Another Close Call

 

 

"This is not science fiction, it is science. It is a clear and present danger to every person on this planet..."

It was just a normal summer day for most of us. Like today, it was a Monday, and many of us were returning to work after a fun filled week at the lake or working in the yard. It was July 23, 2012. It was the day our way of life almost ended. It was a day that most of us had not idea of the danger we were in. It was a day, given slightly different circumstances, many of us would have suffered and died in the aftermath of what almost hit us.

What was it? It was (and will be again) a solar "super storm". Our sun is in a 150 storm cycle. We are now in the most violent period. When a solar storm erupts, there are two deadly byproducts. The first is something called a coronal mass ejection (CME) and the other are high speed solar flares. Normally the Earth's magnetic field can stop any harmful effects of our Sun's temper tantrums. That is, unless the Sun is having a "super storm".

If this geomagnetic "super storm" had hit a week earlier, it would had hit Earth's orbit. One week - 7 days. The strength of it would have overwhelmed the Earth's magnetic defense shield. The effects would have been catastrophic.

It would have different than what has been portrayed in Hollywood. In the movie Knowing, a massive solar flare torched the Earth, killing everyone, and leaving our blue marble nothing more than a burned out cinder.

However, the effects of this "super storm" hitting the Earth would be much more subtle, yet still deadly. Most of our satellites would be knocked out. Our GPS system would take years to repair. However the real damage would come to our electrical grid. Because of it's dated and fragile shape, it would be toast.

Most of us do not realize how much of our daily activities rely on that grid. Quite simply, without the grid, our daily lives would be similar to what it was in the mid 1800's. We would have no water, as our pumps and the power to operate them would be disabled. Our food supply chain would come to a screeching halt. Stores would be empty. Natural gas would stop flowing as the pumps that send it through our pipelines would have no power. It would be the end of life as we know it for many years. The death toll from starvation, exposure and disease would be staggering.

Even though we dodged the bullet this time, NASA is giving us a 12% chance of this event happening in the next 10 years. We are still in a violent period of solar activity. Some scientists estimate in this country alone, the cost to fix the damage if it hit us would be over $2T.

What can we do? First off, let me change topics just for a second. Reuters News estimates that if we do absolutely nothing with our worn out electric grid, our electric rates could rise 400% by 2050. However, if we upgraded to what is known as a Smart Grid, efficiencies could be engineered into our grid which would cut that increase down considerably. The Smart Grid would not only be smarter, but tougher. Tough enough to withstand harmful EMP effects from either natural or manmade causes.

It is estimated that to upgrade our current grid to a Smart Grid would take almost $500B and take 20 years. This is something we are very late to the party on. Smart Grid technology has been around for quite a while. The Japanese are implementing it. We should be also.

Here is a thought. When the "stimulus" package of $1T was authorized in 2009, just think if half of it was to implement the Smart Grid, and the other half was to build huge desalination water farms to aid our thirsty west. The "stimulus" package yielded nothing but more debt. These two projects alone would have benefited us all. All we can do now is cross our fingers and hope the 12% chance of being hit never happens.