As it turns out, it isn’t nuclear winter or global warming that we need to worry about. It isn’t alligators in the sewer, monsters under the bed or even the dreaded twi-night doubleheader that should rob us of sleep. Mother Nature appears to be warming up something brand new in her bullpen of unanticipated worldwide changes. The world’s magnetic field is weakening at rapidly accelerating rates. The Earth is preparing to reverse its magnetic poles.
Last year, scientists announced they had discovered cyclone-like auroras near the North Pole. They are more than 600 miles in diameter with multiple arms that rotate counterclockwise and “rain” electrons into the upper atmosphere. They were dubbed “space hurricanes” for their 3-D funnel shape.
These hurricanes are not related to the usual magnetic auroras that produce the northern lights. They are not related to earthly phenomena such as global climate change. I wonder if they might be related to a flipping of our planet’s polarity, a phenomenon that has happened in the past and will happen again.
Let’s start with the fact that all astral bodies have magnetic fields. The sun has magnetic poles, and they flip on a regular 11-year cycle. Second, let’s point out that the Earth has switched its polarity many times before. There have been no mass extinctions or calling up of demons during any of these times. No space aliens, no zombies, not even the Dothraki have taken advantage of our weakened force shields to attack us when we were vulnerable. But there are serious things to consider as this massive natural phenomenon proceeds.
Our planet’s magnetic field is as close as we get to Star Trek’s ubiquitous, “Raise shields, Mr. Zulu.”
“Aye-aye, Captain Kirk.”
(Yes, I loved the series and still have a crush on George Takei.)
This invisible dome of positive/negative force protects us from blasts of solar radiation from our sun. The magnetic field is huge, extending more than 370,000 miles away from the Earth, and busily working to deflect solar winds that could prove problematic. This dome does not exist by accident — nothing in nature does.
The Earth has a solid iron core, incredibly dense and hot. It is surrounded by a molten metal core. The seething swirls of energy in the molten core produce streams of charged particles. The very rotation of the planet, not to mention changes in temperature of the core, cause fluctuation in the molten metal. Lower temperatures can slow the production of these charged particles and weaken the magnetic fields.
The European Space Agency has a triumvirate of satellites called SWARM. They track the intensity of the magnetic field and have found some interesting changes. First, the entire Western Hemisphere has a profoundly weakened magnetic field, while there is a smaller but intense strengthening of the field off the African coast in the Indian Ocean. We also can see that the North Pole is migrating toward Siberia. But the most disconcerting finding was that changes in the field that were thought to occur at about 5% each century were, instead, happening at a rate of 5% per decade!
Of course, humans have never been cognizant of a magnetic flip before. We know they have happened, but this is the first time we will be seeing one in both an experiential and measurable way. Maybe they start slow but finish fast. Maybe there is a tipping point that accelerates the inevitable. Maybe we will, as the Chinese proverb says, be unfortunate enough to, “… live in interesting times.”
The biggest problems we will face when our magnetic poles shift will be in any and all things electrical. This isn’t just a matter of the North Pole on a compass suddenly pointing south. Electricity and magnetism are two expressions of the same phenomenon. This means all our power grids and communication systems will be impacted — perhaps lost. We (private enterprise, the scientific community, Bell Labs entrepreneurs) do need to devote some serious time and mental energy to what we are going to do. We have been forewarned. Mother nature does not like being ignored.
Check your compass and keep the faith.
Louise Butler is a retired educator and published author who lives in Edinburg. She writes for The Monitor’s Board of Contributors.
