Earth’s magnetic fields help sustain life on our planet, but they can also be a driver for climate change and the reason some species have become extinct.
This is the bold claim in one scientific document, scientific publication published this week in the journal Science.
The magazine article states that atmospheric changes had such a radical impact on the planet over 40,000 years ago that they caused significant environmental damage and even extinctions.
The planet’s magnetic fields protect Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation and play a vital role in preserving life, but vary in strength as the magnetic poles sometimes even change position.
This phenomenon, critics of the newspaper’s claims, has never before been irrefutably linked to extinction events or major ecological disasters in Earth’s history.
How did scientists arrive at this theory?
The scientists behind the study examined the rings of kauri trees, a species native to New Zealand that can live up to 1,000 years and whose wood survives tens of thousands of years in swamps and wetlands, as the basis for their theory.
Using radiocarbon dating techniques, they found that the trees they examined were over 40,000 years old, which would mean they grew at a time known as the ‘Laschamp Excursion’.
The latter was an event in which the Earth’s magnetic fields weakened significantly. Studies of the wood samples showed a peak of carbon-14 in the rings of the trees, suggesting that the Earth was exposed to high levels of cosmic particles and radiation from space.
The team estimates that these particles contributed to the destruction of the Earth’s ozone layer, which in turn triggered changes in the global climate and environmental changes.
Some critics are skeptical
While critics suggest the research yields some interesting avenues of inquiry, they say it researchers stretch too far in their conclusions
In particular, linking climate changes to other events that happened at the same time, such as the extinction of Neanderthals and the emergence of advanced cave painting styles.
As for the researchers – they claim that early humans took shelter in caves because of the increased radiation and that they used ocher, the main material used in cave painting, as a rudimental sunscreen. But others point out that they were known to live in caves and used the earth pigment for artistic purposes for tens of thousands of years before the ‘Laschamp excursion’.
Do magnetic fields contribute to drastic changes in the global climate? While the research published by Science has merits, critics conclude, the jury appears to be outside the wider scientific community.
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