Synopses & Reviews
Don't look up
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.
You'll get a good chuckle.
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 nonnegligiblechance 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 ofChuckles 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
Review
“Joseph is a lively tour guide, introducing readers to Mayan shamans and Russian scientists with equal aplomb.” Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
Nadie sabe lo que va a ocurrir en 2012, pero este es el año que señalan antiguas sociedades como cataclísmico dentro de la historia humana. ¿Está preparado para lo que se viene?
Vivimos en un universo hostil. El sol está recalentando la Tierra con una radiación excesiva y el Sistema Solar se está moviendo por una parte especialmente peligrosa de la galaxia que podría borrarnos del mapa en cualquier momento. Los expertos en geofísica aseguran que cada 65 millones de años hay una catástrofe de grandes dimensiones que liquida a la mayoría de las criaturas de la Tierra y ese momento se acerca nuevamente. Predicciones científicas y de antiguas culturas —los mayas, el Antiguo Testamento, el I-Ching— dicen que todo va a ocurrir en un año específico: el 2012.
Con este panorama, probablemente prefiere mirar para otro lado, pero no podrá. Lawrence E. Joseph es tremendamente entretenido y seguramente el único que puede escribir sobre el desastre y hacerlo reír a la vez. Una vez que se empieza, no se puede dejar de leer este libro, en el que el autor cuenta su día a día mientras recibe malas noticias de astrónomos en Siberia y Sudáfrica, geofísicos, físicos nucleares, chamanes mayas y médiums. A su vez, es divertido ver cómo intenta mantener su vida personal a flote en medio del caos.
Apocalipsis 2012 es una apreciación fundamentada y alarmante de cuan cerca se
About the Author
LAWRENCE E. JOSEPH is a futurist and the author of several books, including Apocalypse 2012. For decades, Joseph has written on science, nature, politics, and business for publications including the New York Times, Discover, and Salon. He currently blogs for The Huffington Post. In demand as a speaker, Joseph has given more than five hundred film, television, radio, and print interviews on the subject of solar EMP and other Sun-Earth phenomena.