Sun's flipping poles could mean lights out for U.S

[Jeff]

I have been hearing about this sporadically for a while now, heck one guy that I grew up with keeps posting on FB how the world is going to end then , well actually what he says is 85% of us will be dead. Man if the lights went out we sure enough would be in trouble ( I don't think Americans most anyway could make do without it never mind how it will really effect us)

WASHINGTON – A vulnerability test by the electric-power industry of the national electrical grid shows the system would fail during certain catastrophes – and would fail even if only some of the impacts of certain catastrophes were experienced.
That is the sobering message from a preliminary readout of the results of a vulnerability test called Grid Ex II.
It revealed that even though the test was done under circumstances that didn’t represent the full impact of what would occur in the event of a grid blackout – caused either by a cyber or electromagnetic pulse attack – the system failed.
The North American Electric Power Reliability Corporation, or NERC, led the nationwide exercise to examine just how vulnerable the nation’s electric power grid would be under a limited nationwide cyber or EMP attack.
The test, regarded by experts as presenting less of an impact than a real EMP, comes as the sun is about to “flip” its own magnetic poles at the peak of its expected 11-year cycle.
The sun flips the polarity of its magnetic north and south, causing huge intergalactic geomagnetic storms which can affect the earth’s grid and communications including satellites.

http://www.wnd.com/2013/11/suns-flip...s-out-for-u-s/

[aboutime]

I have been hearing about this sporadically for a while now, heck one guy that I grew up with keeps posting on FB how the world is going to end then , well actually what he says is 85% of us will be dead. Man if the lights went out we sure enough would be in trouble ( I don't think Americans most anyway could make do without it never mind how it will really effect us)





http://www.wnd.com/2013/11/suns-flip...s-out-for-u-s/

Jeff. I learned to stop worrying about such things long ago.

If such a thing were to happen to all of us tomorrow.

We wouldn't be here to know it, or complain about it since...THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO.

The universe is such a huge thing. Not One Human Being on Earth is smart enough, or has any power to change whatever Nature, here on Earth, or what our SUN may do...in the next second.

In other words. When 'THE LIGHTS GO OUT'. Who will know it?

Also Jeff. As an afterthought. If this cycle occurs every 11 years.

What happened 11 years ago?
And, did it happen?

[Jeff]

Jeff. I learned to stop worrying about such things long ago.

If such a thing were to happen to all of us tomorrow.

We wouldn't be here to know it, or complain about it since...THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO.

The universe is such a huge thing. Not One Human Being on Earth is smart enough, or has any power to change whatever Nature, here on Earth, or what our SUN may do...in the next second.

In other words. When 'THE LIGHTS GO OUT'. Who will know it?

Also Jeff. As an afterthought. If this cycle occurs every 11 years.

What happened 11 years ago?
And, did it happen?

I have to admit AT when I read the article I also wondered about the 11 year deal

[aboutime]

I have to admit AT when I read the article I also wondered about the 11 year deal

Isn't it odd how they never actually presented such evidence, or accounted for the last cycle of 11 years?
I'm too much of a pragmatist, and never settle for WHAT IF's?

[logroller]

Isn't it odd how they never actually presented such evidence, or accounted for the last cycle of 11 years?
I'm too much of a pragmatist, and never settle for WHAT IF's?

Its happened before.

For instance, in 1989 the transmission system for Canada's Hydro Quebec electricity provider collapsed during a solar storm, leaving millions of people without power for nine hours or more. And the "Halloween storms" of 2003 triggered blackouts in the city of Malmö, Sweden, and likely caused transformer failures in South Africa.


"Because they are located closer to the magnetic North Pole, Canadian utilities are deeply involved in monitoring geomagnetically induced currents, modeling impacts for vulnerability, and refining their operational protocols," EPRI's Lordan said.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...ity-grid-risk/

[Nukeman]

Back to topic.. This happens every 11 years or so. The poles shift on a routine cycle, actually for this being a "solar maximum" the cycle has been rather tame.. Now that being said if the Sun did decide to unleash a hell of a cosmic storm we have to remember that it would need to be DIRECTLY pointed at us for it to do damage. Now the Sun is pretty darn big and can send i all different direction and has done so this cycle. There have been a couple of mass ejections that if directed towards the Earth we would have been in real trouble.

