stars, observers of the heavens. And they made incredibly accurate calendars. BRUCE SCOFIELD: They-- they found a-- a magic number in a sense that brings together all these different sky rhythms. And so it can be used for calculation purposes, but it also was used for interpretive purposes as well, which is astrology. NARRATOR: The Maya believed the keys to human faith were held within the heavens. They used their keen astrological sense to predict events hundreds of years into the future, including the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1519 and the revolution in communication, which has been fully realized with the advent of the printing press and the world wide web. [clock ticking] Because they were obsessed with time, there were some people that thought that maybe time was their religion. NARRATOR: And the Maya's pursuit of tracking time was based on their understanding of celestial cycles and their impact upon the planet. They understood that patterns in the stars were closely linked to the patterns occurring on the earth. This advanced knowledge makes their calendar unparalleled to this day. They would keep track of events and how many days elapsed between them. And they could calculate not only thousands of years but millions of years in the future and the past. NARRATOR: The Maya created many calendars to measure the cycles of astronomical events. The calendar, which ends on December 21, 2012, is one that measures a cycle that started over 5,000 years ago. December 21, 2012, is the end date of a 5,125-year block of time called the Long Count. NARRATOR: The origin date of the Long Count calendar is in the year 3114 BC, a period of dramatic transition for human society. BRUCE SCOFIELD: The beginnings of Stonehenge occur around that time. The beginnings of the Old Kingdom in Egypt occur at that time. There are a number of events worldwide that seem to have their origins at that point, so something must have gone on globally. ROBERT M. SCHOCH: Around 3100, 3200 BC, there is an indication that something happened. It may have been a solar outburst, but something happened. Now is this just coincidental that it correlates pretty closely with the stars of the Mayan calendar? I don't know. But when I see a correlation like that, I have to suspect that there is something to it. NARRATOR: There are many theories about what happened to prompt the emergence of modern civilization. But whatever occurred, it clearly stretched beyond the border of the ancient Maya world. BRUCE SCOFIELD: It was probably climate. It appears that there were some fairly rapid climate change events that occurred then. My argument would be that climate change is a primary driver of the evolution of human societies. NARRATOR: Global climate change, a hot-button issue for our time, may have had an even greater impact on the ancient world. And while the start date of the Long Count may shed light on past events on Earth, the end date December 21, 2012, perils an even rarer coincidence, one that hasn't taken place for 26,000 years. [cymbals crashing] ROBERT M. SCHOCH: Something that's very interesting is that the sun on December 21, 2012, will be aligned with the Milky Way galaxy. On this day, the sun, the earth, and the plane of the galaxy, the-- the galactic equator line up. And the fact that it happens on the winter solstice, December 21st, a lot of people, particularly astrologers, have said this is an important alignment. NARRATOR: Going back in time 26,000 years, the world was a very different place. 26,000 years ago, when you had the same situation, you are talking about the height of the last Ice Age. This alignment is a unique point in time, a unique point in history. And if the Mayans could figure this out and develop a calendar that allowed them to end this world age on this significant point where there is this alignment, I mean, that just shows how incredible they were. NARRATOR: 26,000 years ago, the earth began dramatically warming up. Is the galactic alignment to blame? And what does that mean for December, 2012? There are those who believe that an alignment of the planets can cause the sun's surface to be perturbed and there to be explosions and things that result. And these have an incredible effect on the surface of the earth, heating up the atmosphere, changing climatic conditions. I believe this had a very profound influence and effect on ancient civilizations, even to the point of essentially wiping out certain ancient civilizations and setting humanity into essentially dark ages. The sun does seem to be going into a period of instability. Solar activity is ramping up. Does this tie in with the galactic alignment? We are coming to the end of a cycle. We're coming, as they called it, to the end of a world age. This has happened in the past. Each world age was supposed to end in a different type of destruction. And I believe the Mayans were saying to us, this is happening again. NARRATOR: Interestingly, there is yet a third cycle that will reach its peak on