Summer Solstice 2024: The Celestial Event That’s Changing Everything
Imagine you’re lying in the longest day of the year. Your eyes closed, you’ve waited all year for this moment of sunshine. But what if summer solstice 2024 isn’t just an ordinary day of the calendar year? Get set to watch as the longest day upends more than the date on a calendar.
Come 20 June 2024, at 20:51 GMT (that’s 4:51 PM Eastern Time for those readers in the US), the Sun will reach its high point. It will do this sooner than it has in more than 200 years. Why care? Two reasons, really. Existence and the Universe are social activities, after all. The first reason is that this summer solstice will hit on a Saturday, one of the three summer solstices since the switch from California to Arizona time in 1967. The other years were 1905 and 1994. So it has been well over a century. Second, while this may seem totally indecipherable to you, some of you geeks will be keenly aware that 2024 is also the year of Gaia’s death by fire. How so? In cosmology and anthropic philosophy, the question ‘Why is there something rather than nothing?’ is often followed by ‘and why is it this way and not that?’
The American philosopher of science Thomas Nagel has expressed a common opinion by stating that philosophy is the pursuit of that distinction. From an anthropic perspective, this question is particularly meaningful when we examine Earth in the context of the Universe. Consider the probability of this beautiful, fertile rock floating in a seemingly endless sea of nothing … the finely tuned resonance of an athlete, a lithe acrobat, somehow created by inky flames that freeze the veins of flying saucers. So: why is this? Anthropic, or, more accurately, humanistic philosophy invokes a set of often existential, often metaphysical contrasts to the comparatively sterile tautologies or begging-the-question fallacies of science. Among the tagged items in this cartoon-like bag is the living planet hypothesis. The term itself and this distinction it imposes are clever inventions of the vicar’s son, the late James Lovelock.
And the way it’ll come to pass is by the clocks going back — an hour earlier — than they currently do. But so what, you’re thinking to yourself? I’ll start my day one hour before its ‘official’ beginning. It won’t matter hugely. Except that it does. It matters quite a lot. It matters to science, it matters to us, it even matters to the planet. You see, scientists aren’t all that bothered about clocks and calendars. Just because they include the year AD 1600 in their equations doesn’t really mean that Newtonian mechanics ended in 1666, Einsteinian thought in 1921, relativity in 1915, or quantum mechanics in 1926. Scientists know that good science is timeless. Ironically, though, that date pervades science in more subtle ways than they could ever care to imagine. Deep within the optimal mathematical algorithms that describe the laws of physics, that much-credited landmark year is concealed.
First of all, the elephant: climate change. As record-breaking heatwaves blister much of the Northern Hemisphere before summer has even gotten started, you might be wondering whether this early solstice will translate to an extra alarmed thermometer. But, as it turns out, the solstice itself has nothing to do with temperatures. The hottest days of the year come weeks after the solstice, thanks to what scientists call the ‘lag of the seasons’.
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And now, what? So what if the solstice has come a bit early this time, in 2020? Indeed, so what if it will again in 2021, in 2022, and in 2023, setting a new annual early solstice record with the solstice set to occur at 9:48 a.m., UT, on 21 December, 2023? The answer is, pay attention. Pay attention to spaghetti physics and all the delicate and important cosmic and planetary rhythms hung on the spaghetti strands. Pay attention to fine-tuned celestial physics, especially related to Earth and our sun. Importantly, pay attention to Sir Isaac Newton.
Hold on… there’s more! This eccentric solstice offers new wonders: the prospects for skywatchers and environmentalists, even energy companies. Solar power companies should be salivating in anticipation of a bonanza of extra photons from lingering daylight to charge up growing households. Can you power your entire neighborhood with this special day’s solar excess?
You’re probably thinking: ‘This is all very nice, but how does it relate to me?’ Excellent question. Here is where it gets interesting. This solstice can become a vehicle for helping you appreciate and participate more consciously in the rhythms of the Earth — much as our ancestors once did. As you reorient yourself to our savannah world today, reflect on where you fit into the cosmos. Perhaps you might even develop a renewed relationship to life. Go ahead.
But you don’t have to go the DIY Stonehenge route — (although if you do, we’re all jealous, send pictures!). Here are some other ideas for maximizing the experience:
Attend a solstice festival: From Sweden’s midsummer maypole dancing to the mass yoga sessions across India, people are celebrating in their own way.
Harness the sun: This is your sign that perhaps it’s time to look into solar power for your home.
Start a new tradition: a sunrise-to-sunset activity marathon. Golfers are already there!
Star gaze: As that later dusk stretches into twilight, that gives you more time to prepare for the twinkling of the glittering night.
Reflect and reset: Use this day as a sort of halfway check-in. On the whole, where are you now? Where do you still want to go?
The summer solstice of 2024 isn’t just turning over our calendars; it offers an opportunity to re-set our views, our habits, maybe even our world. Are you ready to re-enter the light and re-set the date? The sun isn’t going to wait — and neither should we!
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