Muddled Magnets
The Earth’s magnetic poles swapping sides sounds like a piece of science fiction, but it’s totally real. In fact, it’s happened before! The last time this happened was around 772,000 to 774,000 years ago, which was way before humans had even evolved. But what could be the effect of this?
When this happens, the magnetic field still protects Earth from harmful cosmic rays and particles from the Sun, but it’s just not as powerful. The biggest effect would be on our communication systems and power grids, which would be completely destroyed. It’d also have bad effects on animals that need the magnetic field to migrate.