December 21, 2012, and this may be the most dangerous one of all. Every 11 years, the sun goes for one cycle, from maximum to maximum, meaning more sunspots and, therefore, more solar activity and storms that issue from the sun and might hit us. NARRATOR: When solar activity ramps up, bursts of energy surge out from the sun's surface that can directly impact the earth. On December 21, 2012, just as the Mayan world age comes to an end, the sun will be entering its most violent period. ROBERT M. SCHOCH: We're just starting to understand that the sun is incredibly unstable from a geologic point of view. We should be careful. We should pay attention to it because it could have real ramifications for our modern society if there is a major solar outburst. LAWRENCE JOSEPH: Behavior of the sun, end at 2012, both from contemporary science and ancient Mayan prophecy, points to some potentially civilization-altering events. It's enough for me. NARRATOR: The countdown to apocalypse is on. And with ancient doomsday prophecies and modern science colliding, everyday people are preparing for the worst. [music playing] ROBERT ALLEN: People come to Sigma 3 because they're worried that something's around the corner, and they want to be prepared and make sure that their family is taken care of. We train people for worst-case scenarios, basically training to keep your ass alive. WOMAN: And now we have fire. JEREMIAH: There's always something happening. There's always turmoil, which in my mind makes it even more important to be prepared. So can you guys start looking around for some bait? We want to find grasshoppers, crickets, worms. JEREMIAH: An asteroid strike, earthquakes, floods, you know, massive volcanic eruptions. He's coming right out. We have to get him. You pin him down to that rubber. MAN: Watch him. I absolutely love snake. It's great fish bait. You can actually saute this up with a little olive oil and some onions. It's absolutely fantastic. Security out here is as important as fire or water, all right? We can't have shelter, water, fire, food, and not have security. People are going to come take it. [shots fired] This is the kind of training that civilians need to be getting to ensure that them and their families stay alive. You can literally sleep in one of these shelters down to 20 below with no sleeping bag and blizzard-type conditions, and it will keep you warm. Desperate people do all kinds of sort of crazy things. And it's best just to get away from that environment. ROBERT ALLEN: We are always going to have food that we can procure out here and eat well and make sure that our family's well-fed, no matter what happens in the world. All right, there we go. JEREMIAH: You know, civilizations fall. It's-- it's history. Things aren't as secure as we would like them to be, and that's-- that's just humanity, in my opinion. [loud bang] NARRATOR: As the clock ticks down to December 21, 2012, the end point of the ancient Maya calendar, many are preparing for uncertain times to come. But the vast majority of us continue to live our lives entirely unaware of the looming danger in our skies. LAWRENCE JOSEPH: You know, the last thing you need to do is worry about the sun. Everybody-- we all have enough to just get through the day, family, finances, enough politics to make you sick. And then I went on the NASA and European Space Agency websites and saw that the sun indeed had been acting up over the last century, century and a half, and particularly over the last few decades. And the only thing that people could agree upon was that the next climax of this behavior, it would be in 2012. All of a sudden, I find I'm worrying about the sun. [loud bang] Yeah, the sun, like-- like most other stars, has its own magnetic field. When you look at the sun, you see the surface of the sun. You sometimes see very dark spots. These dark spots, they can release energy very rapidly, and that leads to two phenomena. One phenomenon is what's called a solar flare. That's basically a very sudden bright thing on a certain spot on the sun. The other phenomenon-- and that's not been known for so long, only for about 20 years-- is what's called a coronal mass ejection. So it's basically an explosion on the surface on the sun, where a lot of energy is released. And that energy slings out a lot of plasma, a lot of material from the sun, that eventually then travels towards the earth. NARRATOR: These CMEs, or coronal mass ejections, send powerful waves of plasma energy off into space. If any of those waves were aimed at the earth, there could be disastrous consequences. The shockwave of particles that the explosion causes hits us in less than an hour. So we get hit by a shockwave of particles in advance and then the coronal mass ejection, or CME, itself arrives a couple of days later and hopefully bounces off the earth's protective magnetic field. NARRATOR: But what if a coronal mass ejection is strong enough to penetrate Earth's protective magnetic shield? LAWRENCE JOSEPH: You wouldn't notice much at first. Your