Mayan Calendar Prophecies: The Complete Collection of 2012 Predictions and Prophecies (5 page)

Where will famine strike in the next
Katun 2 Ahau
cycle between 2012 and 2032? Worrying signs are already appearing in news headlines around the globe. Colony Collapse Disorder has seen the bee population reduced by as much as 30% which is significant since bees pollinate many of our food crops. There has also been a dramatic increase in the use of genetically modified food crops such as corn and soybeans. Recently,
 
an 80% crop failure was experienced with genetically modified corn in Africa
 
with no known cause to date. If something similar happened to the American corn crop that consists primarily of genetically modified varieties, it would lead to a worldwide food crisis since much of the developing world relies on American surplus corn. It could also lead to drastic increases in the price of other staple foods leading to food riots similar to those seen before the recent financial crisis when commodity prices were soaring.

The continued environmental crisis could also lead to famines. Already important fish and mollusk species in the ocean have been collapsing due to overharvesting and pollution. Coral reefs, important breeding grounds for fish species, have been dying off at alarming rates due to acidification and warmer ocean temperatures. Climate change is also causing more severe droughts in once productive areas and causing more severe floods in others. Both of these situations can easily lead to severe famines in areas of the world that are not prepared to handle them through technologies such as irrigation and flood control. In fact, on September 3, 2012 CNN.com ran a story predicting a food crisis in 2013 due to droughts in the U.S., Australia, and Russia pushing global food costs up.
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Thus the cycle beginning on December 21, 2012 and ending in 2032 brings both positive and negative changes for civilization. The current trend of democratization of the world seems likely to continue as it spreads across the Muslim world. Yet the continued environmental crisis and use of genetically modified food crops could lead to severe famines during this time period as well.

The Maya did not predict the end of the world on December 21, 2012. But they did predict major problems for civilization between the years 2032-2052. As noted in the two previous chapters on
 
Mayan 2012 predictions
, the Maya believed civilization operated on a 256-year cycle broken into thirteen 20-year periods known as the ‘Cycle of 13
Katuns
.’ For each 20-year
katun
the Maya had a
 
prophecy or prediction
 
associated with it and as seen in the previous two chapters, these "prophecies" seem to contain accurate predictions for what actually happened during these time periods in the past.

The cycle that begins in 2032 and ends in 2052, named
Katun 13 Ahau
, is the last of the thirteen
katuns
in the current 256-year cycle that began in 1796. According to Bruce Scofield in his book
 
Signs of Time: An Introduction to Mesoamerican Astrology
, the prophecy recorded in the Mayan books known as the
 
Chilam Balam
 
for
Katun 13 Ahau
is as follows:

This is a time of total collapse where everything is lost. It is the time of the judgement of God. There will be epidemics and plagues and then famine. Governments will be lost to foreigners and wise men, and prophets will be lost.

Since the Maya believed the
Katun
cycles repeated once every 256 years, it is helpful to look back at previous years associated with
Katun 13 Ahau
and see what happened then to be better able to foresee what might happen in the future.

The previous time period associated with
Katun 13 Ahau
was between 1776-1796. These were indeed momentous years for the world and the history of civilization because these years represented the birth of the United States of America and modern democracy.

In 1776 the British colonies in America declared their independence from England. The most famous sentence from this declaration was the following:

We hold these truths to be
 
self-evident, that
 
all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
 
Creator with certain
 
unalienable Rights,
 
that among these are
 
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The impact of these words on human civilization cannot be underestimated. Not only did it lead to the American Revolution but these words would also form the foundation for the abolition of slavery and the equal rights of women and racial minorities.

Since the beginning of civilization, slavery and other forms of servitude and inequality had been a central, nearly unquestioned part of life. Kings and Pharaohs believed they not only derived their power from God but also were, in fact, descended genetically from God; thus, their power was not to be questioned by those they ruled over. They passed their power genetically down to their sons who inherited their father's throne and thus power stayed among a very small group of people.

This would all change with this one sentence from the Declaration of Independence. Over the next 256 years kings would be abolished or reduced to mere symbolic figureheads all over the world. Over this time period more and more classes of people would gain more and more rights. Thus the trend of the past 256 years starting in 1776 has been an increase in the rights of individuals. Thus for kings, it was definitely a time of total collapse where everything was lost. All the European empires would eventually collapse and the country whose Declaration of Independence started the ball rolling would end up the one lone superpower in the world.

This reveals an important aspect of the Mayan predictions: they appear dependent upon one’s point of view. From the point of view of kings, it was a time of total collapse. Since the ancient Egyptians 4,000 years prior, civilization had been based on kingship. The beginning of the end for this model of civilization arrived in 1776. But for the average person, it was not a time of total collapse but a time of ever-increasing rights and power.

