So if the magnetic poles flip, what does that mean for us yachties?

[Zozza 293]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11986759

...apart from a compass pointing south instead of north...

Satellites may be affected. Might mean my chartplotter not much good either.

...and having to wear more sunscreen. Not that that will be much use against increased radiation I would have thought.

[Kevin McCready 83]

I'm a professional science translator and I can tell you that there is sooooo much wrong with this article it's not even funny. Always look at the fine print. It's a beat up copied from that wonderful bastion of intelligent journalism The Daily Mail. NZ Herald has became equally trashy.

 

Any "flip" is a comparatively slow process and we are in it all the time already. Check your yearly and local magnetic variation on your chart's fine print.

[SloopJohnB 323]

O not along with Global Warming, Climate Change, now we have Pole Flipping.

[Vorpal Blade 89]

So to borrow an idea from Al Gore we should expect to see some sort of magnet tax to be introduced to help alleviate and or fix this issue.....

[Kevin McCready 83]

Religious parroting of Murdoch propaganda is so touching.

[Deep Purple 511]

Runways are numbered according to magnetic direction and some have already needed updating as the magnetic core shifts.

[mcp 32]

Compass's reversed as mentioned.  Some species would get cold, instead of warm.  Turtles would get lost.

 

Its happened a few times before.               

 

Interestingly enough, the climate has changed before too.     True story.

[erice 732]

"When the Sun is active, its magnetic field is better at shielding us against the cosmic rays coming from outer space, before they reach our planet. By regulating the Earth’s cloud cover, the Sun can turn the temperature up and down. ... As the Sun’s magnetism doubled in strength during the 20th century, this natural mechanism may be responsible for a large part of global warming seen then."  (Henrik Svensmark)

[Vorpal Blade 89]

Ive been working in this KM and nearly have it sorted - a simple plan but I think it will work.

 

With this reversing polarity thingy we start telling the populous about the negative effects of reversing polarity and how north goes south etc etc etc. and somehow how this killed the dinosaurs, early religion and possibly threatens democracy so therefore it must be going to impinge on our lives unless we do something NOW, possibly mitigated with some kind of tax.

Then, we “discover” a solution which is agreed on by 97% of the “scientists” (or people claiming to be scientists,  experts or even people remotely interested in what we are saying) with claims that magnetic change is in fact an undisputed “settled science”. 

This “settled science” as  discussed above  (as agreed by 97% of the experts polled) say that travel north/south by all things magnetic are having an overall effect on the earths magnetic field — Trucks. ships, planes cars etc going N/S are potentially triggering change in our environment so need to pay some kind of magnetic tax to help us find a solution to this catastrophic situation.

Rise up the Scientists Combined Against Magnetisim, with a tax on all movements north/south so we can fix this, east-west seems to be OK at this stage, but this may also have to be taxed soon just because the science that way is not fully settled and we may need to spend some more soon on research. 

Just send payments to SCAM now at our unnumbered Swiss account and we may have a solution in a few hundred years.

[DrWatson 374]

"When the Sun is active, its magnetic field is better at shielding us against the cosmic rays coming from outer space, before they reach our planet. By regulating the Earth’s cloud cover, the Sun can turn the temperature up and down. ... As the Sun’s magnetism doubled in strength during the 20th century, this natural mechanism may be responsible for a large part of global warming seen then."  (Henrik Svensmark)

Erice, please don't go promoting such blatant bollox.

 

This is an unfounded theory with little to no evidence, and in fact an inverse-to-null correlation between cosmic rays and global warming.

 

[SloopJohnB 323]

Well good

Another wordsmith amongst us.

VP

[wheels 543]

And we wonder why Scientists are questioned of their expertise. I am seriously wondering where these articles originate from. My thoughts are, maybe...
1: Scientists that have sucked on too many of the noxious gasses they use in experiments
2: Non Science Idiots that have a theory
3: A web group that take bets on how many People they can suck into believing the most outrageously stupid story. 
3: A sinister web group that just want to create anarchy by devising a story that creates fear.


Years ago when I first read the Poles flipping story, I had in my mind, so what happens to everything when it actually flips. Thinking that the Flip was something that took place over hrs or Days. Do DC motors run the otherway? Will our Earth be exposed to dangerous radiation.
On the funny side, a mate and I came up with silly answers, like the Radio would play all the songs backward and we would hear all the Backward masking words on songs and we would find out Adele was really Satan. TV's would re run all the bad movies and reality shows and seeing as they are doing that more and more, it was proof the poles are flipping.

Anyway, on the serious side, it turns out the process is so slow (and no one actually knows just exactly how the process unfolds anyway) it seems that it's a process that can take over a thousand years to go through. No one was around last time it happened and it is only the Rocks that show us it happens. There does not seem to be anything of significance otherwise. They have not been able to pin any extinctions of animals on it, so the Earth must stay fairly safe through the process.


 

[AJ Oliver 154]

Well hmmmmm, sort of an unclear article, though I have to say that the U. of Colorado is reputable. (Full disclosure, I'm an alum) 

 

Magnetic north is actually moving all the time - and is now over Ellesmere Island, headed for Siberia at about 25 miles per year. 

 

On the Great Lakes where we are, the compass deviation between magnetic north and true north is about 5 degrees west. 

 

 

[Black Panther 1,581]

It just means you will have to stand on your head to read the compass.

[wheels 543]

There is a difference between the normal shifting of the Poles and the actual Pole flip. They are not related, or as far as Science understands it. Mind you, they haven't worked out why the Pole flip actually occurs yet, so maybe the two are related. I certainly have no idea.
The Earth does not spin accurately. It wobbles, Kind of like a spinning top that has become too slow and about to topple. 
The Earths Core, which is high in Iron, is molten, although highly viscous. The Earths spin drags the Iron core around with it, and the spin of the core is what creates the Magnetic field.
But because the Earth is wobbling and the Core is molten, the core does not want to faithfully follow the Earths spin exactly. It slightly lags the Earths movement and thus ever so slowly, the position of the Pole moves around.

[SloopJohnB 323]

Pole Flipping is that what you see in some seedy night club.

 

Rumor has it.

[SanFran 12]

But I want to know what happens when the moon finally leaves our orbit....

[SloopJohnB 323]

WHOT!!!!  Now the moon is about to bugger off?

 

I wonder what's next?

It heard the Yanks are coming back.

[SanFran 12]

It's getting out while it can. No intelligent life forms found.