Tag: mayans

Brad Meltzer’s ‘Decoded’ – 2012 Episode – Instilling Fear for Ratings?

by on Dec.15, 2011, under culture, Science, The World

Brad Meltzer’s show “Decoded” on the History Channel is pretty interesting.  I don’t watch it religiously, but I have seen a couple episodes.  With my obsession with 2012, I was sure to tune into the episode they did on the topic of 2012.  It was interesting and entertaining to say the least, but seemed to play up the fear factor in attempt to pull in the ratings.

The show touched on all the common topics that other shows and books have touched on:

  • The potential threat of a solar flare shutting down our global infrastructure since the solar maximum happens to fall during 2012.
  • The increased frequency of natural disasters with weather and seismic activity.
  • The mass animal deaths taking place around the globe and changes in migration patterns due to climate changes forcing fish and land animals farther and farther north.
A couple new points the show brought up that I hadn’t heard before were of the what is going on the Everglades and the drought in Texas:
  • In the Everglades, the freshwater is only 2′ above sea level and the organic material underneath is decomposing, so before long the ocean/gulf will flood in.
  • In Texas they are seeing the worst drought in recorded history with scientists predicting the drought to last through the decade.
The rest of the show reiterated what people have been talking about for years regarding the Mayans and their ‘prophecy’.  The Mayans definitely had a remarkable understanding of astronomy and mathematics, but it’s a far fetched claim to say they could accurately predict anything more than normal celestial events like full moons and orbital patterns.  Basically it seemed that Brad really focused on scare tactics which most likely is what producers expected would produce the best ratings.
Nonetheless, I remain fascinated with all this attention next year is getting.  In the end, something is eventually going to happen…an asteroid smash into the planet, huge volcanic eruption, aliens visiting Earth.  I just don’t think that anyone is accurately going to predict when it’s going to happen!
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