End of the world. Yes, the end really is near. 2012-2060

The end is near.

I'm not even talking about all those doomsday people that go around saying "the end is near!" and have been since the beginning of time. Nor am I talking about the Mayan civilization that marked the end as being December 21, 2012 (since they also said time would exist after, so if time exists after, it can't really be "the end"). Nor am I talking about Newton and the end of the world in 2060 (who some say the figure was based on religion, not science).

But it's close.

The world as we know it will end between 2012 and 2060; and after that, humans will either band together, or be like all the thousands of other animals that used to be here -- extinct.

What it's based on is just a simple prediction of probability. We're designing new and improved ways of killing ourselves off and record speeds. We haven't had a volcanic eruption (major one) in many, almost hundreds of years. We're overdue or just "any time from this second, to a thousand years" away for a major earthquake, island collapse, tsunami, volcanic eruption, meteor or comet impact, or other population reducing planetary event.

Not to mention global warming melting the ice caps which cause the earth to release methane gas (a global warming compound) which causes it to increase even more. Some scientists believe there's as much methane gas buried in ice in the permafrost and oceans as there used to be oil! Or enough to put 10x the current greenhouse gasses into the environment if it melts. Ice melts, oceans rise, land's lost, causing overcrowding and disease in the remaining lands – even less land for food, thereby causing a major reduction in the human population.

And that just assumes that it doesn't increase the intensity of weather, or kill off plants – which it does. So we'll have less to no food, less land, and the same population crowded into smaller areas. That will then be pounded by hurricanes and tornadoes. Some groups all over the world will turn to cannibalism to survive (since animals will either be killed for food, or killed by the lack of food); since humans will be the only food source that'd be "fresh".

Of course, that assumes we even live that long. As soon as the first "yes, the world's really ending" is announced ( as in the day and time is provided – in some cases to the second, others, the week), many people will become religious hoping to get some points in before they die; others will kill themselves and others , some will rape others, and others will just torture and do things – since at that point what's the worst someone could do, end their life a few days early? People will start to do whatever they want without consequence, for they know they're already condemned to die. Some will even joke about it "what are you going to do, kill me?"

And then governments will try to enforce martial law. But at that point, one where people know that everything's going to end (or at least believe it), the military personnel will have a choice: obey the government 'til they die, or go AWOL by going home and protect their family. And which do you really think someone would do? Protect someone from being shot a few minutes before they get killed by an asteroid, or hold their spouse and kids so they can be together when they die?

And it's not if it will happen, but when.

And when is between 2012 and 2060. Within these years the world as we know it will end. For some it will be the end of the world.

The worst part of the end of the world is, in many cases we can potentially prevent it, or just quickly recover and protect most the people from it. Now it depends on what world-ending event were to happen. Asteroids or comets we might be able to divert it entirely; or just evacuate the impact site while building arks throughout all the countries to help save millions/billions. Volcanoes, earthquakes, or other "no warning" types of events will have causalities. Earthquakes are currently completely unpredictable, other than saying an earthquake will hit (they happen somewhere daily, to a small extent). Volcanoes are, somewhat, obvious when they're going to erupt; they give small signs of being active, so the areas can be evacuated. But with them, you still don't know when they're erupt, only that there's an extremely likely chance it'd happen sometime within a few months. But man's impatient. So not everyone leaves, governments don't force people to leave (and actually pay them to do so, since moving does cost money), so people die.

Of course there are end of the world volcanoes on the planet (such as Yellowstone) that give signs of erupting every day! The hot springs, geysers, earthquakes, and land movements of Yellowstone would be the warning signs for other volcanoes; but for Yellowstone, it's just another normal day. At least that's what we believe. Hindsight might say that these too are warning signs, just a few thousand year warning. After all, until it erupts and destroys all the existing things there we'll never know. It's possible that after it erupts, earthquakes subside, and there's no geysers or land movement for hundreds-thousands of years! But it too will erupt again, and we are due.

If it were to go, in a massive scale, it's estimated that it would end the world as we know it. Ash would cover most of the USA in 2 meters (if I remember correctly) of ash. Not to mention the loss of a state, or more accurately, the "moving of the state to cover the world" -- well, technically the state would still exist, it'd just be unpopulated. The ash would cause millions of homes to collapse, killing those inside. Emergency vehicles wouldn't be able to move, since the engines would get blocked with ash, not to mention it's not really easy to drive through a meter high snow-covered road (without a plow), let alone ash which is more dense. Millions would die from the original eruption; millions would die from the ash (breathing it in); millions would die from buildings collapsing from the ash; millions-billions would die from starvation caused by the "nuclear winter" from the ash and gasses in the atmosphere.

It kind of makes you wonder, who's the lucky ones when a massive volcano erupts – the ones that die first without warning, or those that survive everything to keep the world going?

And that's even simplifying it all. The actual result of any world ending event would me much, much worse. It'd be one of those things that Satan itself would say "that's just wrong".

And it will happen. And soon. The world as we know it will end sometime from 2012-2060. It might even happen tomorrow, but what can I say, I'm optimistic. I'll give humanity a bit over four years left to live.

So… how do you want to die today?