What If Earth Spun Backwards?

What if Earth spun backwards? In this animated what if story, Earth's rotation reverses overnight: the sun rises in the west, and the planet starts spinning the other way. Here is what would really happen to our weather, oceans, deserts and civilization. You wake up, pull back the curtains — and the sunrise is on the wrong side of the sky. Your compass still points north, but Earth is now rotating in reverse. Satellites fight the spin, migrating birds fly the wrong way, and the Coriolis effect flips, so hurricanes turn in the opposite direction. The Gulf Stream collapses and Europe freezes at −35 °C, while monsoon rains turn the Sahara Desert into a green savanna and the southeastern United States and East Asia dry out. A 2018 Max Planck supercomputer simulation shows a backward-spinning Earth would be greener — so why would it be a catastrophe for us? Chapters: 0:00 The sun rises in the west 0:31 4.5 billion years of Earth's rotation 0:44 Earth spins backwards 1:05 Why rotation controls our climate 1:20 The first 48 hours 1:34 Satellites fighting the spin 1:51 Birds flying the wrong way 2:11 The Coriolis effect flips 2:40 The winds reverse 2:56 Month 2: the oceans turn 3:13 The Gulf Stream 3:46 The Gulf Stream collapses 4:08 Europe at −35 °C 4:56 The Sahara turns green 6:11 The planet's balance sheet 6:29 Drought in the southeastern US 7:17 Asia's monsoons fail 7:44 The 2018 supercomputer simulation 7:59 A greener planet 8:26 A geopolitical catastrophe 8:57 The spin that shaped history 9:14 Could we adapt? If Earth spun backwards, how do YOU think modern society would cope? Could we adapt, or would resource wars tear civilization apart? Tell us in the comments. Subscribe for more What If stories. Every what if becomes a story. Science notes: Earth rotates from west to east, and a point on the equator moves at about 1,670 km/h; the Coriolis effect deflects moving air to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere, which is why cyclones spin counterclockwise in the north and clockwise in the south; the Gulf Stream carries warm tropical water across the Atlantic and keeps Western Europe much milder than other regions at the same latitude; in 2018, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology simulated an Earth with reversed rotation and found a significantly greener planet with a vegetated Sahara; Venus really does spin backwards, so on Venus the sun rises in the west. #whatif #earth #animation