Journal 2: September 8th

I read ahead this week to Chapter 2 in the Geosystems text. As I came to the part about solar wind, I came across this term:

"The magnetosphere is a magnetic field surrounding earth, generated by dynamo-like motions within out planet. The magnetosphere deflects the solar wind toward both of Earth's poles so that only a small portion of it enters the atmosphere."

This made me immediately remember this article that I had found while browing current.com:

http://current.com/items/89067843_earth_s_magnetic_field_changing_fast
which linked to this National Geographic article:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080630-earth-core.html

I went online to find the articles again & got a sick feeling in my stomach. If the magnetosphere is changing and weakening, then the solar wind may not be deflected to the poles and more of it will porbably enter the atmosphere. This is scary stuff. Although the article does not give clues as to whether this change in the Earth's core is related to global warming or independent of it, it is certainly another aspect of physical change on Earth that must be considered. I think it is important to try and find out what is causing this so we can fix any human causes that may be contributing to this problem.