The last year of the previous
Katun 13 Ahau
cycle was 1796. This was also a momentous year for humanity for it was then that the first President of the United States stepped down and refused to hold office beyond the two terms he had already served. For this act, King George III in England called Washington "the greatest man in the world" because it is a rare thing for a person in power to voluntarily give up that power.
 

George Washington never had opponents during his two elections and had he run again it is unlikely anyone would have challenged him and he would have easily served another term in office. Instead, he stepped down.
 
Thus in 1796 the first
 
true
 
election was held in the world's youngest democracy. A peaceful transfer of power occurred which was a rare thing in world history.

The next previous
Katun 13 Ahau
cycle was between 1520-1539. This time period would see the fall of the major empires in North and South America: the Aztecs and Incas. Outbreaks of smallpox and other diseases would wipe out millions of native inhabitants. The
Spanish explorations of the southeastern U.S.
would wipe out tens of thousands of Native Americans through disease and warfare and bring about the collapse of many of the
 
ancient Native American civilizations
. Thus from the perspective of the native inhabitants of the New World, this cycle did, indeed, bring about all the negative events predicted in the
 
Chilam Balam
 
prophetic books
.

Based on the preceding evidence, what can we expect between the years 2032-2052? One worrying bit of information comes from a U.S. Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) report in 2007 that noted by 2040 the world was expected to reach “peak oil.”
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According to Wikipedia, “peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production is expected to enter terminal decline.”
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According to the report currently there is no energy source that can replace oil for transportation purposes. Also the report stated, “While the consequences of peak oil would be felt globally, the United States, as the largest consumer of oil and one of the nations most heavily dependent on oil for transportation, may be particularly vulnerable.”

As supplies of oil dwindle there will be increased competition to control the supplies that remain. This competition would likely take the form of warfare between the superpowers. Yet long before this the price of oil would continue going up causing the price of everything else from food to consumer goods to go up as well. In the past such price increases have led to great social unrest. Food riots have been the downfall of many regimes in the past.

Another worrying bit of information comes from the U.S. Congressional Budget Office. According to their current projections the CBO believes the budget of the United States is unsustainable at current levels and the
American economy will crash by 2037
. The global economy nearly crashed in 2008 due to a few financial and insurance institutions in the U.S. and elsewhere making bad business decisions thus illustrating the world financial system is more fragile than anyone knew.
 
If the U.S. crashes in 2037 it would take the rest of the world with it. Combined with Peak Oil this could be a perfect storm of events that could bring the developed nations to their knees.

Yet a financial collapse and Peak Oil may not be the only threats we are faced with between 2032-2052. In 2004 NASA reported that the asteroid 99942 Apophis was on a collision course with Earth. It was originally calculated to impact Earth in 2029 but later calculations disproved that timeline. But these new calculations projected the asteroid might strike on Friday, April 13, 2036. Based on the size of the asteroid, NASA calculated that it would have an explosive impact of 510 megatons.
 
By comparison, the Barringer Crater in Arizona was created 40,000 years ago by an impact of around 10 megatons.

In November 2007 another asteroid named
2007 VK187
was also discovered to be on a collision course with Earth with a possible impact date on June 3, 2048. In January 2011 yet another asteroid named
2011 AG5
was found to be on a possible collision course with earth. Its expected impact date is February 5, 2040. Thus a total of three asteroids have a chance of slamming into earth during the 2032-2052
katun
period. Worse still, what if the unthinkable happened and they all impacted earth during this time period?

The effects of an Apophis impact alone would be profound. According to astronomers Victor Clube and Bill Napier in the book
Cosmic Winter
, such an event would throw Earth into a global winter no matter where it struck and devastate thousands of square kilometers. But projected impact locations for 99942 Apophis include both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has noted if the asteroid struck the Pacific it would create megatsunamis that would vaporize the entire west coast of North America.
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If it struck the Atlantic Ocean, the mega tsunami would wipe out the entire east coast of the U.S. as well as the coastal areas in West Africa, South America, and Western Europe. The mega tsunami would travel miles inland destroying everything in its path then washing everything out to sea. Future archaeologists would find little to prove a civilization ever existed in these locations. As scientist Mike Baillie noted:

“If Apophis hits the earth the impact will be in the 3000-megaton class. It is entirely reasonable to state that such an impact, taking place anywhere on the planet, would collapse our  current civilization and return the survivors, metaphorically speaking, to the Dark Ages (it is believed that in such an event globalised institutions, such as the financial and insurance markets would collapse, bringing down the entire interconnected monetary, trade and transport systems).”
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