by Bobby Akart
“Mr. President, Ms. O’Donnell, my name is Professor Gerald Lansing with the USGS. If I may, let me give you the bottom line, and then I’ll provide you an explanation.”
“Please do,” encouraged an impatient President Houston.
“The Earth’s magnetic field has weakened considerably. This appears to be happening because the planet is experiencing what is known as a superfast magnetic reversal.”
The president grasped the pen to stop it from spinning. The professor had his full attention. He began to place the pen back in his shirt pocket, but the professor boldly stopped him.
“Actually, Mr. President, may we use your pen to illustrate my point?”
The president shrugged and then asked, “Sure, but don’t you have your own pen?”
The professor boldly smiled. “I do, but yours is nicer. And because it is a Montblanc, it is apropos. Let me explain.”
The president laughed, as did others in the room, taking the edge off the tense moment. The president slid the pen across the table, and Professor Lansing began.
“We have evidence that a pole shift is in progress and is occurring much faster than the geologic record has shown in the past.” He took the pen and pointed it toward the president. “Sir, magnetic north and true north, as we know it, are not the same. Magnetic north will wander based upon what’s happening within the Earth’s core.
“Deep beneath the planet’s surface, liquid iron is sloshing around at its core, causing the North Pole to move away from Canada and towards Siberia.”
As the professor spoke, he wiggled the Montblanc slightly to indicate a compass needle fluctuating.
“In recent years, this movement has significantly altered where the magnetic north pole is located, and has caused global geomagnetism experts to undergo an urgent update of the World Magnetic Model. Ordinarily, this is done every five to ten years, but because of the rapid movement, we are monitoring it daily now.”
“So you’re saying the North Pole is in Siberia?” asked the president.
“No, sir. Now it is closer to Kazakhstan and is approaching the Caspian Sea just east of Georgia.
“The fast motion of the north magnetic pole is most likely linked to a high-speed jet of liquid iron beneath Canada. In fact, and please excuse the hypothetical because we are in the early stages of studying this phenomenon, the location of the north magnetic pole appears to be governed by two large-scale patches of the magnetic field. One is located beneath Northern Canada, and the other is in Kazakhstan.”
The president’s demeanor changed considerably. Suddenly, legislative battles in Congress seemed petty by comparison. “Are you saying we are experiencing a change to the Earth that may result in two north poles?”
“Yes, Mr. President, and possibly more. For now, based upon our data, there are two distinct magnetic north poles. One is based in Canada, the other in Kazakhstan, but the patch of liquid iron beneath Eastern Europe is winning.”
The professor slid the pen back to the president, who rolled it through his fingers. “You said this has some relation to Montblanc. What did you mean by that?”
“Sir, for decades, the rising global temperatures was causing the massive Mont Blanc glacier in Northern Italy on the border of France to melt. This five-hundred-square-mile mountain of ice was losing large chunks of ice and causing flooding throughout Southern France and Switzerland.”
“Okay?” the president asked, seemingly unsure of the relationship between the melt-off and the pole shift.
“Sir, Mont Blanc is experiencing a rapid refreeze. We have reports that the mountain is experiencing high-speed, frigid upper-level winds coming from the eastern parts of Europe, resulting in subzero temperatures. These winds bear all the similarities to an Alberta clipper, the fast-moving low-pressure systems that come from Canada and invade the United States from time to time. Only, the winds experienced across Northern Italy are coming from the east.
“Further, the Caspian Sea, which is near the current magnetic north that is moving across Kazakhstan, is beginning to freeze over in its shallowest regions.”
O’Donnell interrupted the professor. “The Caspian’s strategic importance lies in its energy resources. It is oil and natural gas rich and has been tapped by Europe as part of the Trans-Caspian Pipeline to avoid dependence on Russian or Iranian energy. A disruption in the flow of natural gas, for example, would devastate the European economy.”
Nola Taylor spoke up. “Ms. O’Donnell, this brings us full circle to the realistic threat our nation, and the world, faces. With the weakened magnetic field, we are more susceptible to these geomagnetic storms. Every week, a G1 storm, like the one that hit Europe, passes over our planet. It’s just a matter of time before the United States receives a direct hit of a geostorm and we suffer the same fate as Eastern Europe.”
The president raised his hand to stop the conversation. “If I understand you both, not only is this pole shift going to generate significant changes in our weather patterns, but the weakened magnetic field could cause our power grid to collapse due to a geostorm?”
“Yes, sir,” Taylor and Lansing replied in unison.
Chapter 9
The White House
Washington, DC
Chief of Staff Angela O’Donnell had been listening to the discussion while checking her direct messages on her smart phone. World leaders were asking to speak with the president as the situation in Europe was unfolding. Words like permanent, long-lasting, catastrophic, and deadly were used by her counterparts in Europe. She scowled as she read message after message, as the realization came over her that the president was about to be distracted, but rightfully so.
