Magnetic North Pole Moving to Siberia

The Earth’s magnetic field is shifting. Within fifty years, the magnetic North Pole (distinct from the Geographic Pole) could move out of Canada and into Siberia. First, global warming, then bird flu, and now this. But no need to panic. “This may be part of a normal oscillation and it will eventually migrate back toward Canada,” Joseph Stoner, a palaeomagnetist at Oregon State University, told a meeting of the American Geophysical Union [AGU] in San Francisco last week.

The Earth’s magnetic field gets even less consideration than the ozone layer, but it is extremely useful. Thanks to it, and the revolving metallic core that generates it, nasty charged particles from outer space don’t do much damage to living things in the biosphere. In doing so, it also creates the aurora borealis (and the aurora australialis for those at the other end of the globe), which has to be seen to be believed.

Dr. Stoner and others in his field have shown that the world’s magnetic field shifts around quite a bit. Indeed, the poles have switched from time to time, most recently 780,000 years ago. They have also shown that the field’s intensity has dropped 10% in the last 150 years. It’s amazing what one can find out by studying the sediment in Alaska’s lakes.

The big news is that the moving pole may mean that Alaskans won’t have the Northern Lights to look at when the century ends. Beyond that, there doesn’t seem to be anything to this. It doesn’t threaten life as mankind knows it; it doesn’t shift power to small nations with obstreperous governments or awkward religious beliefs; it doesn’t even rate a conference among third deputy secretaries at foreign ministries.

Nature, though, is like that. It doesn’t really care whether the human race is affected by what happens; it is incapable of caring at all. Those who anthropomorphize nature (Mother Nature, Gaia) and create in their minds a benevolent force guiding humanity are deluding themselves. As are those who view existence as a struggle against nature. Actually, human beings would have a better sense of their place if the northern lights were visible to everyone. Since that isn’t possible, trips to Alaska will suffice. But hurry, in a few years, one will have to go to Siberia, and the airfare won’t be as cheap.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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