cell phone probably would stop working. The electricity in your home would follow shortly. NARRATOR: Unlike a localized power outage caused by bad weather on Earth, the damage from a coronal mass ejection could destroy electronics of every kind. Cars, airplanes, computers, and more could all experience irreversible damage. And the devices that survive could be left powerless, as the entire electrical power grid is potentially fried by solar radiation. In this case, the transformers, which are the nodal points which hold the power grid together, would get burned out. [explosion] And replacing transformers is not easy. The biggest ones weigh over 100 tons, and there's a three-year waiting list on the world market for them. No electricity means not just no telecom. In many cases, no water and fuel because the pumps are electric. No refrigeration, no fresh food, no medicine, very limited law enforcement and military security, no banking for months or years. This is a crisis of fantastic proportion. We are incredibly dependent upon electronic equipment. With a major solar outburst, a lot of that delicate electronic equipment could be damaged. We know that this will happen because it has happened. There was the Carrington event in 1859. There was a solar flare at that time that was witnessed actually. JIMMY RAEDER: Carrington was a solar physicist and observed the sun. And he also observed a few things for the first time. One was that there was a explosion on the sun, what we call a solar flare. He observed that. And he also observed that about two days later, there was a geomagnetic storm on the earth. NARRATOR: When the solar outbursts of the Carrington event struck in 1859, telegraph systems, the most sophisticated electronic technology of the time, were knocked out. That was much larger than anything that we have observed in modern times. Some people have speculated that a storm like that, if it happened today, could, for example, seriously disrupt the power grid. If that were to hit today, it would probably knock out our electrical power grid for months and years. I think it would shake up the world, a lot. NARRATOR: In the years since the Carrington event, mankind has become entirely dependent on electricity and the technology it powers. Without it, civilization would come to a crashing halt. We're laid bare to this-- this terrible, terrible threat. And if we have to go without electricity for months or years, civilization will fall. People say, Larry, isn't that like being in a pre-electric age. I say, no, much worse because those folks knew how to live without electricity. We don't. This is a profoundly serious vulnerability, and we will get hit, maybe very soon. NARRATOR: And the Carrington event is not the only time that solar activity has shaken our world. On March 13, 1989, the entire Canadian province of Quebec experienced a 12-hour blackout caused by a CME. And in 2003, South Africa was also rocked by the effects of a coronal mass ejection. LAWRENCE JOSEPH: The 2003 event came on Halloween, you know, trick or treat, and knocked out 14 transformers and disabled the power grid in South Africa. Its electricity supply was crippled for a couple of years because of this. This kind of event is going to happen more and more. And certainly what we fear will happen in 2012 is going to happen. [music playing] We're living in a very fragile world. Our technology is keeping the lights on. The slightest glitch in our technology, and a whole year's crops be destroyed, that would be a disaster. And if we have a two-week power outage in New York City, oh, it's going to be the end of the world in America. NARRATOR: Unfortunately, the periodic cycle of the sun is making this possibility more likely now than ever. And like the Maya, who understood the sun's power, modern man is about to experience it firsthand. The sun is, at this point, ramping up again and becoming more active. LAWRENCE JOSEPH: That's the solar climax, when the sun will be at its stormiest and wildest and most tumultuous. We're seeing more evidence of solar flares. The sun is showing unusual activity. LAWRENCE JOSEPH: The sun is having a breakdown. It's behaving as though it were ill or crazy. If we had something along the lines of the solar outburst that we see at the end of the last Ice Age, we really don't know what to expect. But what we can predict is that on December 21, 2012, our solar system will be in exactly the same position and alignment that it was in 26,000 years ago, when the earth underwent cataclysmic climate changes at the end of the last Ice Age. ROBERT M. SCHOCH: I think it's foolish not to be prepared to deal with things that we know from history and pre-history have happened before and, therefore, could happen again. NARRATOR: Scientists now realize how damaging solar outbursts can be for modern life. But a more frightening scenario is still to come, one in which these same solar storms ignite a chain reaction on Earth, fundamentally altering our climate, geography, and the world