All of us are familiar with news about global warming, more energy in the atmosphere that increases severe weather, and rising oceans. There are side effects that are escalating: disappearance of polar bears, pandas, gibbons, and hundreds more species associated with the human misuse of the planet. There is the issue of overpopulation, food distribution, interference by nationalism that stops solutions, abuse by entrepreneurs and corporations that lead to oil spills, ground pollution, air pollution, acid rain and on and on.
What all these troubled issues have in common is that they are manmade and man can repair them. While this is a tall order for humans, at least a solution is identifiable – if never accomplished.
Other troubles for the planet (from the human perspective) are not manmade and humans have no control over these planetary processes. Planet earth is in the midst of a polar shift of the magnetic field – the North Pole will become the South Pole and vice versa. Already a magnetic compass is of little use in most of the southern Atlantic Ocean. More important to humans is that while this polar shift occurs, the magnetic field protecting the Earth from dangerous solar wind will be weak and virtually disappear for a length of time. The effect is increased occurrences of cancer, unknown damage to plant and animal evolution, disruption of satellite communication, etc.
Another planetary issue is the wobble effect in the Earth’s declination. Very much like the toy gyroscope wobble, the Earth reaches a point of imbalance that causes a very noticeable adjustment in declination. The Earth’s “wobble” is increasing. The effect of the chaotic moment will bring on our next ice age. Some scientific predictions suggest this will happen in this century, though data is incomplete.
The major currents of the Earth’s oceans are slowing. For example, the Gulf Stream is pushing less and less warmth to the North Atlantic. This will cause very large changes in long term weather patterns along the eastern half of North America – it will be colder and Arctic fronts may visit Georgia; The British Isles may well have an eco shift toward weather more familiar in the Nordic nations.
(There was a link here but I removed it because many articles were not scientific in nature)
There are many more planetary activities beyond human control; one well known one is the impact of a meteor. Most relate in one way or another to the issues mentioned in this post.Lastly, more an entertaining factoid than a troublesome event, is the fact that the Moon is drifting away from the Earth at the same rate as one’s fingernails grow – about two and a half inches per year.
Ancient Mariner