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December 12, 2003
Cause and Effect
Some scientists are researching the cause(s) and effect(s) of the Earth's shrinking magnetic field.
The decline, as measured by magnetometers on Earth's surface, is 10 percent in the last 150 years. "We're seeing it's actually decreasing at a fairly impressive rate," said Dr. John A. Tarduno, a professor of geophysics at the University of Rochester.
Interesting, but not very you say? Not so. A weaker magnetic shield allows more high energy particles to penetrate from space, which can have a variety of effects....like shorting out satellites or producing "electrical surges leading to widespread blackouts." And then there's this effect.
Protons hitting the atmosphere also produce nitrogen oxide, which breaks apart ozone molecules that protect Earth from harmful ultraviolet light. At present, the nitrogen oxide appears mainly over the polar regions. Dr. Charles H. Jackman, an atmospheric scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, showed computer models indicating that with a weaker magnetic field, a series of strong solar storms could cause "significant but not catastrophic" ozone destruction over a much larger portion of the planet. The damage would naturally heal within two to three years, he said. [Emphasis mine]
Hmmm. And where is it that the big holes in the ozone have been found?
Could it be that we aren't really destroying the ozone after all?
Global warming my ass.
Posted by Rita at December 12, 2003 07:17 AM
Comments
I've always thought of global warming as a metaphore for the common sense that you can't keep sh**ing where you eat and expect to stay healthy and happy.
People feel this deeply, and almost certainly correctly, but when the entire earth is "where you eat," so to speak, you basically have to tell businesses not to sh** in order to comply with the principle. That's hard -- it's easier to act like you know exactly what problems will arise, and use them as threats.
If we can't predict the weather from day to day, how can we know what the insane amount of junk we're spewing into the air, water and earth will do to the weather in the next 50 years? If anything?
The much more certain result is that some things -- we have no idea which things -- are going to be permanently changed by the behaviour of our species. We like the planet as it is; change might be very bad.
Unfortunatly, much as the global warming folks would like to, we won't be able to say "I told you so" because we just don't know what the change will be until it happens.
Posted by: Aaron Butler at December 12, 2003 07:25 PM
Returning to the issue under discussion.....this change in electromagnetic core regression and fluctuation has been a projected reaction to heighten solar activity that commenced in the early 1980's. "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!" C. Little
And as a matter of practical fact; you can and do "sh*t where you eat and sleep and stay healthy and happy." And what makes the grass grow, Daddy?
Posted by: Bill at December 12, 2003 10:07 PM
I'll just come over and sh** on your dinner table sometime. You better not complain to me -- maybe some nice green grass will grow there.
Posted by: Aaron Butler at December 13, 2003 12:45 PM
Dear Aron: (sp!)
Anytime.....I'll pitch; you catch.....brings friends we'll have a party....
Posted by: Bill at December 14, 2003 03:46 PM