Evolution, Cosmic Rays and Magnetic Pole Shifts
If you ask me What could an ancient civilisation have predicted for Dec 21, 2012?, then my answer is a comet, either flying by or crashing into us, or a solar storm. If you take the predictive element out of the 2012 equation, my best guess is a magnetic pole shift, or crustal displacement, or both. Here’s an overview of my hypothesis, including some recent science news.
Magnetic Pole Shift
Scientists tell us that our magnetic poles have reversed in the past, and that they will again. They don’t really know how the process works, and are unable to predict the next reversal. They have been telling us that the process takes hundreds or thousands of years. Recent studies have shown that it can happen in the space of weeks or months, and I suggest it can happen overnight.
If a reversal involves a dramatic lessening of our geomagnetic field’s strength, then basically our shields are down, and cosmic rays reaching ground-level will greatly increase.
Crustal Displacement
Most scientists aren’t fans of this idea, but Einstein was. There is no known, accepted mechanism – although I am a keen on the Rotational Bending concept of James Bowles. But what if a magnetic field can cause a crustal displacement? The field is supposedly generated by the molten iron in our Earth’s core, but perhaps magnetic changes in the core lead to magnetic changes in the mantle? The mantle isn’t solid, and it contains iron. And if there are changes in the mantle, then that gives Bowles’ RB-Effect a chance to kick in. Mantle changes could also set off earthquakes and volcanoes.
Cosmic Rays
There are cosmic rays (or the remnants of such) zipping through your body as you read this. At the atomic level, our bodies are mostly empty space and those rays don’t do much harm. Perhaps only as much as our Earth’s background radiation. But if you greatly increase the number of cosmic rays reaching us, then you greatly increase rates of mutation.
Some scientists, typically global warming skeptics (yay!), believe that higher levels of cosmic rays cause an increase in cloud cover. This in turn affects our weather. A massive increase in cosmic rays could conceivably cause chaotic weather worldwide, endangering us all.
Evolution
So we might have all these things happening at the same time:
- Increased cosmic rays causing human mutations
- Increased cosmic rays causing chaotic weather
- Volcanoes and earthquakes
- Crustal displacement
And suddenly you have the human species decimated, and pockets of surviving humans who are suffering from mutations. Sounds like a recipe for evolution. Our bodies actually choose whether to repair mutated DNA or not, and my hypothesis is that when we are bombarded with mutations, our bodies choose to keep potentially beneficial mutations, and concentrates on fixing the harmful ones – this leads to evolution.
If the last cataclysm (or one of those prior) caused human evolution, we should see multiple new species, most of which turn out to be duds – plus us. See this BBC news item from Dec 2010:
Scientists say an entirely separate type of human identified from bones in Siberia co-existed and interbred with our own species. The ancient humans have been dubbed “Denisovans” after the caves in Siberia [nice and high in the Altai Mountains] where their remains were found… A study in Nature journal shows that Denisovans co-existed with Neanderthals and interbred with our species – perhaps around 50,000 years ago.
The actual estimate is 30,000-50,000 years old. And they had giant teeth, perhaps an evolutionary choice? So now we have the Denisovans, the Hobbits, the Neanderthals, and us all existing in the same time-frame, and I predict they’ll find more – and suddenly scientists will be puzzling over this explosion of human species.
Interestingly, it seems that different human races are partially descended from different species. The genomes of Papua New Guineans contain 4.8 percent Denisovan DNA. And before anyone starts going racist with this information, they should also know that generally-speaking Africans are the pure human, and the rest of us are 2.5 percent of the Neanderthal! Read more at the NY Times.
Regarding the two disasters that could have been predicted for 2012:
Solar Storm
A long-lived ancient culture (perhaps the Egyptians?) could easily have kept records of low-latitude auroras, and consequently noticed a pattern that causes them to nominate 2012 as a year of great auroras. As scary as such auroras may have been to ancient man, they represent a real risk to modern society – auroras occur during solar storms, and low-latitude auroras represent big enough solar storms to decapitate national power grids.
Comet
A long-period comet could have been observed multiple times, so that an ancient culture could predict its return in 2012. If this is indeed what 2012 is all about, I have nominated Comet Caesar as the most likely candidate.
