Massive earthquakes. Giant tidal waves. Super volcanoes exploding. Raging firestorms. These are just a few visions of a global apocalypse that some say will happen on December 21, 2012. That’s when the eerily accurate Mayan calendar will come to a sudden end. That ancient calendar is causing a modern day panic. People around the world fear that our planet faces a catastrophe never seen before in human history.

What can we do to prepare for 2012-and what has already been done? New theories are emerging that the U.S. and other governments may have conspired to hide the disturbing facts from the public, in part to prevent global panic. Some are claiming the U.S. government actually has a secret project to try and prevent an Apocalypse. A few aren’t waiting for the government to solve the problem. They take these dire predictions so seriously they’re preparing for the worst … selling their homes and moving to undisclosed locations across the globe.

But there is dispute about what that mysterious Mayan date really means. Some say it’s not a new Armageddon, but the dawn of a New Age.

So, what is the truth behind 2012?