all 7 comments

[–]JasonCarswellPlatinum Foil Fedora 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

THIS is a far more important and urgent story than Climate Change, real or fake.

Also the fact that most of our infrastructures are (intentionally) not prepared for when a solar or cosmic EMP strikes the Earth.

Further still, much worse, a nuke detonation at high altitude and the resultant EMP is far worse than a nuke on the ground. One nuke way up in the atmosphere would wipe out all electronics across half of North America. Sure you won't die immediately from radiation, but most of us don't know how to survive without technology. No clean water, no sanitation, no vehicles, communications, food supplies, etc.

Do we even know what will happen to all our gear when the magnetic poles flip? How long the flip will take? Will it be like an EMP? Will the destabilized magnetic field around Earth be compromised to let raw solar radiation hit us and our electronics?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_nuclear_explosion

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=high+altitude+nuclear+EMP&t=h_&iax=images&ia=images

Scared? You should be.

If I'm wrong, and I'd rather be, please let me know how with references.

[–]Wreaver 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Cosmic EMP? What is that, like a supernova or similar? But you're right, whatever flavor.... we're pretty well screwed, and not exactly "working on it".

[–]JasonCarswellPlatinum Foil Fedora 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Exactly. Super novas are rare, but in a galaxy of BILLIONS suddenly it's not quite as rare.

[–]WTFpplII 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I'm not worried about a disaster on Earth from a Super-Nova. As its actions will significantly reduce my paying rent problem.

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I agree something is happening here on a century-by-century timescale. North pole drift map:

https://study.com/cimages/multimages/16/Magnetic_North_Pole_Positions.png

[–]Vigte[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The question is what will happen when it reaches the 40 degree weak field line - will is rebound like a DVD screen saver or accelerate :(

[–]WTFpplII 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The other question; will it accelerate or decelerate in rebound?