END OF THE WORLD IS COMING: The time to freak out is now

NASA warns Emos at risk from 'end of the world'

Computer generated image of Sydney completely devastated after a mega Tsunami. This image shows what Sydney might look like if Mayan prophecies were fulfilled and life ended 21/12/2012. Picture: Sony

WHILE many are planning their large-scale end of the world celebrations, others are already hiding under their beds in anticipation of the Mayan Apocalypse of 2012, according to NASA.

NASA has issued warnings ahead of the reported 'Doomsday' on December 21 saying some people have been freaking so distressed by reports of the end of the world they are already not eating or sleeping.

It all started because December 21 is the last day in an ancient Mayan calendar, and the internet has been circulating rumours that a rogue planet called Nibiru would slam into Earth, destroying us all.

Last week the Russian Government tried to put an end to the doomsday talk after people started panicking and storing up supplies so they would still have kerosene and matches after the world was smashed to smithereens.

People everywhere were taking it so seriously National Aeronautics and Space Administration  scientists have been forced to hose down the situation, publishing a fact sheet:  Beyond 2012: Why the World Won't End.

They say there's no planet coming to destroy us, the Earth's rotation is not going to suddenly reverse, there's no danger from giant solar storms, and no evidence of impending doom.

"The world will not end in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012," they say.

"Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012.

"This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then - just as your calendar begins again on January 1 - another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar."

While the idea that the world is about to end is bunkum, the anxiety people are feeling about it is real.
NASA Ames Research Center astrobiologist David Morrison has warned that they received emails from young people who said they were too worried to sleep or eat, and some said they were suicidal.

"(Scientists), both within NASA and outside, recognize that this hoax with its effort to frighten people is a distraction from more important science concerns, such as global warming and loss of biological diversity," he writes on the NASA website.

"We worry about the effect of this fear on impressionable children.

"(If) you will just use common sense I am sure you can recognise the lies."