as we know it. As December 21, 2012, approaches and our sun enters its most turbulent cycle, scientists are all too aware of the devastation that solar storms can wage upon the earth, storms so severe that they can disable our power grids and paralyze our planet. People around the world are heeding the warnings and preparing for the worst. Items like these little saws right here are completely essential. You know, one of the things that we teach is that when you want to pack equipment, it's much better to pack tools and carry that kind of weight than it is to carry a bunch of food and water, which is things that we can procure from the land. I think something big is coming. I think most people around the country feel it. No one can really put their finger on it, and people are trying to figure out what it could be. You've been shown shelters, water procurement, edible plants, medicinal plants, and now this, the-- the use of a firearm. That's another foundational skill. When people are put in a situation, like if the lights and the electricity and their form of transportation goes down, they get really desperate. And it would be best to have already some preparations and get out to the wild places as fast as you can, away from all that. So as people start fleeing the city, they're going to start out pretty normal. But after a few days, they really start getting desperate. So the people coming to your camp are going to be potentially more and more dangerous every single day. So this would be a great place for an observation post because this is the most likely route of entry for someone. All right. Come back here, just right on the trail, just start building this up a little more, all right? You're going to want to let your weapon rest pretty naturally, set on your body in the general direction that it's going to be facing, all right? It needs to be something that's fast. So if you get surprised, you can just come right up with it. Don't ever have it more than an arm's length away. OK. What I'm trying to do for people is just get them prepared and ready to deal with the reality of post disaster. And the reality is people are victimizing one another. NARRATOR: In these final days before December 21, 2012, buzz about the Mayan prophecy is heating up. People around the world are preparing for difficult days ahead before it's too late. ROBERT M. SCHOCH: This is the generation when we need to be aware. We need to be prudent. We need to be paying attention to what's happening in the skies, what's happening on Earth, what changes may be occurring. NARRATOR: And in the same way the Maya look to the heavens to forecast their future, modern man is now doing the same. Since our sun will be emitting high levels of activity at the end of the year, experts are concerned about the impact that these solar storms may have upon the planet. And now just when we need protection the most, a rare and dangerous planetary transformation may be underway. Some people say that the magnetic poles will reverse. And the magnetism of the earth is what protects us. NARRATOR: More than 600 miles above the earth's surface lies a magnetic field known as the magnetosphere, extending thousands of miles into space. It protects us from solar radiation and cosmic radiation. NARRATOR: Held in place by the magnetic anchors of our north and south poles, the magnetosphere is Earth's only defense against dangerous solar radiation. ROBERT M. SCHOCH: There are studies indicate the field of Earth-- the magnetic field of Earth-- has been declining over the last 100, 150 years or so. So there's been a lot of concern in some circles that the magnetosphere, if it's affected, if there are holes in the magnetosphere, that could allow radiation and particles down-- all the way down potentially to the surface of the earth. NARRATOR: One possible cause of the weakening magnetic field may be a process known as pole shift, a natural geological phenomenon in which the magnetic poles of the earth slowly migrate. However, some worry that this is a sign that the earth is undergoing something much more troublesome, a full pole reversal, in which the North and South Poles actually switch place. The net effect for us is that the-- the earth's magnetic field weakens, and the protective character of it diminishes. It happens periodically in the earth. And it usually takes, they say, 2,000 to 3,000 years to complete. NARRATOR: The consequence of this pole reversal and subsequent collapse of the earth's magnetosphere would prove catastrophic. For humans, this could lead to radical increases in cancer. For the planet, rapid climate change and massive seismic activity. LAWRENCE JOSEPH: The implications, if-- if we're going through a pole shift, are many. We are more exposed to CMEs and to solar radiation, meaning our-- our power grid is that much more vulnerable to being blown out. [explosion] Animals depend on the earth's magnetic field as kind of an internal GPS system. They use the magnetic field to navigate. NARRATOR: If the