Magnetic Pole Shift - Quareness Series 102nd "Lecture".
Draíocht is a concept term in the Gaelic/Irish language meaning enchantment...a sorta state of unaware hypnosis or entrancing which persists until one reawakens to reality. When we consider the apparently widespread lack of real understanding of the inter-connected nature of many basic facets of our global environment, it seems this draíocht may indeed be an appropriate label for what much of humanity is currently experiencing.
One of the most controversial issues today of course is that of whether and/or to what extent catastrophic global warming is caused by mankind's use of fossil fuels and husbandry practices i.e. the reliability of the "official" Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) theory of increasing "manmade" CO2 levels in our Earth's atmosphere leading to dangerous warming of the planet. A major problem I personally have with this (as with any single "explanation" for natural events) relates to the "one size fits all" tendency of such thinking. Accordingly, in an effort to shed a little more light on the matter methinks it might be an useful exercise to somewhat delineate the potential influences on our global climate (which of course changes all the time) by posing some questions which may help in our considerations.
Is not the Sun the primary driver of Earth's total temperature (scientifically expressed as solar irradiance)?
Scientists have identified solar irradiance cycles at approximately 11, 88 and 205 years, cycles which inevitably become complex because they're occurring along with and at the same time as many others.
Perhaps the second biggest driver of Earth total temperature is our distance from the Sun, which varies with our every orbit of the Sun?
Is the global climate of our Earth not a function of the distribution of the Sun’s energy on our planet along with its atmosphere, topography, ocean currents, and the magnetic relationships of the geophysical and solar induced magnetic poles...all of which play a role in climate conditions?
Without gases that retain heat from sunlight in the atmosphere, the average surface temperature of the Earth would probably (or even definitely) be below freezing. The amount of socalled greenhouse gases...carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O)...has apparently been rising in the atmosphere. And these
gases both absorb and then re-radiate heat in Earth’s atmosphere, which action has been hypothesized (rather than demonstrated) to cause increased warming.
Is not our atmospheric gas profile today of the order of 78% Nitogen, 21% Oxygen, 0.9% Argon, 0.04% Carbon Dioxide with the remainder comprising other trace gases? And do "manmade" emissions not equate to only about 5% of natural CO2 emissions?
Is the CO2 in the atmosphere not essential to life here on Earth and indeed directly responsible for the food we eat and the oxygen we breathe? And is it not a reasonable view that higher levels of CO2 would likely increase the world’s food supply, and enhance the health and medicinal properties of foods?
Even though mankind's fast growing population may be using "too much" fossil fuel and at an increasing rate, which is allegedly the main driver of current climate change, is it not more likely that it's the galaxy, solar system, and our own planet's immense natural processes that determine our global climate and compensate for anomalies within our atmosphere?
Despite all the ongoing research into and learning about these processes, there has as yet been no real scientific evidence to demonstrate that man is affecting the climate to any significant degree. We are, however, clearly producing enormous amounts of plastic and nuclear waste without proper disposal facilities, as well as polluting water supplies, decimating forests, killing animals for sport until they are nearly extinct, and dumping mountainous levels of waste indiscriminately...all sectors of stewardship in which we really do need to show significant improvement.
It may be wise (for precautionary and other reasons) in any event to consider cutting down on our use of fossil fuels which raises the question...what is the best way to do so?
And here's where we can unearth the essential hypocrisy at the core of what is being pushed upon us by the powerful of our world...wars and war readiness use the greatest amount of fossil fuels. For example of the total US Federal energy budget (by far our most military hungry nation) around 80% is attributed to the Department of Defense. By way of contrast the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has estimated the total amount of electricity used by the nation's residential and commercial sectors combined to have been about 11% of total U.S. electricity consumption during 2014. This is a true (truly shocking?) state of affairs that puts into real perspective those increasingly popular notions of say the "urgent necessity" to reduce cattle numbers on the island of Ireland (in order to "save the planet").
We know from the huge amount of data collected and analysed by scientists in order to identify and record many natural trends and periodic cycles related to climate changes, that on a 5.5 million year scale the Earth is slowly cooling. This data also tells us that there have been four 100,000 year glacial-interglacial cycles and although we have no way of knowing exactly when the next glaciation period will begin, we do know that it could well be imminent...a much more alarming scenario than our current global warming scare and which begs the question - what are we going to able to do for/with the far greater number of displaced and hungry people while the glaciers are forming?
If CO2 is not really the cause of our climate changing, what is? Could it be that the enormous independent solar magnetic bond between the Sun and the Earth is causing the North and South Magnetic Poles to relocate, with this migration in turn causing major changes in jet stream behaviour?
