Could Earth’s Magnetic Field be causing Global Warming?

February 16, 2007 - According to Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, scientists around the world need to stop looking at the issue of global warming critically and simply accept the findings of the U.N. report released in Paris on February 2, 2007. He said, “It is critical that we look at this report … as a moment where the focus of attention will shift from whether climate change is linked to human activity, whether the science is sufficient, to what on earth are we going to do about it.” While I would agree that it is important for humans to take a look at their impacts on the environment, throwing out scientific theory and the time-honored tradition of peer review certainly won’t help us in this challenge. I hope that there are still plenty of “maverick” scientists out there willing to risk their reputation and their careers in an attempt to better understand this critical issue. Even though I am far from a scientist in this field, I have several questions about the integrity of the U.N. Report.

Earth's Magnetosphere under attack by a Solar Flare.
Earth’s Magnetosphere under attack by a Solar Flare.

First, the report seems to have a very short timeline for comparative change. The charts contained in the report only date back about 10,000 years. Consider that scientists say that the earth has been in an “Ice House Climate” for the last 30 million years and experienced its last Glacial Maximum a full 18,000 years ago. This means that the data scientists are currently using to predict the earth’s near future doesn’t even extend back to the last ice age. In the broader scheme of things it would be like taking a sample for one second and trying to make predictions for the upcoming hour. This is very difficult to do without a massive amount of variables to support your findings. Two variables that I find missing from the U.N. Report has to do with both solar activity and the earth’s rapid degradation of the magnetosphere.

For us to accept the U.N. findings about human impact on the average temperature of the earth we must first accept that the sun is a constant variable. That is, we must assume that the number one engine for heat in this dynamic system is not only consistent, but constant. Unfortunately, this seems, by recent observation, to be far from true. The sun appears to change almost daily. It usually follows an average 11-year cycle resulting in a solarmax event but has been known to stay at solarmax for a period of over one hundred years. Such an event occurred not too long ago. In fact, ice- covered Greenland got its name from the Viking, Eric the Red, who in 982 a.d. first discovered and colonized the then lush and “green” land. The average temperature of the earth at the time was far above anything that the U.N. Report tells us we can expect from global warming.

Model showing Earths magnetic in chaos before reversal.

Model showing Earths magnetic in chaos before reversal.

Another strange phenomenon that scientists are watching closely is the rapid degradation of the earth’s magnetic field. This is something that occurs regularly throughout the life of the planet. In fact, many scientists believe that most of the people on the planet will, within their lifetimes, experience a point where the average magnetic compass will cease to function and simply spin wildly as the earth’s magnetic poles flip north to south. This process is projected by models to take from 100 to 1000 years and during which time the earth’s protective field will be at only approximately 10% of its original strength. Even now as the magnetosphere weakens the earth is experiencing intrusions near our upper atmosphere from super heated solar winds that are able to push dangerously close to our upper atmosphere. As the earth’s magnetic field weakens, people around the world will be dazzled by aurora lights dancing around every corner of the sky. At the same time our atmosphere will be repeatedly struck by super hot blasts of charged solar plasma that is expected to actually blow from 10% to 20% of the earth’s atmosphere into space. Most scientists now believe that is what happened to Mars as its core stopped moving and its magnetic field died. For those that doubt solar wind has any effect on global temperature think again. For some time now scientists have observed sizable drops in the earth’s temperature when sun spot numbers are low to nonexistent. Conversely, when sunspot activity is high and coronal mass ejections that form solar winds are also peaking, as it does during a solarmax event, the earth sees a dramatic rise in temperature. I find it highly consequential that the weakening of the earth’s magnetic field seemed to begin during the last century just as earth’s temperature was also documented to rise.

Model showing Earths magnetic in chaos during reversal.

Model showing Earths magnetic in chaos during reversal.

Now if the correlation between greenhouse gases increasing during the same period is cause for alarm, why would we not also take a look at our increasing exposure to the solar activities as a possible cause for global temperature changes? I am not saying that humans are not having an impact on global warming. I think that the argument for preserving a livable environment by reducing airborne pollutants is a plenty strong enough argument for us to act now not later. Unfortunately, hysteria seems to have gripped the scientific community. For those of you who do not understand how the scientific community works, let me give you a little perspective. The idea that scientists sit around having logical conversations, sharing data, comparing notes and complimenting each other when brilliant yet unorthodox views are presented is completely wrong. We are talking about a group of individuals that can be as cut-throat as anyone. These individuals only release data once they can publish with their name behind it. There is truly very little collaboration that takes place between even like-minded camps. When camps oppose each other, they can get downright vicious in their criticism and will actually seek to destroy each other’s careers. A good example of this can be found in the world of physics where classical Einstein style theorists would clash with the new science of Quantum physics. The division between the two camps was so bad that they would rarely even speak to each other. That is until famed physicist Steven Hawkins was able to develop a new theory by combining the two methods. Of course he was later himself criticized for theories that he proposed along the lines of Einstein’s grand unification theory.

So when we hear someone from the U.N. tell us that we should all stop even discussing something, we should all be a little weary. To know anything we must first question, then observe, then discuss, then question again. I’m not even a scientist and I know that. I also know that while much of the US is experiencing near record low temperatures, there is hardly a sunspot to be found. In the meantime I invite a single scientist to discredit my theory that a weakening magnetosphere might be, at the very least, a contributing factor in global warming.

Sun at Solar Minimum (left) and Solar Maximum (right)

Sun at Solar Minimum (left) and Solar Maximum (right)

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