Apolalypse!

Stories of the wold ending are far from new in the realm of fantasy. The word Apocalypse comes from Revelation, which is probably one of the first stories that depicts the world ending. The legend of Atlantis may also be a root for tales of the apocalypse, being that it is the story of an entire continent being destroyed by Poseidon.

Apocalyptic stories are quite prevalent in modern fiction. From movies like 2012, Armageddon, Knowing, Waterworld, The Matrix and Akira, Hollywood and beyond have used the end of the world as a recurring source for audiences. Even more films such as The Terminator, or Avatar imply an apocalypse. Books as well imply a destructive end of the wold quite frequently. Obviously Revelation being the most transparent of these examples (it being the root of the word, and probably the largest source of world-ending material) but books such as Mary Shelly's "The Last Man", The War of the Worlds, and After London discuss a variety of ideas of how the world will end. In fact, with such an abundance of different earth-bane tales its hard to find a scifi story where the world isn't blown up.

Scifi typically falls into one of these categories:
Catastrophe: Earthquakes, Lava, Meteors, Global Warming at its finest!
E.T. Threats: Aliens blastin' all the humans to bits.
Technology Failure: Science has failed us!
Pandemic: Zombies want your braaaaains!
Nuclear War: Nuff said.

Though it's difficult to say *why* audiences like stories about the world ending and I dont know enough about the sociological reasoning behind it, a lot of it probably stems from a subconscious understanding people have that this world is temporary. Especially with the rise of Global Warming, more and more people hear those two words on a frequent basis and they kinda get ingrained with the concept of the world coming to a close.

So the next time your out walking your dog, doing your homework, or just talking to someone, remember. That could be your last.