Does anyone remember the Y2K bug? It was touted to end computing as we knew it on the stroke of midnight about 12 years ago. And yet here I am blogging away...

We should all note the recent events happening on the Grand Chessboard. Late last yr The Prime Minister of India did not attend the Commonwealth Heads of Govt.His deputy did.Obama ordered Labor to sell Uranium to India against Labor policy to get them on side.Japan and China in trade talks have agreed to trade directly in their currencies and dump the US $.Japan,India,and China have suffered at the hands of Western Imperialism in the past.Fukushima reactors were built by General Electric a US Company.Japan also would love to rid themselves of 50,000 US troops in Okinowa.

The West is broke and is in disarray.We don't have a manufacturing Industry to support a serious conventional war.India and Japan are mending their differences and looking to expanding their economies to take up the slack from the West.So if we have an alliance of Russia,China,Iran,Pakistan + India + Japan and some South American Countries,this represents more than half the world's population.They can grow their way out of this mess while we decay in a debt based money creation system.

With Russian War ships in Syria,Israel threatening Iran and Obama making aggressive noises towards China,Peter is right.2012 is a pivotal year.

The stupidity will not stop if we the people sit on our hands and just hope it will all go away.We've become ignorant too self indulgent,incapable of analysis and pretty much gutless.When Gillard announced the CO2 tax,there should have been a million in the streets protesting.

Our real dilemma is this.Even if Ron Paul becomes president and ends all the wars,the friction that US/NATO has created around the planet may see all these Asian countries and Russia bring in their own New World Order and carve up the planet for their own ends as did the British.

I saw the irony in the Mayan reference.

How could the ancients comprehend our form of communication let alone our western development, adaptability and positive outlook and think that we would be dragged 'to the edge of destruction'.

It is astonishing that most posters took it so seriously specially those who share the Mayans, blind faith, limited communication, lack of faith in development, lack of adaptability and negative outlook.

I tend to share not only the predominant western view on our future but also the forward thinking, adaptability and increasingly positive outlook of Australian indigenous peoples who have survived(And now starting to thrive) in the face of just as overwhelming challanges as those that destroyed the Mayans.
Just how else has indigenous culture and people survived? Does the Mayan calender apply to that culture too?

If you forget the reference to the Maya and look into the article you will see that the premise is correct. We are in a diabolical mess of that there is no doubt. 2012 may well be the year that all our failing systems come to a halt or at least a serious change. After all the evidence seen over the past few years I cannot believe there are climate sceptics still out there. We are in a global, financial meltdown and it is now quite obvious that our poor beleaguered planet is struggling to cope with population overload. If food and water security is not a problem why are so many corporations and foreign governments buying up agricultural land and water rights in Australia and around the world? Continuing to bury our corporate minds in the sands of business as usual, so as not to see the end coming, will not make the bad stuff go away. Peter is right when he says it is time to grow up and take responsibility. Our inaction over our actions will destroy all that we have and not just for the human race but for all other species on this planet.

David Leigh,

I agree that the we have serious environmental,economic and political problems. However, references to the non-existent predictions of the Maya long count calendar and the introduction of doomsday senarios, make the article an easy target for 'sceptics' as it's easy to characterise the author's opinions as just more 'New-Age,ultra-green, fairy dust'.

google "Precession of the Equinoxes"!