Our planet contains two massive and independent magnetic sources of energy - (i) its dynamo system that provides the Earth’s shield and is expressed at the Geophysical North and South Poles, and (ii) a magnetic bond between the Earth and the Sun which is expressed here as the North and South Magnetic Poles. Through our modern technology we are now able to view the violent interaction of this magnetic interchange as it enters and exists from the Sun, but we only have the Northern Lights and compasses pointing toward the Magnetic Poles to identify their location and relative strength.
We can reasonably speculate that there may also be a major violent reaction occurring within the core of the earth and between the independent magnetic energy sources. We do know that independent Magnetic Poles in close proximity create a strong magnetic bound and contain a magneto-thermal mixed convection coupling attribute between the two magnetic forces. It's this mechanism which captures and maintains the coldest temperatures in the Arctic area. Rather than the measured minimum ice accumulating naturally around the Geophysical Pole, it would appear that the magnetic field interaction causes the ice to accumulate between the two North Poles, and this in turn can cause significant oscillations of the jet streams that determine climate conditions. Thus it's perhaps easier to see that we don't require explanation by any alteration in total Earth temperature for how this "long-cycle" pattern of Pole migration can cause significant changes to the polar caps and adjacent land masses that includes thawing and refreezing of the ice caps in a new location as well as longer term international climate changes driven by different jet stream patterns and shifts in the magnetic fields affecting the direction paths of cyclones and other heavy cloud formations carrying a lot of moisture.
Recent widely reported frightening "rumbling" sounds heard throughout the world which may be a byproduct of the chaotic condition of such relocating magnetic flow through the Earth's core, might be pointing to this newer explanation for the predominant underlying cause of today's climate change...bearing in mind that any polar shift would also impact the strength of our outer magnetic shield thereby affecting temperature.
NASA (US National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has reported that the Magnetic Pole phenomenon is spatial i.e. it comes from space and is independent of the Earth Geometric North Pole dynamo system - another potential causative fact seemingly not rated by most of our modern climate scientists. A technical analyst of aerospace GPS capabilities William Goodenough (who is not a climatologist) in his "The Three Concepts of Climate Change: Is AGW Politics or Science?" has proposed that the key to unlocking the global warming riddle could lie in our planet's Magnetic Poles which have been shifting from their traditional locations at the same time that the Earth has been experiencing increased erratic/unpredictable weather. If this be true it would mean that our current climate change is being driven by natural forces rather than by humans spewing CO2 into the atmosphere. Scientific evidence also reported by NASA as well as NOAA (US Department of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the ESA (European Space Agency) shows that the Magnetic North Pole has been creeping northward by more than 1,000 miles from Canada toward Russia since the early 19th century, when explorers first discovered its precise location. Scientists too have estimated that this Pole is now migrating at a faster rate than before i.e. about 40 miles per year as opposed to around 10 miles per year in the early 20th century. And the space agency has also pointed out that throughout Earth’s 4.5 billion year existence, our two Magnetic Poles have swapped positions about every 500,000 years or so.
Goodenough (yes that's his real name) probably correctly views climate science as a rather murky field ...as he states "when dealing with temperature variations and trends that might be influenced by humans, we do not have an instrument that tells us how much change is due to humans and how much to Mother Nature”...and he sees the Magnetic Pole relocation affecting Earth in two ways:
- It alters the direction of the enormous current flow through Earth, theoretically causing magnetic chaos in the Earth’s core, which in turn weakens the magnetic shield that protects the planet from damaging solar particles.
- It changes the direction of the interaction between the Geophysical and the Magnetic North Poles by moving the coldest area of the Arctic, thereby altering the climate. And with each set of Poles (North and South) interacting to determine the temperature profile relative to their respective pole..."the altered pole temperature profiles cause significant climate change”.
In the final analysis, pro temps, what we are seemingly currently witnessing is an unstable and changing climate (which has happened many times over in our planet's history). On the basis of real evidence to date, however, we do not appear at this stage to be experiencing the onset of any medium or long term abnormal total temperature rising changes for the whole Earth.
Sean.
Dean of Quareness.
February, 2019.
Footnote:
Valentina Zharkova a mathematics professor at the University of Northumbria in England (and formerly of Kiev, Moscow and Glasgow Universities) who has been looking into potential links between the Solar Magnetic Field and our Global Climate has in the past few months presented a hypothesis leading her to confidently predict a modern grand minimum upcoming in 2020-2055 with a potentially cooling effect of a "little ice age" for the next 35 years odd. Many on the global warming side of the climate debate would likely not agree with her on this, but as she points out most of us currently around will be able to witness whether this really happens or not (unlike the less near term "proof" profile of disastrous ongoing global warming).
For the more technically inclined her October 2018 presentation can be viewed at -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_yqIj38UmY