Increasing solar activity could wreak havoc

[Skul]

The sun waking from a deep sleep may not sound like such a bad thing and years ago it might not have been.

However in today's world reliant on technology for the basics of everyday life, increasing levels of solar activity and the flares from the consequent 'space storm' could wreak complete havoc.

Nasa is telling us to prepare for a once in a generation storm which could result in widespread blackouts and leave us without critical communication signals for considerable periods of time.

The overheating of national power grids, mass disruption of air travel and the complete shut down of electronic items, navigation devices and major satellites are just some of the consequences of the sun reaching its maximum power in only a few years time.

As well as this, the bolt of lightning caused by the super storm could bring disastrous consequences for the world emergency service systems, hospital equipment and of course would leave us without our computers, sat navs and ipods.

The worst case scenario would see large parts of the world plunged into darkness for months

Most likely say senior scientists it will last hours and maybe days but this in a world reliant on high tech systems for almost everything we do is likely to have a drastic impact.

Source: Yahoo!

Not good...

[i_like_1981]

I personally don't believe this will happen. It seems to me like another fabrication with the purpose of diverting everybody's attention from the celebrity morons and World Suck, but then again, perhaps we need more things like that! I have my doubts that this will occur, but I suppose I'll end up looking the biggest tool on that day when my computer conks out just as I'm about to post the several thousand word post on here! (If I'm still around here then...)

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[Fat Man]

Well, actually, back in 1856 there was a major solar flare and it knocked out the telegraph system they had back then. It cause fires in some telegraph stations and some of the user were jolted by electric shocks when long blue sparks shot out for their telegraph keys.

So, yes, we could get another major solar flare, and now, today's technology is more fragile and more vulnerable to such a flare.

But if we knew in advance when it's coming we could power down the grid and warn people to turn off their computers and turn off all their appliances, then we can prevent any damage.

Also, satellites in orbit would have to be powered down during the solar flare.

Then, when it's over, we can power back up again. So, we might have to do without electricity for several hours and even a couple of days, but that wound be better than going without electricity for months while they're trying to repair the damage.

So, to avoid any damage, we just have to power down the grid until the solar flare passes.

[Indurrago]

I think I watched a history channel dramatization of this kind of event. One of the worst thing I can imagine that could happen is hospitals losing power.