
The Magnetic Field Is Shifting. The Poles May Flip. This Could Get Bad - anarbadalov
https://undark.org/article/books-alanna-mitchell-spinning-magnet/
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billygoat
> The field is weakening over South America, and the red area over North
> America is losing strength.

This nonsensical caption, saying the exact same thing twice while using
different words, wins the award for the worst writing I've read today. And I
read a lot today.

Sigh, another garbage clickbait headline pointing to a scaremongering article
with nothing new to say.

Nice website design, though. Pretty!!

:-(

~~~
heavymark
Was just thinking the same.

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gelo
This reads like a scaremongering article.

~~~
knodi123
Yep, just like the perennial (and nominally true) favorites

"yellowstone will blow up and cripple western civilization"

"a solar storm will blow up our nation's telecommunications infrastructure"

"a super-flu will kill 30% of americans"

~~~
fao_
Eh? The latter two are nominally true. They _could_ happen whenever, but so
far haven't. The former two _will definitely_ happen we just don't know the
time scale.

Yellowstone is on a timer that we don't have access to, and there are projects
to drill down into it and deplete the heat, giving us electricity and solving
the problem.

With respect to the magnetic pole, this is something that is actually
happening. Observe

The magnetic pole in 2009:
[https://tools.wmflabs.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=North...](https://tools.wmflabs.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=North_Magnetic_Pole&params=84.9_N_131.0_W_&title=Magnetic+North+Pole+2009)

The current position of the magnetic pole:
[https://tools.wmflabs.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=North...](https://tools.wmflabs.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=North_Magnetic_Pole&params=86.5_N_172.6_W_&title=Magnetic+North+Pole+2017+est)

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glitcher
> Even flushing a toilet or filling a car’s gas tank would be impossible.

Huh? Is she trying to say those systems will also fail as a result of losing
the electric power grid, or something else?

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dmannorreys
You need electricity to pump gas and water. However, you might be able to
continue flushing your toilet as long as the water tower contains water.

~~~
sebazzz
Water towers, huh. We don't even have them in the Netherlands. (not many
anyway)

~~~
eesmith
FWIW (I researched it because I found it odd), Google Translate of
[https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watertoren](https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watertoren)
says:

> In the heyday there were around 260 water towers in the Netherlands.
> Currently there are still 170 water towers, about half of which are still in
> use. ... Nowadays, the task of water towers in the Netherlands has been
> taken over by a control system with frequency-controlled pumps.

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gpapilion
I really wish this included a specific when. It points out a lot of dire
consequences, but doesn’t give any strong discussion of the immanence of the
impending event.

~~~
nerdponx
I recall reading an article ~10 years ago that said it happens every 25,000
years or so, and that we aren't anywhere close to the next one.

~~~
dragonwriter
AFAIK, the current understanding is that while geomagnetic reversals happen,
they have no periodicity, and can be as quick as _hundreds_ of years apart (a
pair of which seems to have occurred around 41,000 years ago), or as long as
tens of millions of years (several of which have occurred.)

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partiallypro
Why is this trending? They were saying this nonsense on Ancient Aliens on
History (which I've watched because it's trash TV and fun,) or all of those
other doomsday shows you saw especially around 2012.

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dmm
The earth's magnetic field plays an important role is protecting the surface
from cosmic radiation. Maybe people will start to insist on ECC memory once
cosmic rays start messing with their netflix.

~~~
sebazzz
Sounds like a rowhammer from outer space.

