Most people realize that this idea of the world ending on December 21, 2012 is apocalypse porn. It isn't what the Maya predicted. Not to mention that having the world end on a particular day runs into the inconvenient detail of the International Date Line: it's always simultaneously two different days on planet Earth. Or would the world come to an end one hemisphere at a time?
But--and this is a planet-sized 'but'--the world as we know it is pretty obviously coming to an end. Just not with a theatrically satisfying all-at-once boom. Because it's slow, it's that much easier to deny. And our human sluggishness at recognizing slowly-unfolding catastrophe is helped along by a highly paid Denial and Distraction industry.
So let's trudge to the top of Mount Apocalypse (by the way, the word "apocalypse" means "revelation" or "disclosure"), seat ourselves delicately on the orange curlicue conveniently placed there, and survey the landscape.
What I see is an interlocking set of interesting questions ("interesting" in the Chinese curse sense):
-Will the supply of cheap fossil fuels run out and trash the economy before pollution from fossil fuels trashes the environment?
-Will industrial agriculture collapse because of dependence on cheap fossil fuel, or from strip-mined soil, drained aquifers, or climate instability?
-What will trigger the collapse of the international financial Ponzi scheme?
-Will our political systems, which have proved incapable of more than feeble acknowledgment of the threats we face, continue their slide into paralysis?
-Will the ongoing Sixth Great Extinction turn out to be the worst die-off ever?
The answer to all those questions, of course, is, "Yes."
I suspect that at some level, most people realize this, and that's why apocalyptic fever dreams are more popular than ever.
Here's my fever dream: metanoia. A fervent hope that if enough people ratchet up their consciousness, it will flip all of humanity's consciousness to a level where we can start to deal with our problems effectively.
It would be nice to have some divine assistance with this shift--there are elements of the woo-woo community insisting that this, in fact, is what the turn of the Mayan calendar cycle (the 13th Baktun, for those of you keeping track) is all about.
Regardless, this is also a do-it-yourself project: the only part of humanity's consciousness that you have control over is your own consciousness. So work on raising that.
There's pretty broad consensus on how to do that. Cultivate compassion. Gratitude. If you're more technologically minded, visit the Institute of HeartMath.
For examples of how not to do that, check out your average Daily Kos pie fight.
The worst thing that could happen with this project is that this hundredth-monkey hypothesis of human consciousness turns out to be just a pleasant delusion, and humanity is doomed to continue its downward spiral. But even then, spiffing up your inner world will help you cope better with the catastrophes in the outer world.