2012: Welcome to the beginning of the end?

Welcome to 2012. End of the world or chance to start looking at the future with renewed optimism? Seems at the moment that it could go either way.

With the benefit of hindsight, no one can accuse 2011 of being ‘just another year‘. It was so much more than that. Disasters, both natural and man made left their marks upon the face of humanity and saw the faith and limits of endurance and tolerance of millions tested.

A land of drought and flooding rains…

Environmentally, 2011 was truly remarkable. Australia was hit by some of the most damaging and widespread floods ever seen, stretching across vast tracts of the eastern seaboard, with New South Wales, Victoria and worst of all, Queensland (see photo, left), battered by record torrential rainfall. In stark contrast, drought and bush fires scorched parts of Western Australia, showing the extremes in climate that affect this wide brown land.

Our neighbours in New Zealand were not spared natures fury, with the city of Christchurch rocked by several massive earthquakes. Aftershocks continue to this day. Japan was battered by a massive Tsunami, the result of a magnitude 8.9 earthquake in March. Those who watched the tragedy unfolding live on TV will never forget the haunting images of cars, houses, whole villages being swept before the massive waves as they crashed across the north of Japan. The Japanese National Police Agency confirmed 15,844 deaths, 5,890 injured and 3,451 people missing across eighteen prefectures, as well as over 125,000 buildings damaged or destroyed.

The finger of god…

Late April. Tornado Alley, USA. The single largest outbreak of tornadoes in recorded history. In total, 359 tornadoes were confirmed by the National Weather Service in 21 states from Texas to New York over a three day period.

The 27th of April however has become known as one the most prolific and destructive tornado days in United States history with a record 208 tornadoes touching down that day, with 4 EF5 tornados recorded. Typically, the USA sees one EF5 tornado a year. Overall, the tornado that hit Tuscaloosa Alabama killed 64 people and injured more than 1,500.

A man made hell…

Terrorist attacks. Economies and governments under siege. Revolutions. Uprisings. Civil Wars. Famine. Disease. We even had Justin Bieber in 3D (okay, okay… I’m just trying to inject some humour into this!) We saw two terrorist leaders killed in Muammar Gaddafi and Osama Bin Laden (allegedly), but not an end to terrorist attacks. However, while many regard Anders Breivik’s killings as an act of terror, I still view it as nothing more than the worlds worst act of mass murder. Either way you look at it, 76 innocent lives were taken by an insane person.

Every other week saw the economic problems of several of the worlds largest economies splashed across the front page of every major newspaper on the planet. Economies once thought too big to fail were begging for bailouts left right and centre. Greece. Spain. Italy, all on the verge of falling. The almighty US dollar was belted from pillar to post. Trillions were wiped off stock markets, millions lost jobs, lost homes, lost families. The GFC’s legacy of greed is still well and truly with us, with the rich continuing the get rich at the expense of the poor.

Oh, and we hit 7 billion people too…

So, 2012 then?

So here we stand at the beginning of 2012. Hollywood would have us believe that this is it. Don’t bother planning for 2013. In fact, don’t worry about anything after the 21st of December. My thoughts about 2012? Well, stick around and I’ll tell you on New Years Eve, December 31st 2012. All I will say now is that I have a feeling that 2012 isn’t going to be a smooth ride by any stretch of the imagination.