The president continued his inquiry. “Okay, I understand this is a rapidly developing situation, although for the life of me I don’t understand how it could go undetected for however long it took for the north pole, or poles, I guess, to begin moving across Russia. With that given, what are we facing here?”
Taylor responded, “A geostorm of the level that hit Eastern Europe could come our way within days or weeks, depending upon the Sun’s activity. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, SOHO, is a spacecraft designed to study the internal structure of the sun and its extensive outer atmosphere.
“SOHO takes snapshots of activity on the Sun’s surface, such as coronal holes, the low-density regions of the Sun’s atmosphere that are the source of the high-speed winds of solar particles emitted into space. As these coronal holes release this solar matter, soaring up and away from the Sun’s surface, conditions are created for massive solar flares.
“At the moment, we are monitoring one such active region, AR4111. Seventy-two hours ago, this active region released a series of non-Earth-directed X-flares, with the most powerful being an X1.4. Now, in the scheme of things, this is a relatively benign solar flare and not likely to cause damage to our planet’s critical infrastructure.
“However, just over thirty-six hours ago, a more powerful X2.2-class solar flare was emitted. The SOHO data revealed this to be the brightest, most powerful of the year. Although it was much weaker than the X-flare that took down the Quebec power grid in eighty-nine, it still managed to cause extensive damage in Eastern Europe when it hit the Earth’s atmosphere last night.”
“Do these coronal holes close up?” asked the president.
“Yes, sir, they do,” replied Taylor. “We’ve all studied the reports from the Joint ALMA Observatory in Chile. ALMA is the world’s largest radio telescope array in the world. The images and recorded data are conclusive. As the sun’s surface rotated out of view, it was expanding, not contracting. That means as the sun rotates on its axis over the next twenty-seven days, this active region could become larger. Or, as these things are somewhat unpredictable, it could disappear altogether.”
“That’s good,” remarked O’Donnell, seeking a glimmer of hope that this bad news might just disappear from their to-do list.
“True,” continued Taylor. “But there are more ac
tive regions coming into view in the coming days, any of which could yield the same potentially devastating result as the one that occurred last night in Europe.”
O’Donnell snarled, “Well, why don’t you let us know when a real threat exists?”
“We are,” replied Taylor. “In the same hemisphere as AR4111, another very large active region was noted twenty-six days ago. It too, was expanding and was responsible for several major X-flares. Fortunately, none of those were Earth-directed, meaning we dodged a bullet. We may not necessarily be as lucky next time.”
“When will you know if we are facing a threat?” asked the president.
Taylor pulled out her iPhone and launched her SSEC – GOES app developed by the University of Wisconsin, which now included solar activity. She studied the various images produced by GOES, the geostationary operational environmental satellite system operated by NOAA. She showed the images to the president and his chief of staff.
“The infrared technology provides us six different views of the sun at this precise moment. At the top left, you can see the sun’s ejection activity. As you can tell, it’s quite active. We’ll be monitoring these images as the active region rotates back into view.”
“When will that be?” asked O’Donnell.
“Tonight, late evening,” replied a NOAA representative who hadn’t spoken yet.
“And when will we learn if there is the potential for a geostorm?”
“In twenty-four to thirty-six hours,” the NOAA representative replied again before adding, “Then we’ll watch for the next one, and the one after that. Mr. President, we’ll have the potential for a geostorm every few days. There will be no rest.”
Chapter 10
Aboard American Airlines Flight
Atlantic Ocean
The massive American Airlines Boeing 777 steadily rose to its cruising altitude of forty-one thousand feet, soaring through the sky at five hundred seventy miles per hour. Chapman Boone allowed the turbulence to toss his head back and forth against the spacious seats he and Dr. Isabella Dubois shared in business class. The combination of three bourbons and Isabella’s soothing words helped him put the catastrophe that would soon be unfolding across France and Eastern Europe behind him. His entire focus was now protecting this beautiful new woman in his life and getting home to his family.
He felt no regret for his inability to convince his executive producers at The Weather Channel to act on his warnings. Their reaction was almost identical to that of Isabella’s coworkers at the research institute in Paris—ambivalence and doubt.
He chuckled to himself as he considered the old proverb that dated back to the twelfth century. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. It’s one of the English language’s oldest proverbs, first found in the Old English Homilies written in 1175. Like so many idioms adopted by cultures around the world, the descriptive phrase applied to many situations, including this one.
That said, Chapman was silently cursing himself for not thinking outside the box. All the signs were there. Tropical storm systems were on the move as hurricanes and typhoons migrated away from the equatorial regions and toward the North and South poles. Over the past forty years, the total number of storms had remained constant although what had increased was the number of successful storm births and their subsequent intensity.
It was natural for the media and climate scientists to define a storm by the amount of damage it had caused—monetarily and in human loss. Chapman looked beyond the hype and focused on the data. A major hurricane that reached the other upper levels of a Category 5 storm was disregarded by many as uneventful if it didn’t make landfall. The fact that the storm originated in an unusual location and followed a track that was out of the ordinary was not widely reported.
