To understand why we project the apocalypse onto 2012, we have to understand where we are in the evolution of human consciousness. Despite our ipods and helicopters, we are still embedded in a cosmology that not long ago thought the Earth was flat.

The year 2012 coincides with the next predicted solar sunspot maximum. A dramatic increase in cosmic radiation is likely to affect Earth's magnetic fields and the atmosphere of the planet in unpredictable ways. The question is to what extent and how these changes will manifest.