no one else worried about this?

[richbyers]

the ever increasing solar activity as it peaks this or next year....media giving it alot of attention- im always wary of whats in the media as they are full of mistakes however the point still stands- a major cme could knock out all power.....ive been looking around..there seems to be alot of 'oh well if it happens it happens' and 'at least we can see the borealis' but seriously....no one else worried...i mean from my health (relying on medication) to my studies- everything.

ive also seen alot of 'we shouldnt rely on technology' - this is ridiculous!!! civilisations grow and develop through technology- and im not just talking about ipads here- health advances, communication, warning, safety...all core to our age of living

people panicked just when they though a fuel strike was about to happen a few weeks ago....no one seems to give a..about this

so yeah...just wanted to throw this one out there

[dav1d]

Yes, of course.

Civilisations fall to centuries of horror & darkness. Infrastructure problems & external threats overwhelm their ability to cope & yes, knocking out electrical & electronic systems could be enough to do it to us: Hospitals, finance, intelligence, communications, transport & military capability just blown away. However, the big dark ages so far have given rise to stronger, more humane more civilised societies than existed before.

Chill. Short of emigrating to somewhere with a significantly lower population density, there's nothing you can do about it...

[Ganymede12]

I think that because we have so much warning about it that they will temporarily shut down electrical equipment to avoid damage. As soon as the solar storm has passed they will turn every thing back on and every thing will go back to normal... hopefully.

Besides, we'll be able to see the aurora!

[jonathan]

Electronics are designed these days to resist the effects of solar flares, they are a far cry from the 1980s or even 1990s. It would have to be a super massive CME that came directly at us to cause anything major, but for the minor stuff I have two UPS's for when the electricity supply gets interrupted. If the grid did go down for some reason then I'm sure a few seconds and a reboot and we'd be good to go again.

Realistically, broken underground cables are far more likely to be the cause of power outages than a CME.

[richbyers]

ok the first two replies sort of were exactly what i was talking about- all people seem to want to say is 'chill its gonna happen' or 'we can see the lights' ....... just because theres nowt you can do doesnt mean you should just chill..... i mean if you were told that you were going to get shot sometime in the next few years but you couldnt escape it- what are you gonna do? chill?

[Glen]

Power of the media for you I'm afraid. In my opinion it'll be a good thing if 'anything happens' (they have it covered btw) even so, think of all the jobs created, thoughts provoked, and peeps thinking wtf in the event of a total blackout... again, it can not/wont happen.

OK, maybe a few substations will fail, a couple of poorly maintained satellites go down so what Earth will continue to spin, and you will continue to smile until the next flap.

[Ganymede12]

As I was saying, we will have to go without technology for some time, but not for long. A few minutes maybe? 10 at the most.

[dav1d]

Nope. I'm chilled because I have an evacuation plan - not for this upcoming CME, there's nothing I can do in time for that. But in three years, I'll be gone from this green and pleasant land to somewhere which can feed its population in case of an excrement/fan interface....

[Mike Hawtin]

I think that because we have so much warning about it that they will temporarily shut down electrical equipment to avoid damage. As soon as the solar storm has passed they will turn every thing back on and every thing will go back to normal.

I'm touched by your faith in the powers that be, cast your mind back to the floods of 2007 and the resulting chaos.

[richbyers]

i envy those with faith.....for my medical needs, i think i shall start planning now...not that that's feasible given that you cant exactly walk up to the nhs and say....'er yeah...just incase of a major power outage...can i have a store of those highly powerful drugs........'

[RobH]

just because theres nowt you can do doesnt mean you should just chill..... i mean if you were told that you were going to get shot sometime in the next few years but you couldnt escape it- what are you gonna do? chill?

I would just get on with things.

Getting worried about things you have no control of is pointless.....I'm going to die one day...this is a certainty.....what should I do? Spend whatever time I have worrying about it, or just get on with things and hopefully have a nice life.

I've had this philosophy for a long time now, and for me, it works....in a nutshell....

Don't worry about things you have no control over, and if you have some control, again, don't worry...do something.

Rob

[David JM]

i mean if you were told that you were going to get shot sometime in the next few years but you couldnt escape it- what are you gonna do? chill?

Told by an astrologer? No, I'm not taking the mickey out of you, honest.

In the UK we are likely to start having power cuts in the next 2-5 years as old generating capacity gets turned off and nothing new comes on-line. This is partially because of the privatisiation of the generating capacity and partly because there is no incentive to build new. Me, I would enact a law that fined the power companies 1/10 of turnover per day that power was off because of undercapacity.

