1. What's Supposed to Happen in 2012?
2. 10 Failed Doomsday Predictions
3. The Truth About 2012 Doomsday Hype
4. World to End in 2012: A Hoax Gone Too Far?
5. World to End in 2012 (Continuation)
6. Renewable Energy (RE) Bill in Congress (House Bill 4193): awaits approval this October?
7. Department of Energy offering incentives to clean energy investors
8. Basic Energy to jointly develop ethanol plant with Canadian
9. UP-Maroons vs Ateneo-Blue Eagles on tapping biotechnology as alternative fuel
10. NASA scientist's warning on RP 'doomsday scenario'- Palace
11. NEDA Committees back Php17-B energy, environment projects
12. Philippines needs big investment for future energy demand
13. Pinoy NASA scientist agrees to head RP global warming project
14. WHO: Global warming to lead to hike in dengue, malaria cases in RP
15. WHO warns climate change poses health risks
16. Senate finally approves 'Clean Energy' Bill, seen to cut oil dependence

What's Supposed to Happen in 2012?

by Vanessa Tencati

Depending on who's doing the prophesying, the winter solstice in the year 2012 could usher in a day of celebration — or a day of chaos. December 21, 2012 has been marked as a special day since the time of the Maya, whose calendar first touted it as the end of a great 5,126 year cycle. Now, just a few years before the day of reckoning is upon us, the human race is forced to consider the possibility of an approaching apocalyptic nightmare. Only time will tell whether 2012 will be the end, a new beginning, or just a year like any other.

THEORY: The End of the Maya Calendar Cycle

This is where it all begins. The Maya Long Count calendar comes to the end of a 5,126 year cycle soon—possibly on December 21, 2012. The exact date is debated, as is what will happen when we hit that date. There is no record telling us exactly what the ancient Maya expected to happen when this cycle ended and the next began. But some think they would have been worried about the end of mankind as we know it.

THEORY: Bible Code Prophecy

At least one interpretation of the Bible tells us that in the year 2012, God will destroy Earth. With the help of computers, Israeli mathematicians have discovered a supposed secret code in the Bible's text. Michael Drosnin, author of The Bible Code, also decoded the text based on the mathematicians' work. According to Drosnin's interpretations, comets are due to rain down upon Earth in both 2010 and 2012.

THEORY: Terrence McKenna's Timewave Zero

In the early 1970s, Terence McKenna took a trip to the Amazon rainforest, where he experienced mind-bending drugs. Upon his return, he utilized the I Ching, the ancient Chinese book of divination, to determine a mathematical formula he called "timewave zero." According to his research, this formula predicts that time will form into tighter and tighter spirals until a "final time" is reached. When this happens, the laws of physics as we currently experience them will no longer apply, and the world will suddenly enter a new era with new, unknown laws. Originally set to occur on November 17, 2012, McKenna later moved the date when he determined the occurrence of the next galactic alignment: December 21, 2012.

THEORY: Nostradamus' Prophecies

The infamous seer's writings have been cited as predicting such historical events as the reign of Napoleon, the tyranny of Hitler, both World Wars, and September 11th. His writings also contain a number of end of the world prophecies which have yet to occur. His written quatrains prophesize everything from earthquakes and rampant disease to the coming of an antichrist and the onset of World War III. While not specifically pinpointed to the year 2012, many believe that Nostradamus' prophecies will coincide with the end of the Maya calendar.

THEORY: Rogue Planet Collision

Author Zecharia Sitchin wrote of a 5,000-year-old tale of planet Nibiru, home to a race of beings called the Annunaki, orbiting the sun beyond Pluto. Although dismissed by many as a myth, some believe that because of an unusual orbit, Nibiru is set to disrupt Earth in 2012. Recent science has indeed discovered a planetary body that is slightly larger than Pluto and three times farther from the sun, named Eris. Despite assurances from NASA that Eris is not headed anywhere near Earth, followers of Sitchin’s ideas fear that Eris is indeed Nibiru and will follow a rogue orbit, coming close enough to the solar system that its gravitational pull could dramatically alter the face of the Earth, wreaking unprecedented havoc on our gravity and electromagnetic fields.

THEORY: Galactic Alignment

In the galactic alignment, the winter solstice sun will line up perfectly with the galactic equator, an invisible line that denotes the center of the Milky Way galaxy. According to researcher John Major Jenkins, this precise alignment only occurs once every 26,000 years—and the next one is scheduled to take place by 2016. Jenkins asserts that rather than doomsday, the galactic alignment will bring about a shift in the human psyche toward a more conscious state.

