actually i think 2012 was pretty well-known in the "conspiracy" and new age circles by 2002... Terrence McKenna was writing about it in the mid to late '90s and his books were pretty popular. I read McKenna's Archaic Revival book from my college library in 1998, before I was even aware of conspiracy theories.. I was just into psychedelics... :)

Still, fascinating to see this episode, and I agree with other posters: if ANYTHING is going to happen on 2012, it is most likely going to be an event TPTB MAKES HAPPEN, whether it's a fake alien invasion, a false flag to kick off WW3, or a huge "earth changes" type of event created by artificial means...