creatures of Earth lose their ability to navigate properly, it could have serious repercussions for their migration patterns, disrupting the ecosystem in ways we can't even imagine. For us, for our maintaining our civilization, our daily life, it could be terrible. The idea that a polar reversal happens is actually geologically supported. NARRATOR: Scientists have calculated that a pole reversal usually occurs every 300,000 years. However, the earth hasn't experienced a pole reversal in nearly 800,000 years. We are long overdue for a polar reversal. I would say that certainly the magnetic field is weakening, and the North Pole is traveling very quickly. So something is happening. NARRATOR: In fact, scientists have now tracked the migration of the North Pole, which is moving toward Russia at a rate of 40 miles per year, accelerating 30% in the last decade alone, giving proof to the idea that a polar reversal may very well be underway just as this storm cycle of the sun kicks into high gear. LAWRENCE JOSEPH: You want to cross your fingers about something, hope that this is normal, and it doesn't indicate that there's any pole shift. It's scary to think of the timing. As the earth's magnetic field deteriorates, the solar activity accelerates. It's just bad luck. [loud bang] NARRATOR: Without the protection of our magnetosphere, the life-giving sun becomes a ticking time bomb. JEREMIAH: There are so many things going on right now in our country and in the world that it-- it wouldn't take very much of a spark to ignite any one of those into a large-scale type of situation. That's why I'm here. You know, I-- I want to be prepared for anything. NARRATOR: With the countdown to apocalypse in full swing, preparedness could be the difference between life and death. When these are real-life issues that you're only going to work out after trying it. You don't want your first time to be real life. He's going to push the trigger-- [snap] --and he's dead. You know, a lot of people accuse you of being paranoid. I say, I'm not paranoid. I'm not afraid of anything. I don't do what I do because I'm scared. It's the exact opposite. I do it because I don't have to fear now. NARRATOR: As the clock ticks down to the end of 2012 and the Mayan calendar comes to an end, a rare convergence of celestial cycles, foretold by the ancient Maya, has some modern scientists taking notice. On December 21st, a once in every 26,000-year galactic alignment will take place. The last time this alignment occurred, the earth's temperature rose dramatically at the end of the last Ice Age. These planetary events coincide with our sun's most volatile cycle, when it will be throwing off waves of harmful radiation that could have disastrous effects. [explosion] And all at a time when Earth's magnetic defense shield may be compromised. [gong shakes] The sun, in many ways, controls events on Earth in ways we never imagined. In late August, early September, 2005, was one of the wildest weeks in the history of recorded solar activity, the second-heaviest week of solar storms to hit the earth. The sun is going wild. There's storms in the sun of unprecedented proportion. There's storms on the earth, Katrina, Rita, Wilma, storms on the sun, storms on the earth. Was there a connection? NARRATOR: As the earth is barraged by record-breaking storms and heat waves, scientists are worried about the possible domino effect that could be triggered by solar radiation, starting with the melting of Earth's polar ice caps. One forecast is that by the end of the 21st century, the Greenland ice sheet will melt and maybe the West Antarctic ice sheet. If both of those go, we've got a 40-foot rise in sea level. ROBERT M. SCHOCH: This melting of glaciers, which are miles thick, releases pressure from the surface of the earth and then causes volcanic and earthquake activity. So it's sort of, if you put your hand on a sofa cushion, and then you take your hand away, the cushion is going to rebound. NARRATOR: Is the melting of the polar ice caps behind the string of devastating earthquakes that recently struck Japan, Chile, and left over 100,000 dead in Haiti? At the same time, where is this water going? It's being melted. It's being vaporized. It's going into the atmosphere, so it has to come down again. So we have now incredible rains. It's like a chain of events or dominoes. One falls over, hits another one, causes that to fall over. NARRATOR: Solar storms leading to the collapse of the power grid, setting America back to the 1700s. Degradation of the magnetosphere destroying the protective layer between Earth and the sun. Global warming causing droughts, extinctions, even earthquakes and volcanoes. Is there no end to this chain of destruction? LAWRENCE JOSEPH: It's this series of events triggering other events triggering other events catastrophe. NARRATOR: With these great forces of nature aligned against us, it seems fair to ask, is there any hope. About 30% of global warming is attributable to the hyperactivity of the sun over the last