THEORY: Solar Storms on Earth

Approximately every 11 years, the number of sunspots on our sun peaks at what we call a solar maximum. These sunspots, giant magnetic storms which appear as dark splotches on the sun's surface, release solar flares that vary in intensity. The next solar maximum is due to occur in 2012, and if powerful solar flares manage to penetrate Earth's weakening magnetic shield, damaging radiation could wreak havoc on the health on humankind.

THEORY: Pole Shift Hypotheses

Due to a variety of environmental or man-made factors, the north and south poles of Earth are not entirely static. There are many theories as to why this is, and what this means. The occurrence of a pole shift, where the poles would move dramatically, could cause the Earth's crust to move over the mantle and core—like an orange skin floating around above the pulpy fruit. This could result in major tsunamis, dramatic earthquakes and volcanoes, and intense climate change as the continents are pushed halfway across the globe from their current locations. A pole shift of this magnitude was predicted by psychic Edgar Cayce in 1934, who said it would start happening in the early 21st century.


Source: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/ends-of-the-earth-2012#ixzz0W5MOMcII

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10 Failed Doomsday Predictions
by Benjamin Radford

With the upcoming disaster film "2012" and the current hype about Mayan calendars and doomsday predictions, it seems like a good time to put such notions in context. Most prophets of doom come from a religious perspective, though the secular crowd has caused its share of scares as well. One thing the doomsday scenarios tend to share in common: They don't come to pass.

Here are 10 that didn't pan out, so far:

The Prophet Hen of Leeds, 1806

History has countless examples of people who have proclaimed that the return of Jesus Christ is imminent, but perhaps there has never been a stranger messenger than a hen in the English town of Leeds in 1806. It seems that a hen began laying eggs on which the phrase "Christ is coming" was written. As news of this miracle spread, many people became convinced that doomsday was at hand - until a curious local actually watched the hen laying one of the prophetic eggs and discovered someone had hatched a hoax.

The Millerites, April 23, 1843

A New England farmer named William Miller, after several years of very careful study of his Bible, concluded that God's chosen time to destroy the world could be divined from a strict literal interpretation of scripture. As he explained to anyone who would listen, the world would end some time between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. He preached and published enough to eventually lead thousands of followers (known as Millerites) who decided that the actual date was April 23, 1843. Many sold or gave away their possessions, assuming they would not be needed; though when April 23 arrived (but Jesus didn't) the group eventually disbanded-some of them forming what is now the Seventh Day Adventists.

Mormon Armageddon, 1891 or earlier

Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon church, called a meeting of his church leaders in February 1835 to tell them that he had spoken to God recently, and during their conversation he learned that Jesus would return within the next 56 years, after which the End Times would begin promptly.

Halley's Comet, 1910

In 1881, an astronomer discovered through spectral analysis that comet tails include a deadly gas called cyanogen (related, as the name imples, to cyanide). This was of only passing interest until someone realized that Earth would pass through the tail of Halley's comet in 1910. Would everyone on the planet be bathed in deadly toxic gas? That was the speculation reprinted on the front pages of "The New York Times" and other newspapers, resulting in a widespread panic across the United States and abroad. Finally even-headed scientists explained that there was nothing to fear.

Pat Robertson, 1982

In May 1980, televangelist and Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson startled and alarmed many when - contrary to Matthew 24:36 ("No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven...") he informed his "700 Club" TV show audience around the world that he knew when the world would end. "I guarantee you by the end of 1982 there is going to be a judgment on the world," Robertson said.

Heaven's Gate, 1997

When comet Hale-Bopp appeared in 1997, rumors surfaced that an alien spacecraft was following the comet - covered up, of course, by NASA and the astronomical community. Though the claim was refuted by astronomers (and could be refuted by anyone with a good telescope), the rumors were publicized on Art Bell's paranormal radio talk show "Coast to Coast AM." These claims inspired a San Diego UFO cult named Heaven's Gate to conclude that the world would end soon. The world did indeed end for 39 of the cult members, who committed suicide on March 26, 1997.

Nostradamus, August 1999

The heavily obfuscated and metaphorical writings of Michel de Nostrdame have intrigued people for over 400 years. His writings, the accuracy of which relies heavily upon very flexible interpretations, have been translated and re-translated in dozens of different versions. One of the most famous quatrains read, "The year 1999, seventh month / From the sky will come great king of terror." Many Nostradamus devotees grew concerned that this was the famed prognosticator's vision of Armageddon.

Y2K, Jan. 1, 2000

As the last century drew to a close, many people grew concerned that computers might bring about doomsday. The problem, first noted in the early 1970s, was that many computers would not be able to tell the difference between 2000 and 1900 dates. No one was really sure what that would do, but many suggested catastrophic problems ranging from vast blackouts to nuclear holocaust. Gun sales jumped and survivalists prepared to live in bunkers, but the new millennium began with only a few glitches.

