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NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
If the end of the world is indeed on its way, Northwest Territories residents say they'll believe it when they see it.

Believers in the doomsday 2012 scenario say the Mayan calendar ends on Dec. 21, 2012, signifying the end of the world.

However, scientists say the calendar doesn't end on that date, but rather starts all over again, according to the NASA website. The Maya kept track of days and years using a variety of systems, including the "long count."

Next month marks the date that the count enters into the next phase.

Though David Kodzi from Fort McPherson doesn't believe the world is going to cease existing, he knows what he would do if the end was nigh.

"I'd spend time with family and then maybe talk to people, see if there was anything wrong that I did and try and right the wrongs," Kodzi said. "Maybe some other people would want to do the same thing."

Kodzi said he believed learning the world was ending would be similar to finding out about a terminal illness, and he believes people's reactions would be the same to both.

"Take some time to reflect on what other people go through when they're dying in the hospital," he said.

While spending time with his family would be his top priority, Kodzi said there were a few other items he would like to cross off his bucket list. If money were no object, he would buy "a fast car" and try parachuting out of an airplane.

"I would enjoy myself, go out to the good restaurants, take my friends out," he said.

Fort McPherson's Hazel Nerysoo also said she didn't believe the world is going to end, but if it were, she would choose to stay a little closer to home.

"I'd have all my family gather in one place. Stay on the land, just in the McPherson area, on the land away from everything," she said. "Maybe (I'd be) at my parents where they used to live many years ago, just so somebody else could be there, so another family member could be there in that same spot."

Spending time with family was the most popular answer given by community members, including Eugene Perry in Tsiigehtchic.

Perry also said he doesn't believe the apocalypse is looming.

"We have heard this since time immemorial and we're still here," he said.

"I believe that if the world is going to end, it's either we destroy it by ourselves, or the weather changes so much that humans can't inhabit the Earth."

Tom Matus in Tuktoyaktuk agreed. He said he believes if the world does one day end, it will be gradual, not one cataclysmic event.

"I don't think it's going to all of a sudden turn off," he said.

Matus also said he would spend as much time with family as possible if he learned the world was in its final days.

Nerysoo said regardless of what happens on Dec. 21, she is happy with the path her life has taken.

"I'm very satisfied with what I'm doing right now," she said. "I'm just content with where I am."

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