century and a half and particularly over the last few decades. It doesn't negate our need to curb greenhouse gas emissions. If anything, it makes it more important to me because we cannot control the sun's doing, right? Which means we have to redouble our efforts to-- to-- to control what we can. NARRATOR: But despite our best efforts, the end of life on Earth may come sooner rather than later, whether we like it or not. We're in what's being called the Sixth Extinction. I mean, extinction events occur. The last really big one was 65 million years ago, when a-- an asteroid about 10 kilometers in diameter hit Mexico-- [explosion] --and basically took out the dinosaurs. NARRATOR: The crater from the impact that killed the dinosaurs lies just off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, coincidentally the backyard of the ancient Maya. The Maya, I feel but certainly can't prove it scientifically, that they inherited some sense of the possibility of catastrophe that could be awakened by some signal. NARRATOR: During each of the previous five extinctions, 50% or more of all animal species disappeared. In fact, 98% of all animal life that ever lived on Earth is now extinct. According to scientists, 50,000 species now disappear every year, a rate hundreds of times faster than the historical average. BRUCE SCOFIELD: Humans cutting down forests, polluting waters, burning fossil fuels, changing climate, and we are now living in a time when species are going extinct at a very rapid rate due to human-- well, essentially human infestation. NARRATOR: When a species vanishes from a food chain, its predators starve, and its prey overpopulate. This could result in insect swarms, agricultural collapse, and a shockwave of global famine. And what's left behind could be a desolate wasteland, one modern Americans may find hard to imagine. Cultures and societies can reach a peak and then collapse, so it's hard to say what will happen. NARRATOR: And the very destiny of modern man may be mirroring the fate of the Maya, whose civilization suffered a massive demise around 900 AD. Everything collapsed. It was so bad that they abandoned their cities. The great Maya civilization, who were so in tune with cycles, maybe missed the one cycle-- the climate cycle-- that killed them. They were in a fragile ecosystem that they stressed to its limit, and there was a bad drought or something that caused a tipping point. And these people suffered collapses that were cataclysmic. NARRATOR: And the cause of the Maya downfall may hold a chilling lesson for our modern world. BRUCE SCOFIELD: The Maya, like other human cultures, ruthlessly consumed their resources and eventually have to pay the cost for that. LAWRENCE JOSEPH: They overforested and underplanned and overpopulated. And, you know, that's-- that's clearly a parable for us these days. NARRATOR: Will mankind heed the lesson of the Mayan collapse before it's too late? History shows that the mighty Maya civilization, credited by some for foretelling the end of the world, failed to anticipate the threats that destroyed its own. MARK VAN STONE: It must have been tremendous. It must have been cataclysmic. You don't abandon a city lightly, and they abandoned 6,000 cities. NARRATOR: 600 years later, the Spanish conquistadors sailed in, laying waste to the cultural remnants of this once great society. MARK VAN STONE: Their libraries were destroyed. Few books survived. Literature was collected up and burned. They destroyed everything because they called it lies of the devil. NARRATOR: But in the eyes of most scholars, the Spanish merely completed the destructive process the ancient Maya set off hundreds of years earlier. [music playing] I think they might have fallen victim to a-- a cycle that led to the desertification of their-- their territory. MARK VAN STONE: It must have been a time of tremendous starvation and was probably caused by messing with their environment and just filling up too many people on the landscape and not having a backup, not having a cushion. I think that an important warning that we should take from this is that we're doing the same thing the Maya did. We're stressing our environment beyond its limits, and we don't have any wiggle room. We don't have any cushion. NARRATOR: Global population has nearly doubled in the last 50 years, increasing the risk of disease, global famine, and the competition for resources that can lead to war and genocide. BRUCE SCOFIELD: What we're doing is we're overpopulating. We're basically fulfilling our biotic potential, like all other organisms, and we're reproducing as much as we can. Our behavior is dangerous. NARRATOR: And that's not all. According to the International Energy Agency, the world's potential for oil production peaked in 2006. As a result, the ever-increasing future demand will lead to higher energy costs in dollars and lives. I would think that the 21st century is going to make or break the human species in one form or another. NARRATOR: But what about the Maya prophecy of 