Powerful Solar Storm Could Shut Down U.S. for Months

I know when I'll be getting my tan on.

Gotta love bannana boat.

Can anyone help an idiot like me understand why this alleged EMP event from our Sun would only affect the USA???

Does anyone else see the illogic in this sort of thinking?

Seems to me to be the 'tragedy du jour', with the usual breathless excitement about some 'science thing' that is not well understood by our dumbed-down fellow humans.

I've noticed an unusual lack of 'Niburu', or the 'tenth planet' threads lately --- this one seems to be the new kid on the block.....

reply to post by weedwhacker


I don't think anyone believes that this would only affect the US. I think it's just a case of dumb, US-centric journalism. (It is Fox after all)

I think the previous posters who mentioned it were being sarcastic, something that doesn't always come across in writing.

An event of this type would obviously affect the entire world.

the electrical grid under threat from solar stormsto an extent of possible shutdown at the same time information being released the electrical grid is emitting lilly wave mind control frequencies?,never!

[edit on 9-1-2009 by welivefortheson]

reply to post by TwiTcHomatic


Someone send Al Gore an email about this! 'Ol Al would know what to do...after all he invented the internet, right? And as we all know, his answer would be a new tax. Carbon base tax to cure global warming...how about a sun tax to cure solar storms. There ya go...problem solved...

[edit on 9-1-2009 by romanmel]

Well if it shuts down quite a few of our electrical things, then well in a way it also has a good thing of other families as well as my own getting closer. No TV or any of that other sort've stuff to distract us, then again the fridge won't work and all my food will go bad . The hard choices in life, food or becoming closer with my family ()

reply to post by MrVertigo


Yes. Mr. Vertigo, you hit right on to my points!

Well, IF some EMP from the Sun will affect the Earth, then the chance that it WILL ONLY affect one hemisphere of the Earth for just a few hours is ludricous.

Since, as we ALL should be able to realize by now, the Earth tends to reliably rotate about its axis about once every 24 hours....SO, unless this alleged EMP from t he Sun just happens to last for about THREE hours, and ONLY when the USA is exposed, during daylight hours....well, I think that normal people can begin to understand where the logic begins to break down, in this scenario.

Again....science. Versus 'beliefs'....ummm, it's not hard to figure out.....

Originally posted by LokMessier
Well if it shuts down quite a few of our electrical things, then well in a way it also has a good thing of other families as well as my own getting closer. No TV or any of that other sort've stuff to distract us, then again the fridge won't work and all my food will go bad

. The hard choices in life, food or becoming closer with my family (

)

If it were that simple I wouldn't mind too. But something like this could possibly cause wars, huge chaos etc
Not good for us and our families.
Nice avatar.

[edit on 9-1-2009 by _Phoenix_]

reply to post by Swatman


Swat, that was INAPPROPRIATE!!! Besides being mis-spelled and totally off-topic!!

So, if ANYONE wishes to contribute intelligently, please do...(mis-spellings will be forgiven, as long as the content is clear).

Originally posted by xoxo stacie
Just to let everyone know this happens every some odd years and we havent been knocked off line yet. This is because there is a kill switch in all the major power plants. There is also a team there 24 - 7 to throw it if needed. ( only happened once as far as I know, was due to a fire) If they shut the systems down it will take up to a week or so each to get them back online, but it will save "trillions" of dollars that would be spent rebuilding the whole system.

Last year i was watching a tv program about solar storms and they were saying that it takes about 6 to 7 hours to shut down a power plant ...They can not just flick a switch and shut the power off ...This in turn would cause over loads to the transformers and it would take years to rebuild new ones because their is only a hand full of companies around the world that make power grid transformers...

reply to post by duffster


duffster, you may be correct. In fact, from my experience as an airline pilot I know that there are many safeguards built-in to any power system, to help prevent catastrophic failures.

Since a jetliner is a self-contained vehicle, unable to tap into power sources on the ground, while in flight, there are quite a few contingincies involved to cope with possible power failures.

Um, Correct me if I am wrong but aren't solar flares connected to sunspot activity? Was it not too long ago it was reported the is NO sunspots at this time?
Maybe I am wrong but I thought the "hole" in the magnetosphere was Because there are no sunspots; So which is it? I think that we should worry about Gamma burst too they are even MORE unpredictable and far more dangerous and deadly.

But hey Life is 100% fatal remember.................

shouldn't a simple faraday-cage protect our electronics? I mean the swiss do it, the military does it, and all government buildings are shielded too. This should not be such a big problem!
shielding in action

reply to post by Carlthulhu


Carl, maybe you can build a 'Tesla Cage' large enough to encompass the entire Earth....

Or, more likely, we could realize that the Sun has exhibited an 11-year cycle of activity for, well....billions of years...yet, here we are, safe and sound.

And, I'd like to point out that the Electronic Community has been around for most of my life (and I'm going on five decades, so you can do the math) and so far, except for some HF interference, that's about the worst that's happened.

Why, oh why?!? Is this thread getting any attention?

BECAUSE it focuses on the 'U.S.' --- and tends to promote a terrible lack of scientific knowledge of the general public, especially as 'not taught' in the U.S. school system, of late....

Perhaps this is what happened in the ancient world when the tower of babel fell. The tower of babel was an ancient mass communications device. It was the central hub for all worldwide communications.

Theres that date again, 2012. I have always laughed at doomsday predictions, like the turn of 2000, but i'm starting to get concerned now. I'm reckoning that the big thing is gonna come in the form of a massive solar flare thats gonna annihalate us with polar shifts and mega tsunamis.

reply to post by woogleuk



YUP!!

Just like the 'turn of the century' debacle, here's another apocolalyptic prediction!!

Well, at least we sitll have three years to think about it....ponder the past reflections, and plan accordingly.....

weedwhacker me awld mukker!! how have you been? anyway, yeah, I live in Cumbria in the UK, we have mountains and fells, lots of them, i am only 20 miles or so from englands tallest mountain Scafell Pike, i have a tent, guess what most of my 2012 is gonna involve.

[edit on 10/1/09 by woogleuk]

reply to post by woogleuk


Well, to my confuddled woogle....in the UK....

Am I expecting you to agree that "A Powerful Solar Storm", as posited by the OP, could equally affect just about every Continent on the Planet Earth??

Listen, to my geological-challenged brethren....the Earth, our World, the Globe we live on rotates about her axis approximately once every 24 of what we call 'hours'.

That is why we have 'day' and 'night'....sorry to make it so basic, but it seems necessary...

Here's the IMPACT of my statement: IF the SUN decides to display a brilliant display of what stars tend to do, there is NO WAY it (our Sun) will decide to restrict its display to the few hours that the hemisphere of the Earth that happens to contain the USA (not to mention the entire continents of South America, and Canada....funny that THEY were not mentioned!!)

Back on point....our star, what we call the 'SUN', will display for hours upon hours, IF this happens as posited. During that time the Earth will keep on turning....

So, I initially asked, a poignant question....meant to be obvious to most....WHY would a 'Powerful Solar Storm' only affect the USA????

Seems that the lack of scientific knowledge is paramount in the lack of credible responses.

Shame.....