All that arduous survival training could soon pay off.
Brace yourselves, because the Sun is going to put electronics out of use, along with the entire energy grid.
At least that’s what various scientists across the globe have stressed recently.
In case you didn’t know, the star we adore so much is shifting cycles every 11 years or so.
As a new cycle dawns, the Sun’s activity either increases or decreases.
Sometimes these particles are bombarding Earth’s electromagnetic field with electrically charged particles, subsequently causing massive EM storms that have severe implications for our electric infrastructure.
So what exactly is this dire warning all about?
Well, we’ve had a record of our sun’s activity ever since 1755.
As of 2019, the Sun will enter its 25th cycle and will experience a solar minimum – a state in which phenomena like sunspots and solar flares are very much intensifying.
Even more, NASA researcher Dean Pesnell warns that “during a solar minimum, we can see the development of long-lived coronal holes.”
These are large areas where the sun’s magnetic field cracks open and releases gushes of solar particles dubbed coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
These travel as fast as solar winds, and can reach Earth as fast as 24h.
Should you be afraid?
You bet, because these Sun particle streams could literally send us back to the dark ages.
To make a better idea, if a solar storm with the same intensity as the one recorded in 1859, named Carrington Super-Flare, would hit Earth in 2019, it will cause trillion-dollars in damage as the power grid and all electronic gear would collapse.
For this reason, and a few others highlighted below, some scientists are afraid that the upcoming years will bring our civilization to a turning point where we will temporarily taste regress.
CMEs on record already caused a bit of distress.
In 1989 when this phenomenon occurred, a spike in voltage had collapsed the entire power grid of Hydro-Quebec in Canada, temporarily disabling electricity for millions of residents.
Moving further in time “during a big geomagnetic storm in 2003, a Japanese scientific satellite was lost and ten percent of the world’s satellite fleet suffered malfunctions,” according to Professor Richard Horne of the British Antarctic Survey.
When CMEs hit Earth’s EM field, satellites, GPS systems, even astronauts in space could suffer dire consequences.
The impact is so powerful that even airline jets and their passengers will feel its radioactive effects, especially while flying above the poles or oceans.
And you can imagine just how devastating a CME would be for a world turned mechanic(al) like our earth.
“Today we have around 1,500 satellites in orbit, with thousands more due to be launched in the next few years,” Professor Horn added. “…many systems have not been tested in a major storm, so there is a lot of uncertainty about what might happen.”
It’s true, we cannot know for sure, but we can speculate based on past events, as well as statistics at hand.
According to Mike Hapgood, chief space weather researcher at UK’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, “the Sun’s been very quiet for the last 10 years.
It reminds people not to be complacent.”
So our star has been quite silent for the last decade, and we’re now entering a solar minimum where the sun is likely to spit particles like crazy.
Something that will catch our governments off guard is extremely likely to happen!
And the biggest threat is if those CMEs spurt Earth’s way.
If this happens, we have a maximum of 24 hours to prepare for the impact.
Although scientists assure us that satellites in orbit can detect such events before they occur, there’s still much insecurity revolving around the emergency plan.
In other words, I don’t know if there’s any.
So the best alternative in case things escalate and shtf is to rely on your own strengths and know-how.
My advice is to prepare a bug-out location, if you don’t have one already, and pack it with at least one-month worth of supplies.
Let your family know of this devastating possible outcome and assemble together an emergency plan that will allow you to evacuate in under 24 hours.
Other than this, you should lend a constant ear on the news in 2019, and learn as many techniques that will allow you to live off-grid in case this scenario unfolds.
And don’t worry too much.
There’s plenty of time left to gear up and prepare for the sun’s wake-and-bake waves.
