WE REPRESENT a nonprofit group engaged in ongoing research on Mayan culture and history. The idea that the Mayan calendar predicts some sort of “doomsday’’ on Dec. 21, 2012, as suggested by your May 20 editorial “Judgment Day: The next one could be worse,’’ is a common notion. However, it is a misconception, according to sources within contemporary Mayan culture and scholars who have done significant research on the topic.
Contemporary Mayan interpreters such as Ac Tah and the Mayan Council of Elders believe, as do many environmental scientists, that our current planetary way of life is unsustainable and threatens to create severe disruptions in an ecosystem that we have come to take for granted.
They do not believe that it’s a foregone conclusion that there will be an event or series of events causing apocalyptic destruction of our planet. Rather, they point out that, as a result of becoming out of balance with natural cycles and resources, we find ourselves in a time of crisis and great change requiring an intelligent and coordinated response.
This rather simple empirical observation is borne out by any number of studies arriving at the same conclusion by scientific means.
Thomas Valovic
Annette Farrington
Codirectors
The Emergence Project
Winchester 