May 5, 2000

In case the Y2K bug didn't do us in, global catastrophe was assured by Richard Noone, author of the 1997 book "5/5/2000 Ice: the Ultimate Disaster." According to Noone, the Antarctic ice mass would be three miles thick by May 5, 2000 - a date in which the planets would be aligned in the heavens, somehow resulting in a global icy death (or at least a lot of book sales). Perhaps global warming kept the ice age at bay.

God's Church Ministry, Fall 2008

According to God's Church minister Ronald Weinland, the end times are upon us-- again. His 2006 book "2008: God's Final Witness" states that hundreds of millions of people will die, and by the end of 2006, "there will be a maximum time of two years remaining before the world will be plunged into the worst time of all human history. By the fall of 2008, the United States will have collapsed as a world power, and no longer exist as an independent nation." As the book notes, "Ronald Weinland places his reputation on the line as the end-time prophet of God."


Original Story: 10 Failed Doomsday Predictions

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The Truth about 2012 Doomsday Hype
by Benjamin Radford

2012 is coming very soon. The movie, that is — the disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich depicting global catastrophe of Biblical proportions. The year itself is of course a few dozen months away, and there is growing interest, excitement, and concern for both events.

The film "2012," which opens Nov. 13, takes place, rather obviously, in the year 2012, though it could have been set in 1995 or 2013. The movie's disasters have no particular link to that year, it's just when the Earth happens to start burping earthquakes and farting fire. 2012 made a perfect promotional hook for the film, because the ancient Mayans predicted that the world would end that year, if not specifically on December 21, 2012.

That's one story, anyway.

Whether or not 2012 will bring cataclysmic volcanism or a great flood, it has undeniably brought a flood of books. New Age and doomsday authors have been cranking out 2012-themed books at an amazing pace over the past few years; there are literally thousands of such titles in print, with more on the way.

While many authors and 2012 "experts" are playing up the doomsday scenario, others believe that the year will bring not disaster but a new era of global harmony (as in what did not happen with the so-called Harmonic Convergence in 1987). It seems that anyone with access to a keyboard and an opinion on 2012 (or prophecy in general) is trying to cash in. (It will be interesting to see how many of those books will be for sale on Amazon.com for one cent on Jan. 1, 2013.)

Mayan myth

In fact, the link between global catastrophe and Mayan calendar-based prophecy is largely fiction. Ads for "2012" begin with the phrase, "The Mayans warned us," though of course the Mayans did not "warn" anyone — they simply had a calendar system that happens to "end" in 2012, much as the way the Gregorian calendar on my office wall "ends" on Dec. 31.

The Mayans never said the world would end that year, and modern Mayans have shown irritation with how their culture has been co-opted into pop culture notions and Hollywood blockbuster film promotions.

John Major Jenkins, a Maya scholar and author of "The 2012 Story," notes that "when the 2012 bug started to bite the mainstream press and many more books started to appear, authors and the media were pulling the 2012 topic in predictably weird directions."

The 2012 link to the Maya is not a hoax; their calendar does in fact conclude in that year. Just what that means — if anything — is the question.

Of course, the Mayans were only one of dozens of major civilizations, and there is no particular reason to assume that the Mayan calendar is any more cosmically significant or valid than any of hundreds of other calendar systems used throughout history.

Appealing mysticism

So why this focus on the Mayans?

Part of the reason the New Age crowd has embraced the Mayan calendar (instead of, say, the Hindu calendar) is that the Mayans fit perfectly into their ideas about the ancient wisdom of the "noble savage." Belief that ancient civilizations (such as the Mayans and Egyptians) were far more advanced than often claimed permeates New Age thought, and the idea that Mayan mystics somehow knew of the world's end millennia ago is very appealing.

There have also been several outright hoaxes connected to 2012, most notably the claim that Nibiru, a non-existent planet supposedly discovered by the ancient Sumerians, will encounter Earth in 2012 and cause havoc, including a reversal of the geomagnetic poles.

NASA has been accused of covering up the existence of Nibiru, presumably to prevent mass panic (a theme that also appears in the film). Doomsdays come and go, but conspiracy theories are forever.


Source: http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/091105-2021-doomsday.html

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World to End in 2012: A Hoax Gone Too Far?

by: Robert Roy Britt

*** Spoiler alert. This article contains information that will ruin a good hoax. ***

There's no shortage of end-of-the-world prophecies and hoaxes, but the latest one has a slick twist. Or, some might say, a sick twist.

