Comments on: Why aren’t we preparing for space storms?

By: Eri

Eri — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 04:28:19 +0000

I guess they’ll get the last laugh.

By: VelociraptorBlade

VelociraptorBlade — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 21:47:01 +0000

Lol, very.

By: mcfly

mcfly — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 18:17:03 +0000

How ironic!

By: VelociraptorBlade

VelociraptorBlade — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 07:08:58 +0000

So I SHOULD buy that Galaxie…..

By: ER

ER — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 03:06:12 +0000

Just think, Cuba will become the world’s leading automobile exporter. Only theirs will still be running.

By: TB

TB — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 22:54:00 +0000

If anyone still has a car with spark plugs and a distributor, and no little electronic black boxes under the hood, hang onto it. Those classics may be the only things running someday.

By: ER

ER — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 22:31:10 +0000

I wouldn’t worry about losing our atmosphere, in the last 3 billion years it hasn’t happened yet, so I doubt it will get that bad. This is more like global warning. The earth will survive ok, as will humanity. It’s industrial civilization that will take the pipe.

Defending against this threat is expensive, but not impossible. For example, all our military ships and aircraft are shielded from EMP effects that might be expected during nuclear war.

By: ER

ER — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 22:26:16 +0000

A rapidly varying electric field cutting across a conductor (like Hi-tension power lines) will generate currents that could fry control circuits, even if the power circuits automatically trip offline. Our entire society is now in the hands of digital circuitry that is extremely vulnerable to even tiny voltage or current variations. The electrical grid’s muscle might survive, but not its nerves.

And more and more of our vital functions are now dependent on integrated circuitry and microprocessors, not just here on earth, but in all those satellites we depend on for almost anything.

I’m keeping my sextant skills sharp, and I’m glad my .45 contains no electrical components.

By: VelociraptorBlade

VelociraptorBlade — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 21:00:39 +0000

Speaking as someone who lives eternally in fear of the next Carrington Super Flare, I see your point. Unfortunately, I can also see why people aren’t doing enough about this stuff, and most don’t even take “space weather” seriously. In the end, it looks like we’ll have to suffer through a few storms before humanity A) learns it’s lesson and starts building up defences against the sun, presumably after matters here on Earth have been settled (World peace and all that jazz); or B) It hits us hard. Best case scenario, we lose all our electronics. Worst case – WE BECOME MARS.

By: TB

TB — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:21:06 +0000

Yeah, but this is looking less “low risk” all the time. Certainly there’s more chance of a severe solar event than there is of an asteroid strike. I spent some time looking around for ways of defending individual computers or homes from this stuff, and there’s not that much of that out there either. I’m not hip enough to the technology of power transmission, but you’d think lightning protection would cover at least some of this.