Chapman spent some time studying the formation and build of Atlantic hurricanes, but he was more interested in the expansion of the Pacific hurricane season. In the past decade, more tropical cyclones were forming off the Baja Peninsula and making their way into the Pacific Ocean. Historically, these storms would eventually lose their intensity because they feed on warm seawater over eighty degrees. The ocean water temperatures up the coast of California toward Washington were generally under seventy-five degrees.
As those readings began to rapidly rise in the last five years, climate-change alarmists blamed greenhouse gases despite the fact that carbon emissions had been steadily decreasing for decades. Nobody, including Chapman, bothered to look for alternative theories for the rapid change. Well, most people, anyway. There were a few, like Dr. Harry Pruitt in Greenland, who suspected a shift of the poles might be responsible. Even now, Chapman wondered if the geostorm that struck Eastern Europe really opened any minds to the pole-shift theory.
Be that as it may, Chapman, while still intrigued by the dramatic changes the planet was undergoing, needed to focus on survival. It was easy to get comfortable in the spacious business-class seats of the American Airlines jet and forget about these things that weighed heavily on his mind. However, geomagnetic storms, many much stronger than what just hit Europe, occur all the time.
The world was playing a dangerous game of Russian roulette with the Sun, and the Earth’s star was holding all the firepower.
Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned off the fasten seat belt signs, indicating we’ve reached our cruising altitude. You may now move about the cabin, and we will begin cabin service shortly. I regret to inform you that our in-flight internet connection will not be available for the duration of this flight, but we will be showing a movie momentarily. Our feature tonight is an American political thriller—The Boston Brahmin, featuring Ryan Reynolds and Ben Affleck.
“No internet,” Isabella whispered into his ear. “Do you think it’s the storm?”
“Hmm?” Chapman was still deep in thought. “Um, maybe. Airplanes use satellite-powered Wi-Fi through an antenna mounted on top of the plane. When over the water, they connect to satellites.”
“Maybe the satellites have been knocked out?” said Isabella.
“Or the airline has been informed of what really happened back there, and they’re initiating a communications blackout until they figure out what to do with us.”
“Chapman, what do you mean? Do you think the power is off in America, too?”
“No, I don’t think so,” he replied as he sat a little taller in his seat. He reached for her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze in an attempt to reassure her. And himself, too. “My guess is that American Airlines doesn’t want over two hundred panicked passengers and crew. I imagine the news will be exploding with this story over the next several hours.”
“You were deep in thought. Are you okay?”
Chapman managed a smile and nodded. “I’m punishing myself for not seeing the signs, or at least speaking out about the abnormal weather I observed.”
“Weather signs?”
“Yes, because that’s what I know. I was thinking about the number of hurricanes that were forming in the Pacific Ocean. The weather patterns in the western United States have changed considerably because the El Niño effect has returned.”
El Niño and La Niña were opposite phases of temperature fluctuations between the ocean and surrounding atmosphere in the east-central Pacific Ocean. A decade prior, La Niña, the cold phase, had overtaken the Pacific, having large-scale impacts on global weather. El Niño, Spanish for The Little Boy or Christ Child, was originally recognized by fishermen off the coast of South America in the seventeenth century with the onset of unusually warm waters.
Chapman continued. “The phases of El Niño and La Niña swap places every nine to twelve months. That changed a few years ago when the much warmer waters of El Niño became the norm. Looking back on it now, I should’ve questioned why the pattern didn’t follow its customary nine-to-twelve-month cycle. It all makes sense. The pole shift was changing the dynamic of the planet and her weather.”
Isabella gently kissed Chapman on the cheek as the movie be
gan. They both watched the opening scene.
“I have been there,” Isabella began, interrupting the silence between them. “That is in Ukraine near Mariupol. I attended a conference there years ago.”
Chapman nodded and tilted his head back in attempt to process all the events.
Isabella leaned over and whispered in his ear, “You should not bear this burden alone, mon amour. I am guilty as well.”
Chapter 11
Aboard American Airlines Flight
Atlantic Ocean
“My mind has been wandering from one scenario to another,” began Isabella. “I have wondered what our lives will be like under the constant threat of the Sun. There is no period in history to study. This has never happened to modern humanity.”
Chapman was philosophical. “Our star gives us life and it can take it away.”
“I have considered the psychological aspects of a world without power. How will civilization react to a world without lights? Sadly, it is electricity that dictates our daily activities. It defines us as being superior to all other forms of life on Earth in history.”
Chapman shook his head. “We will lose control figuratively and emotionally. Without electricity, supply chains will come to a halt. Food will not be delivered, and medical care will suffer. Police and fire departments will be overwhelmed as the strong assert their will over the weak.”
“People do not always play nice together,” said Isabella.
“No, they don’t. Our fellow man may be the least of our concerns. As the magnetic field weakens, the atmosphere that protects us from harmful rays will dissipate. We will be susceptible to acute radiation sickness similar to the way people die when exposed to a nuclear bomb. It will overwhelm the body’s ability to fight the high radiation levels.”