The Earth's poles are due to switch soon (with soon being in geological time)...
It may have consequences - the magnetic field, which protects us from the dangerous levels of radiation in space, will be very erratic and weak during the change. (For those of you who don't know, the field is progressively getting weaker at the moment, and I think there has been a large anomaly near South America since the 1970s).
Anyway, I doubt the poles will flip in 2012 - geological time is long...
(BTW, correct anything I've said, if it's wrong - this is all off the top of my very tired head).