The problem with a solar flare hitting our electric grid is not that it would last a few months but realistically we are looking a multi-year recovery. If only slight it may be "only" 9 months if severe we are looking at the potential of 2-8 years of NO electric power in any meaningful way.. That my friends is a catastrophe of biblical proportions. We would see large cities destroyed in a matter of weeks, then the hordes would start streaming out looking for anything and everything they can get their hands on and steal. That is when it would go south REAL quick for those "city" dwellers. I would add that as a "rural" person I would NOT count on the govt or military to help because they would have their hands full in the metropolitan area's... I would say those of us in the rural area's would be on our own and need to protect/feed ourselves..


This is actually one of my biggest fears that our govt is NOT preparing for, most of our infrastructure for the electric grid can be be EMP/solar safe..

[jimnyc]

Other crap moved to cage.

[jimnyc]

For anyone thinking posts were hidden, or deleted, or put in a place to get less attention - not the case. The same as the past 10 years, posts that are OT, fighting, or back and forth which kill threads, will be moved to the cage, even if they are my posts too! Anyway, go here for the rest:

http://www.debatepolicy.com/showthre...049-11-21-crap

/continue crap there, or continue good discussion right here.

[Drummond]

I don't really see what the big deal is in this story. The Sun goes through cycles of sunspot activity. Sometimes, there's not much going on at all. But, once every 11 years, sunspot activity reaches a maximum, and yes, at such times, disruptions are possible.

But this phenomenon has been known about for rather a long time.

So ... is there reason to suppose that THIS 'maximum' is going to be so much worse than others, to justify specific concern ? If so, what reason exists to suppose that ? If not .. why is this a concern right now ?

[aboutime]

Its happened before.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...ity-grid-risk/

logroller. If you somehow found that I stated "It hadn't happened" please show me where I said that?

I offered my opinion, and my perspective about how I am a pragmatic kind of person. YOU decided that I said something else.

Show me.

[Gaffer]

I'm curious to see what laws they can come up with concerning solar activity and how they can blame mankind for it. You can bet it's coming.

Nukemans got it right. A large solar flare could knock out all the power grids around the world creating chaos and panic world wide. Starvation and disease will kill billions. The world will enter a new dark age. And you can bet the elites in washington have a contingency plan so they can emerge and take over again.

[Drummond]

I agree ... there's potential for concern.

But what I still want to know is, why now ? Has there been evidence, or maybe some calculation done, to show that THIS maximum must be worse than others we've experienced ?

Without reason to suppose that an especially bad episode will happen this time, I see no reason to believe it'll happen. Is this a scare story, and nothing more ?

[aboutime]

I agree ... there's potential for concern.

But what I still want to know is, why now ? Has there been evidence, or maybe some calculation done, to show that THIS maximum must be worse than others we've experienced ?

Without reason to suppose that an especially bad episode will happen this time, I see no reason to believe it'll happen. Is this a scare story, and nothing more ?

Sir Drummond. Once again. I see information like this, designed to distract, or cause fear in people about things THEY HAVE NO CONTROL OVER...as nothing more than another Political kind of trick.

Since human beings generally have a very SHORT, and SMALL attention span. Anyone who wants to get their instant attention only needs to find more STUFF....to make everybody worry, and forget about the THINGS THEY CAN CONTROL.

[logroller]

logroller. If you somehow found that I stated "It hadn't happened" please show me where I said that?

I offered my opinion, and my perspective about how I am a pragmatic kind of person. YOU decided that I said something else.

Show me.

You said,

...
What happened 11 years ago?
And, did it happen?

"What happened?" would have sufficed, but you rephrased the same question inferring doubt over whether it happened. Then,

Isn't it odd how they never actually presented such evidence, or accounted for the last cycle of 11 years?
I'm too much of a pragmatist, and never settle for WHAT IF's?

to which I replied

Its happened before.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...ity-grid-risk/

You asked a question; I answered and provided evidence. Its quite a pragmatic approach actually. Apparently self- profession does not a pragmatist make.

[logroller]

logroller. If you somehow found that I stated "It hadn't happened" please show me where I said that?

I offered my opinion, and my perspective about how I am a pragmatic kind of person. YOU decided that I said something else.

Show me.

Post 2-- you asked, "what happened? " post 4, you talked about no evidence. So I answered and provided evidence. You're welcome.