A CME could damage the power infrastructure. Could, not will. The problem is that we can neither predict or take avoiding action so there is little to be gained from losing sleep over it. You could turn survivalist and have a years supply of food & water in your house, a backup generator with fuel and the like but a CME is likely to affect some, not all, of the earth anyway.

Back to the point I quoted. I would be stressed for a while then carry on until the last few weeks when I would sell my house and "lock myself in a hotel room with a bottle of tequila and three she-boys" That was a quote from the film "Doom" [Portman, actually], it wouldn't be she-boys in my case. With one week to go I would try to find the blighter that was trying to do me in and do them in!

The most lilkely fall-out from a massive CME would be financial if the comsats were knocked out and all the city boys panic sold their shares.

I could spend my time worrying about what may happen, or I could start popping onto end of the world sites and telling the nutters that it's not Venus but Naboo that will cross the sun next month. Oh, and the solar maximum isn't very maximum at the moment, and the next one in 11 years isn't likely to be either.

[CFC]

i envy those with faith.....for my medical needs, i think i shall start planning now...not that that's feasible given that you cant exactly walk up to the nhs and say....'er yeah...just incase of a major power outage...can i have a store of those highly powerful drugs........'

I too have little faith in our lords and masters. On the other hand, do what you can and don't worry about things you have no control over. You'll only shorten your life and make it more unpleasant.

For your needs, planning ahead seems wise - so perhaps you could invest in an icebox to bury in the ground to keep your drugs cooler if they need that, and speak to your doctor about getting extra supplies in case of emergencies.

[kharga]

The NHS will have it all covered - you should have seen the planning that went on for the 2000 milenium bug.

[Glen]

I too have little faith in our lords and masters. On the other hand, do what you can and don't worry about things you have no control over. You'll only shorten your life and make it more unpleasant.

For your needs, planning ahead seems wise - so perhaps you could invest in an icebox to bury in the ground to keep your drugs cooler if they need that, and speak to your doctor about getting extra supplies in case of emergencies.

No need to be nasty fella. That said if you have little 'faith' in the man, educate yourself more, they are dumber than you are led to believe

[smt1988]

ok the first two replies sort of were exactly what i was talking about- all people seem to want to say is 'chill its gonna happen' or 'we can see the lights' ....... just because theres nowt you can do doesnt mean you should just chill..... i mean if you were told that you were going to get shot sometime in the next few years but you couldnt escape it- what are you gonna do? chill?

chill out man

[richbyers]

chill out man

if i had a head bang emoticon it would go here.....still i do wish i could- some people arent designed to just go with it though....anyways...theres alot of talk about back up systems/grid protectors....anyone have any definate insights on these..are they developed? no?

[Digz]

See you can dig out a recent episode of Horizon on the BBC iPlayer, a very good insight to this very subject IIRC.

[Photosbykev]

I'm touched by your faith in the powers that be, cast your mind back to the floods of 2007 and the resulting chaos.

We were without power or water for 3 weeks and were being given bottles of water to drink and wash in.

BUT we couldn't do anything about it so we just got on with it and smiled.

If you can do something then do it, if you can't then relax and save the stress for something worthwhile

Sent from my phone thingie using my fingers

[Quatermass]

Now we are able to focus our attention on the solar activity of our sun its both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because we can prepare for events we once could not have know about but bad in that we will all start worrying more and of course the media loves hype. But its good that we know more about our suns activitys and facinating.

http://www.livescience.com/20244-monster-sunspot-unleashes-solar-flares.html

[JB80]

theres alot of talk about back up systems/grid protectors....anyone have any definate insights on these..are they developed? no?

Yes they are, all hospitals and major services have generator back up. If the grid goes down then the backup gets switched on, it'll probably be a mess but not critical.

There is no need for a grid protector, the simple solution would be to switch the grid off in advance or conversely as the UK has a plan to actually increase the load of the grid by turning more on so it would balance out the surge.

Seriously, when someone cut the red wire and not the blue one Auckland was out of juice for 5 weeks.

Life went on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Auckland_power_crisis

This episode of Horizon was also enlightening if you hadn't already watched it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01d99vb

[Digz]

This episode of Horizon was also enlightening if you hadn't already watched it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01d99vb

Thats the one I was on about, thanks.

[Jon Sales]

Not worried about it.

[Glen]

Link to the aforementioned

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hh2bjJwS6s

[JB80]

Thats the one I was on about, thanks.

It was on again the other night on BBC 4.

I really found it quite interesting and wish they could of made it longer.