re: #165 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

Magnetic field reversals have happened many, many times and we’re probably overdue for one. As the field passes through zero, the Earth’s magnetosphere will fade away, allowing a lot more solar wind particles and cosmic radiation to strike the atmosphere, so it’s not really true that nobody would notice any difference.

Well, true. The aurorae could also be more widespread, and probably the mutation rate would increase among organisms. But the reversals are not sudden, so we would have some warning if the Earth’s B field went to zero. There would probably be denialists, though. There are always denialists.