One of the things that freak me out these days is the sun.
Yeah that thing that makes all life on this planet even possible.
No, I haven’t become some sort of vampire. Or mogwai (I’m not quite that cute).
No, my fears about the sun are based more on things like:
“A strong wave of charged plasma particles emanating from the Jupiter-sized sun spot, the most powerful seen in four years” – Huge solar flare jams radio, satellite signals: NASA
The size of freaking Jupiter people!
Ok, so you might be thinking: Sure Scott, that’s pretty big, but so what?
Problem is that those waves of charged plasma particles cause all sorts of havoc when they hit our little planet. The Earth’s ionosphere does its best to block these storms, and ends up funneling most of it to the North and South Pole (which causes the aurora borealis).
Now the aurora borealis is beautiful and all. I would like to see it in person one day.
But they are symptoms of huge amounts of radiation from the sun slamming into the earth’s “shield”. And it turns out that earth’s shield does an admirable, but not entirely effective job.
As a result you get disruptions to electrical power grids, radio, electronics (anything with a circuit board) and satellite communications (including GPS).
Now imagine your day today without any of the above. No radio. No GPS. No Satellite TV. No iPhone. Oh yeah, and no power.
Eh, you might be thinking, I’ve had to do that before. No biggy.
Ok so then, maybe imagine the next few weeks or months like that. And not just for you. Everyone around you. Potentially whole countries of people.
Bit of a different story now? Imagine the social chaos.
I’ve done a lot of reading on this topic. Watched documentaries. Makes me want to go into survivalist mode and start putting away food and making preparations for life without electricity. Read NASA’s Severe Space Weather – Social and Economic Impacts report, and you might too.