In fact, just by writing about it, I'm playing into the hands of a big media company that hopes I will write about it, or at least pass the word and a link, so that they can ultimately make money. Rather, I'll try to keep a few people from being frightened.

The story starts with Mike Brown, an astronomer at Caltech who has found more planet-like objects in our outer solar system than anyone.

Just like this reporter, Brown gets a lot emails from people worried the world will end in 2012. So many, in fact, that Brown has come to call them "The 2012 People." He's long assumed they're rather gullible worry warts. His view just changed a little.

The concerns often stem from bogus information about a fantasy planet dubbed Nibiru which, the story goes, will swing into the inner solar system, smack Earth in 2012, and bring an end to it all. (Brown assures us there is no such planet, and no such looming scenario known to science.)

The emails have been increasing of late. And recently one concerned citizen went a step farther and called and left Brown a voice mail: "I've got kids; this really scares the hell out of me. Is there something I should be doing? Is this real?"

The planet hunter reassured the man that it was all just a hoax. The man was grateful.

But the man got Brown's attention.

"This guy was inherently skeptical about the 2012 claims, and was happy when someone with a ring of authority told him there was nothing to it, but, still something had made him worried enough that he had tracked down some astronomer he had never met and called him to reassure him about the safety of his family," Brown wrote in his blog this week.

Then Brown found some spam among his email, an ominous missive that purports to be from the director of the Institute for Human Continuity. It warns: "The IHC has uncovered evidence indicating that the disasters of 2012 are both real and unavoidable. We believe with 94% certainty that ... cataclysmic events will devastate our planet and many who inhabit it. December 21, 2012 cannot be ignored."

A link in the email to the IHC's supposed web site actually takes you to a site that is so cleverly designed, an unsuspecting person who doesn't recognize the actors on the page might think the IHC is real, that the end is near, and that buying a ticket (to somewhere, on something, who knows?) is the only hope of survival.

Truth is the web site (it's here, it's fake, you've been warned) is designed by Sony Pictures. Okay, score 1 point for Sony, no harm done, right?

Well, not so fast.

Brown, who is a pretty smart guy, admits that unlike many doomsday websites designed by quacks, it took him a while to figure out this web site is a fake.

"It is slick. It is professional. There is no obvious sign anywhere that this is the work of kooks," he said.

We all hate spam. And sometimes we think its deceptiveness is distasteful, especially when little old ladies are bilked of billions by a faux Nigerian banker. And hoaxes sometimes go too far. Some pranksters in New Jersey who lofted flares on balloons in the night sky in January, as a social experiment, were fined $250 by a court that determined their UFO hoax "posed a potential fire hazard and could have interfered with air traffic." It didn't, but their deceptiveness, and the harm it could have caused, was enough for the judge.

Brown wonders if this one goes too far, scaring people who may never learn the truth that would alleviate their fears.

"If the spam email had tried to scare me about the end of the world and then directed me to a web site which turned out to simply advertise the movie, that would have been distasteful," Brown writes. "But what is the right word for a spam email that tries to scare me to go to a web site which then tries to scare me even more and doesn't even admit to being simply an ad for a movie?"


Source: http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/090614-end-of-the-world-hoax.html

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World to End in 2012 (Continuation)
by: Robert Roy Britt

Yesterday I wrote about how Caltech planet-hunter Mike Brown was disturbed by a variation of the "World Will End in 2012" hoax perpetrated by a big media company's movie promotion that leaves some people genuinely worried.

This hoax has been floating around in various forms for years now, but it's reached critical mass lately (and one can only hope that means an apex, too).

Now NASA astrobiologist and asteroid expert David Morrison weighs in. That's good, because Dave is really smart, knows a lot about science, has been around long enough to see plenty of these doomsday predictions come and go (like the May 5, 2000 planet alignment that was supposed to wipe us out, since Y2K didn't), and is not afraid to speak frankly about it all.

It'd be nice if there was not really much to say here. But the fact is, from self-described (and underperforming) psychics to religiously oriented doomsday prophets (like the one who predicted there would be riots by Christmas 2008 due to President Obama's election) and out-and-out profiteers who prey on the basic human desire to believe, there is plenty of debunking that needs to be done.

Morrison has posted 20 questions, with answers, surrounding all this. In the first one, reproduced here, he sums up how silly this all is (see the key phrase in bold):

Question No. 1: What is the origin of the prediction that the world will end in December 2012?