2012? Recent findings have cast doubt on whether December 21 of this year truly represents the end of our world. Archaeologists have recently excavated new Maya calendars in Guatemala that seem to calculate time beyond 2012. The discovery has many relieved, but it has yet to answer the question on minds everywhere. What significance did the Maya really see in the December 21st date? And what does it mean for us today? ROBERT M. SCHOCH: December 21, 2012, I see that as more-- I call it a metaphor-- as an indication that something could be occurring. Maybe it's the beginning of something that's going to happen. I think they did us a great favor. They gave us a head start. They pointed us in a direction that we needed to look. They said, the behavior of the sun is going to cause something major at the end of December, 2012. Whether or not we believe in the Maya prophecies, whether or not you look at them allegorical or literally, after 2012, after this year, we're in for some serious pain. No one will know when the banks are going to collapse again, but they will collapse. No one knows when the gas is going to get shut off, but there will be times and places where the gas is shut off. These things are going to happen. We're in for some nasty times. [explosions] NARRATOR: And perhaps the most serious threat hanging over us today is the disruption of energy that makes modern life possible. LAWRENCE JOSEPH: Electricity suckles the civilization. [thunder] And yet, for some reason, we have not protected our electricity supply. We're-- we're looking for a comeuppance. We're looking for a slap upside the head. The odds are, to me, are better than 50/50 that, within our lifetime, the power grid will go down. We have to get a sustainable society going. It seems very hard to do. But if we don't do it, we're going to pay the price. At the very least, it's going to cost a lot of lives. And in the meantime, make some plans. Go off grid. Have back-up systems that are not vulnerable. Do some work, minimize the risk, minimize the damage, so that we're not-- we're not left flailing like, you know, electrocuted fish on the dock. This happens to be the water hemlock plant. Bar none, this plant will kill you deader than a doornail if you eat it. LAWRENCE JOSEPH: People who are going off grid and taking their destiny into their own hands, there's a lot to admire about them, and not only just sort of words of praise but acts of imitation. The future of life on Earth is grand and wonderful and many splendored things, to borrow a phrase from John Donne. The future of our civilization ain't looking so good. [rifle shot] I think we're riding for a fall. [loud bang] NARRATOR: If human civilization is truly on the ropes, the world may soon be divided between the prepared and the dead. Back in Arkansas, the teachers and students at Sigma 3 Survival School have made their choice and are busy preparing for the future we hope we'll never see. So this shelter will essentially help you to live longer amounts of time in the wilderness. For survivalists, this is definitely a mansion. This is going to be a lot better than any kind of little lean-to or basic shelter that most people throw together. Building a structure like this can really help you to appreciate, when you have the right kind of survival training skills, what you can really do and how comfortable that you can be. It's not just about surviving. When you come out here, you need to thrive, to have the right psychological state of mind to be out here longer term. I do believe in being prepared. Sigma 3 is teaching me how to take care of myself, to be more self-sufficient, to work as a team. ROBERT ALLEN: Every single person in America needs to be doing something to prepare for what's coming because you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that trouble's right around the corner. [music playing] NARRATOR: Nothing is permanent, a lesson passed across the miles and centuries from an ancient Meso-American tribe with its eyes on the stars to modern-day Americans prepping to survive in a broken society. What will the world look like after December 21, 2012? Time will tell, as the cycles of the heavens align and the Maya world age comes to an end.
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Channel: HISTORY
Views: 242,727
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: Mayans, Maya Messengers, Countdown, Apocalypse, history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, countdown to the apocalypse, history countdown to the apocalypse, countdown to the apocalypse show, countdown to the apocalypse full episodes, countdown to the apocalypse clips, full episodes, season 1 episode 1, countdown to the apocalypse full episode, full episode, countdown to the apocalypse season 1, countdown to the apocalypse epiisodee 1, mayan, maya, mayan calendar
Id: 97Z9rYtzUBw
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 43min 30sec (2610 seconds)
Published: Sun Apr 11 2021
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