What If Earth Started Spinning Backwards?

[Music] since its formation the earth has been revolving west to east on its axis if one day our planet started rotating in the opposite direction it would no longer be the earth as we know it in what ways would a clockwise rotation change the earth and why would you end up living in a desert this is what if and here's what would happen if the earth started spinning backwards you don't notice it but our planet spins pretty fast 460 meters per second as measured at the equator a sudden change of direction would cause disastrous winds and massive waves together these abnormal weather conditions would wipe out nearly everything above the ground let's just skip over this destroying transition imagine our planet reversed its direction billions of years ago you'd see the Sun and the moon rise in the West and said in the east and you'd never believe that the Sahara could be a desert how different would our planet turn out to be short answer the reverse spin would make earth much greener long answer this new rotation would change winds and ocean currents and that would shift the planet's climate entirely oceans work as a global climate control distributing the sun's heat all over the earth they divert moisture from the driest hottest Badlands and carry rainfall to thorny jungles if the earth reversed its rotation one very important climate driving current would disappear from the Atlantic Ocean instead a different current would surface in the Pacific and become responsible for distributing heat around the globe this new current would make the deserts retreat from africa and eurasia you'd have to go to the other side of the planet to do some quadbiking on the golden landscape more specifically to Brazil the US would also get very arid in the south but none of the new Barrens would be anywhere close to how dry the Sahara Desert is now there'd be much more vegetation covering the planet hey that's more oxygen for all of us but those living in Western Europe would be in for a shock the Pacific current would push a lot of cold water that way bringing freezing winters to the region Russia on the other hand would warm up and take a break from being the coldest country on earth life on the reverse spinning earth would be different to in the oceans cyanobacteria would dominate over other phytoplankton species billions of years ago the oxygen pumping cyanobacteria invented photosynthesis and transformed our planet's atmosphere maybe having so much more cyanobacteria on earth would alter the atmosphere even further filling it up with too much oxygen for us to even exist let's just leave the planet to spin the way it does and what if it stops rotating altogether well that's a story for another what if [Music]

Channel: What If

Views: 3,898,786

Keywords: what if, what happens if, scifi, science documentary, what if scenario, biggest questions in science, what if earth started spinning backwards, earth spinning backward, earth rotation and revolution, earth spinning, how fast is earth spinning, what if earth started spinning in opposite way, reversed spin, earth rotation, climate change, earth axis, what makes earth spin, what if earth stopped spinning

Id: zC0a-HYCvsM

Length: 3min 18sec (198 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 05 2019