Morrison: "The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. Zecharia Sitchin, who writes fiction about the ancient Mesopotamian civilization of Sumer, claimed in several books (e.g., The Twelfth Planet, published in 1976) that he has found and translated Sumerian documents that identify the planet Nibiru, orbiting the Sun every 3600 years. These Sumerian fables include stories of 'ancient astronauts' visiting Earth from a civilization of aliens called the Anunnaki. Then Nancy Lieder, a self-declared psychic who claims she is channeling aliens, wrote on her website Zetatalk that the inhabitants of a fictional planet around the star Zeta Reticuli warned her that the Earth was in danger from Planet X or Nibiru. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012. Only recently have these two fables been linked to the end of the Mayan long-count at the winter solstice in 2012 — hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012."

Ah, yes, the old "it didn't happen but it still will" trick. Read more about that tactic in an article from last year by our Bad Science columnist Benjamin Radford.

If you're still a believer in the end times coming in 2012, or if you need more ammo to debunk the crazy stories you hear from grandma, the nut in the next cubicle, or from your internet-savvy 11-year-old, then check out Morrison's 20 Questions (and answers) about the End of the World.

Source: http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/090615-earth-doomsday-2012.html

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RENEWABLE ENERGY (RE) BILL IN CONGRESS (HOUSE BILL 4193): awaits approval this October?

The Bill if finally approved by our good Senators would give tax incentives:

1. Tax and duty-free importation of machinery.
2. Tax credit on capital components and parts bought locally.
3. Tax holding of six years, net operating loss carry-over for the first three years of operations.
4. Accelerated depreciation.
5. Zero value-added tax rating.

Source

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Department of Energy Offering Incentives to Clean Energy Investors

Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Angelo Reyes announced that his department will give incentives to investors in environment friendly renewable energy projects like biomass, solar and wind energy, bio-ethanol and fuel cell plant in the form of income tax holiday for six years and low tariffs.

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Basic Energy To Jointly Develop Ethanol Plant With Canadian

Listed Basic Energy Corporation will jointly set up with a Canadian firm Nexum Energy Corporation in an ethanol plant using cassava as feedstock in Zamboanga City.

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UP-Maroons vs Ateneo-Blue Eagles On Tapping Biotechnology As Alternative Fuel

Filipino scientists are in the thick of the search for alternative fuels, with experts from the University of the Philippines (UP) in both Diliman and Los Banos campuses searching all over the archipelago for energy sources from the forests to the bottom of the sea, from enzymes to fungi and other microorganisms.

Microbiologists at the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) are also searching on the possible use of rice stalks that can be transformed into a feedstock, for bio-ethanol.

Source

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NASA Scientist's Warning on RP 'Doomsday Scenario' - Palace

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) physicist Josefino Comiso had said the country's sea levels could rise 23 feet and high ocean temperatures could deplete fish stocks and several species of plants and animals.

But Malacanang branded as "doomsday scenario" the theory that climate change and the melting of polar ice caps in the Arctic region can lead to the flooding of Manila and the destruction of plant and animal species.

Source

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NEDA Committees Back Php17-B Energy, Environment Projects

National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Investment Coordinating Committee (ICC), and Cabinet Committee (CC) endorsed for approval by the NEDA Board six projects worth Php17.4 billion, namely: two projects on energy efficiency, three transmission projects and a project on forest management.

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Philippines Needs Big Investment For Future Energy Demand

Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Angelo Reyes said during the Philippine Economic Briefing held at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel that the Philippines needs huge investments to adequately address its projected energy demand in over six years.

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Pinoy NASA Scientist Agrees To Head RP Global Warming Project

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) website said a Filipino scientist of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Josefino Comiso has agreed and voiced his willingness to spearhead a program and project to monitor the effects of global warming in the Philippines during a courtesy call to the DENR.

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WHO: Global Warming To Lead To Hike In Dengue, Malaria Cases In RP

Dr. Shegiru Omi, outgoing regional director of World Health Organization (WHO), Western Pacific Region, said that the impact of climate change or global warming would be diverse and one of this is the possible increase in the cases of dengue and malaria in the Philippines and their spread to other countries in the Asia Pacific Region.

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WHO Warns Climate Change Poses Health Risks

Participants in a weeklong regional World Health Organization (WHO) conference in Manila urges governments and international agencies to address public health risks posed by global warming to countries in the Asia Pacific, including a rise in diseases and food shortages. The draft proposal will incorporate health concerns into plans to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

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Senate finally approves 'Clean Energy' Bill, seen to cut oil dependence

Cheers! The Philippine Senate unanimously approves its version of the renewable energy (RE) bill, bringing "clean energy" companies close to enjoying longer tax holidays and lower taxes.

Lesser taxes was imposed to allow RE companies to cope with high technology expenses and construction of their facilities.

Source

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