Why Is This Fed Official So Worried About a Solar Storm? A regional risk expert published a grim

[Baobab]

Last edited Wed May 25, 2016, 09:29 PM - Edit history (1)

Why Is This Fed Official Worried About a Solar Storm?: A regional risk expert published a grim assessment of how the U.S. economy would fair after a crippling solar storm.



http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-05-25/why-is-this-fed-official-worried-about-a-solar-storms

More:

On the Probability (frequency of occurrence) of severe solar storms.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2011SW000734/full

[longship]

1. Well, then there's the one in 1859.

If something like that happened now we'd be in big poo-poo.

Solar storm of 1859

Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed, in some cases giving telegraph operators electric shocks. Telegraph pylons threw sparks. Some telegraph operators could continue to send and receive messages despite having disconnected their power supplies.

more at link above

Then, there was the great Quebec power failure.

March 1989 Geomagnetic Storm

A severe geomagnetic storm struck Earth on March 13, 1989. It occurred during solar cycle 22 and caused a nine-hour outage of Hydro-Québec's electricity transmission system.

These things are nothing to be trifled with. We're talking a great part an entire hemisphere of Earth without power for many months. If it happens when it's winter where you live... Well, just consider that for a moment.

[braddy]

2. "affecting as many as 20 to 40 million Americans for a duration ranging from 16 days to two years"

"a Carrington-level storm today could result in power outages affecting as many as 20 to 40 million Americans for a duration ranging from 16 days to two years"
(snip)
"Commerce as we know it, especially in the digital sphere, could largely grind to a halt. So how would people get food, gasoline and other essentials they'd need to survive for months without power – and potentially months without the ability to use a credit card?"

They don't mention all the deaths, crime, disease, and chaos that would result.

Starvation and the collapse of local governments would mean self sufficiency and self protection, would be very important.

[Baobab]

3. It could be far worse than even that...

https://www.google.com/search?q="loss+of+the+ultimate+heat+sink"