It's incredibly arrogant for people to think we can destroy the world. Maybe we can pollute it beyond use for our own survival, but we can't destroy the entire planet. 99.99% of all life that has ever existed on earth has gone extinct, and almost all of that is without mankind's influence.
Look at a plant. A plants waste product is oxygen. Well, that means that every single plant and piece of algae on the surface of the earth was poisoning the atmosphere for a huge number of years, but we're here now, right?
I'm on the fence about this myself. Half of me laughs about all of the doomsday scenarios I've seen, or about these "accurate" computations for black holes, super volcano "Best Exploded By:12/21/2012" dates, and the idea that races and civilizations through history have been time travelers. You can say that I'm judging or being ignorant, I just find it hard to believe. Maybe the Mayans just were, I don't know, wrong? Maybe they just stopped at 2012? Is it possible that there was another set of calendars made starting 12/22/2012 but have been destroyed since, or simply not yet found? For all of their wisdom, this is also who the Mayans were- "If the interpretations of the priests spelled bad times to come, sacrifices would be performed to please the gods. Sacrifices might be small animals like chickens, or "bloodletting" by high officials, and sometimes included human sacrifices. They would engage in rituals such as cutting their own ears, tongues, and penises with the intention of satisfying the gods."
Maya religion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The other half of me reacts as it always has to bad news- better safe than sorry. No, I'm not building a bomb shelter or anything or secretly hoarding food. Rather, I'm enlisting in the Air Force to be a survival specialist for a lot of reasons. I'd be lying if I said that one of those reasons was NOT as a sort of insurance for just-in-case.
It's like global warming- there's equal amounts of research, studys, and evidence on either side of the board that keep the debate (and answer) from showing itself.