The Earth's Axis

What if the earth's axis shifted? This is the intriguing question posed by Charles Hapgood's The Path of the Pole. The axis of the earth is the tilt of its spin relative to its orbit around the sun. The earth is currently tilted 23 degrees off the plane of the ecliptic (the path of the planets around the sun). This means that the equator is usually pointing at the sun. But what if the earth were tilted so that the South Pole was pointing at the sun? That would have big consequences for us. The polar ice cap would melt and the seas would rise and most animals and humans would perish off the face of the earth. It is perhaps no coincidence that Albert Einstein wrote a preface to Hapgood's book. The great physicist took this threat very seriously because the earth's axis "does not run straight up and down at right angles to the plane of the sun's equator, but slants at an angle. Any change in this angle, in the position of this axis, would be very important for us" (Hapgood 1). The importance of this subject and the fact that Einstein wrote a preface is not enough for most scientists. Today Hapgood is regarded as little more than a wrongheaded and misguided thinker. Yet I desperately want to read his book. To me it sounds like an amazing theory.

References

Hapgood, Charles
1999. The Path of the Pole. Kempton, IL: Adventures Unlimited Press.