(dramatic rumbling resounds)

- Earth's magnetic field is the basis

for all modern navigation from airplanes

to satellites in space and ships at sea,

even Google Maps and smartphones.

If it continues to deteriorate,

those systems and more are at risk.

The Earth's magnetic north was moving

even before it was discovered in 1831.

It's a natural processdriven by molten iron

moving deep beneath the Earth's crust,

but magnetic north isnow moving so quickly

that it forced the world'sgeomagnetism experts

to update the worldmagnetic model a year early.

If the Earth's magneticfield decays significantly

scientists say it couldcollapse altogether.

and flip polarity, changingmagnetic north to south

and south to north.

The planet's magnetic poles are believed

to have flipped before in Earth history,

but never in a time with sucha dependence on technology.

And many scientists now saya flip of north and south

is looking more and more certain.

Dale Hurd, CBN News.

- Well, Dr. Hugh Ross is an astronomer

and founder of Reason toBelieve and he joins us now.

And Dr. Ross, I'm justdelighted to have you with us.

Tell us what this whole magnetic field is.

And you said this is one ofthe unique characteristics

of why the Earth is soimportant, tell us about it.

- Well, Earth has a strongdipole magnetic field,

and that prevents water frombeing lost from the Earth,

also protects us from the deadly radiation

from both the Sun and cosmic rays.

And these reversals thatwe've been hearing about,

they've happened several 100 times

in the past half billionyears of Earth's history.

And we already got a pretty good idea

of what's gonna happen during reversal.

It'll be similar to what happened in 1859

when we got hit by a big solar flare.

I mean, the magnetic field weakens,

but there's a paper publishedby a Harvard astronomer

just a couple of weeksago making the point

that as long as thesereversals are short-lived

it does no damage to life onEarth or to our water loss.

And we've survivedseveral 100 in the past,

but it will have significant consequences

for our high-technology civilization.

I mean, for example, if something similar

to what happened in 1859were to happen today

it would probably knockout several GPS satellites

and it would definitelydisrupt communications.

The biggest consequenceis the damage it could do

to our electric power grids.

And so I think it would bewise in view of the fact

that we know this is gonna happen

in the relatively nearfuture to take steps

to protect the world's power grids.

That will cost a few billion dollars,

but that's a whole lot lessthan experiencing a shutdown

of our electric powergrids for months or years.

- Well, you mention aboutthe desiccation thing.

If it's really severe, ifwe lose the magnetic field

that we would be subject to solar flares

that could dry up our oceans,could you talk about that?

- Well again, if welose our magnetic field

for a significant period of time, yeah,

it would have catastrophic consequences

for animal life on planet Earth.

And it's one thing we notice

is we got our strong dipole magnetic field

just before God created the first animals.

I mean, the timing was remarkable.

But what this paper from aHarvard astronomer indicates

is that as long as the reversalis relatively short-lived,

decades or hundreds ofyears, it OK for life

on planet Earth, however it's not OK

for a high-technology civilization,

and it'd definitely be worth our while

to spend some money toprotect the power grids.

I mean, for example, in1989 there was a solar flare

that knocked out the Quebec power grid

and it cost many billions of dollars.

And what's happened isthe Quebec government

has now put in the protective measures

so if that happens again,the power grid stays up.

The rest of the world'spower grid is not protected.

So given that these kinds of events,

I mean, we have a solarflare like we did in 1859,

regardless of whether weget a magnetic reversal

we get the same consequence.

We now have the research toknow what we're gonna face

when this happens, andwe can take appropriate

preventive measures to ensure

that our high-technologycivilization remains intact.

- You say that the cost wouldbe a few billion dollars,

but the consequences ofknocking out a power grill

would be in the trillionsof dollars, wouldn't it?

Is Congress doing anything about this?

- Well, I think this news of the fact

that we may be cominginto a magnetic reversal

may get attention from theworld's governments and say,

maybe we need to takesome steps to prepare

just like we prepare for firedisasters or flood disasters.

This is something thatwe know is inevitable.

I mean, for example, we get solar flares

like we got in 1859 everyfew 100 years, maybe less,

so it'd be wise for usto take steps to protect.

And the remarkable thing is, we're living

at the optimal moment inthe history of the Sun

where we get the fewestnumber of such flares

that happened in 1859,so that's a blessing

that we're living at the optimaltime in the Sun's history.

Nevertheless, we shouldbuild our house on the rock

and not on the sand andtake steps to prepare.

- What about the instance of cancer?

If this magnetic field is weakened,

is the instance of cancer moreprevalent among human beings?

- Well, during a magnetic reversal

the magnetic field ofthe Earth could decline

to 40% of its present value.

The worst-case scenario is 5%.

In either case, given howbrief these events are,

it's not gonna significantlyimpact our health.

I mean, if it were tolast for centuries on end,

probably the thing you would notice

is your crop productivitywould drop a little bit,

maybe 10, 20, even 50%, butin terms of human health

it would have to be down at the 5% level

literally for centuriesbefore we would notice

a significant uptick in cancer.

The real danger is what's gonna happen

to our high-technology civilization.

- Is there anything that thehumans can do to prevent this?

I mean, this magnetic field's in our core.

Is there nothing we can do tochange this polarity, can we?

- The only thing we coulddo is go into the interior

of the Earth and changewhat's going on there.

That's not feasible, and again,

this has happened hundredsof times in the past

half billion years whilelife has survived just fine.

So this is not catastrophic to life.

We can't see a single extinction event

that's tied to any ofthese magnetic reversals.

So again, I think the best thing we can do

is take measures toprotect our power grids.

- One last thing, what about this business

about the North Pole shifting, and it goes

as I understand it, as much asabout 40 miles toward Russia.

Am I correct in that?

- Yes, I mean, the north magnetic pole

is heading towards the North Pole.

Actually it means that yourcompasses are more accurate

than they were 30, 40 years ago.

So in one sense that's a good thing.

But yeah, it's continuing tomove, and that's always a sign

that you might be headingtowards a reversal.

And anybody who's interested in this,

I've actually written a detailed article

on this coming reversal in my blog

called Today's New Reason to Believe.

You can get that at reasons.org.

- Thank you Dr. Ross.

I appreciate so much you being with us.

- You're very welcome.- We're just thrilled.

He's teaching a course, by the way,

that's being compulsory forall the divinity students

at Regent University called Cosmology.

We're talking about theorigin of the cosmos,

where does it come from?

And we've got distinguishedscientists teaching it,

and it's really tremendous.