I appreciate your attempts to get people to think about science and
geophysics in particular; but, no offense, this question you pose is ridiculous.”
That's what a well-established Earth and Planetary scientist told me when I asked him what I could do to prepare for Earth's next Magnetic Reversal (i.e. magnetic north becomes magnetic south) as if it were daylights savings time.
First, some context. According to some people's interpretation of the Mayan calendar, the world will end on December 21, 2012, with just four shopping days left before Christmas. Some of those people think that the Doom includes an impossibly instant magnetic pole reversal which will add to the mayhem of said Doomsday. Also, Sony just made a big movie about the Doom.
Anyway, back to the scientist. He continued:
Too many people already are under the incorrect impression that a magnetic dipole reversal might start within their lifetimes. If the paleomagnetic record and all the theoretical studies on this problem that have been done mean anything, the soonest a reversal may start would be a couple thousand years from now and it's more likely that it won't.
I then reached out to another scientist - John Connerney of the Planetary Magnetospheres Laboratory at NASA Goddard – to get his take.
First question: Should we be worried about the next Magnetic Reversal?
Hear answer to "Should We Worry?"
Connerney added:
a reversal takes thousands of years to happen. Way beyond an individual's lifespan, to say nothing of attention span.
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