The degree of scientific illiteracy in the USA is becoming a “public health concern” according to those working hard to debunk the Dec21 Doomsday hysteria. Keith Allen takes up the story:
Dec. 21 doomsday rumours keeping scientists busy
Depending on the doomsday theory, the world will end on Dec. 21 because the Mayan calendar is expiring, or because the planet Nibiru is about to hit Earth, or because galactic alignment will cause the gravitational release of hidden asteroids (whatever that is).
For most, the pending apocalypse is wisecrack fodder.
For the small handful of scientists and science enthusiasts working furiously to debunk these theories, the humour leaked away long ago.
They say the frightened people on their digital doorstep are, at best, a troubling indicator of the state of science education and critical thinking. At worst, they’re a public health concern.
“It’s disturbing,” says NASA senior scientist David Morrison of the scared, sometimes suicidal questioners who have flocked to his blog, “Ask an Astrobiologist.”
The blog originally was intended to answer the public’s questions about the study of life in the universe. Today, it’s almost exclusively devoted to queries about Earth-destroying planetary collisions and the like. Morrison explains on the blog, for example, that if a planet were about to hit us, it would by now be the brightest thing in the sky after the sun and moon.
Emails about the 2012 apocalypse began dribbling into his inbox four years ago. Now he gets hundreds every week, a commitment that consumes several hours a day.
He doesn’t know why the doomsday fretters sought him out at first. But he says: “I know why they continue coming — it’s because I answer the questions. It would have been easy, and maybe even smart, just to ignore such things.”
Suicide threats are a weekly occurrence, and one came from an apparent 11-year-old. In fact, many of those who write him are “truly frightened” young people, he says.
“They really sound upset. That’s the worst thing.”
……Morrison believes it also speaks to a growing distrust of authority in the U.S. (He says he can’t remember ever getting a letter from Canada.)
“A part of this hoax is based on a fundamental distrust of science and the government,” he says. “I think that’s the most disturbing, because it extends to other areas.”
Morrison and Hudson are eagerly awaiting Dec. 22, when they can return to their normal lives and repurpose their websites.
Full report:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1303608—dec-21-doomsday-rumours-keeping-scientists-busy
