If anyone wants on or off the Ping Me When the Internet Goes Down pinglist, kindly FReepmail me. Thanks!
Posted on 11/14/2023 12:55:30 PM PST by Red Badger
Though you can’t tell it with the unaided eye from here, the sun is incredibly active. A massive nuclear reaction hurtling through space, sometimes it and its sunspots are more active, meaning they emit more heat and radiation, and sometimes they are less active. Further, it can let fly with plasma, superheated matter, that distorts Earth’s magnetic field and can destroy electronics.
That sun activity, called Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), is incredibly dangerous for electronics, many of which are quite fragile and, in the case of infrastructure, expensive and difficult to replace. That’s because the electric charge created by the CME can fry them, something that if it happened at a large enough scale could take down the internet.
Such is what Professor Peter Becker of George Mason University warned in a recent interview with FOX Weather, saying, “The internet has come of age during a time when the sun has been relatively quiet, and now it’s entering a more active time. It’s the first time in human history that there’s been an intersection of increased solar activity with our dependence on the internet and our global economic dependence on the internet.”
He continued, “There have been a lot of (solar) flares. Flares are when the sun brightens, and we see the radiation, and that’s kind of the muzzle flash. And then the cannon shot is the coronal mass ejection (CME). So, we can see the flash, but then the coronal mass ejection can go off in some random direction in space, but we can tell when they’re actually going to head towards Earth. And that gives us about 18 hours of warning, maybe 24 hours of warning, before those particles actually get to Earth and start messing with Earth’s magnetic field.”
Continuing, he said that the solar activity could knock out even electronics that you think are safe, saying, “And then you get this kind of insidious thing where you could actually get current from ground. So everybody thinks, ‘Oh, my computer’s grounded, I’m okay,'” but in an event like this, if you drive inductive currents to the surface of the Earth, it can almost work backwards, and you can end up actually frying things that you thought were relatively safe.”
Describing what happened to telegraph wires and operators when a similar event happened in 1859, Becker claimed, “It actually took out the telegraph system, sparks were literally flying off the telegraph lines. Some operators got electrocuted because the wires ended up carrying high voltage, which they were never supposed to do, but the magnetic field variations became so strong it almost became a generator system and drove these currents down telegraph wires.”
Then, comparing those days to today and how severe and long-lasting the damage could be, Professor Becker said, “So you lay that on top of the internet with its very delicate electronics, you’re talking about something that could really fry the system for a period of several weeks to months in terms of the time it would take to repair all the infrastructure – all of the electronic switches, all of these closets of electronics in all these office buildings. That could all be fried. So we’re talking pretty major. And it’s not just communications. It’s economic disruption, too, obviously.”
Professor Becker did, however, also noted that steps can be taken to mitigate the problem is people are paying attention and use advance warning to respond promptly and properly, saying, “If we have a warning, every minute counts because you can put satellites in safe mode. You can take transformers off-line from the grid, so they don’t fry. So there’s things you can do to mitigate the problem. And then, more long term, you’re talking about hardening the internet. And that’s, of course, an economic challenge because it’s sort of like an insurance policy. You may never need it, and it would cost trillions to really harden the system.”
We’d all get a nice rest...
And have to go to the bank to do our banking, and to the store to buy stuff. And maybe read a book or six.
That would be a blessing ...
Does this mean Al messed up or lied to us??
The internet has been around since the ARPANET...late 60’s
The WWW went to the masses about 1991-ish with huge growth about 1993.
So there have been no solar flares\CMEs(EMPs) since the late 60’s ?
Wonder why all the satellites wont be falling from the sky ...
oh....nevermind !
Learn to (Morse) code.
My rotary phone collection might come in handy after all.
Telegraphing?
Bit of good news: the fiber optic lines are immune to magnetic storms.
If anyone wants on or off the Ping Me When the Internet Goes Down pinglist, kindly FReepmail me. Thanks!
True, but it would be a big problem for some time. As companies and the government have made it almost impossible to take care of business without the internet.
Even though the internet has its good points, the world was a much better place without it. When they do take it down under whatever guise then the people will be in the dark and the deep state will control everything.
They’ve been saying it for years.... Right up there with climate change.
I don't buy climate change but Carrington makes sense to me and it scares me.
That freeway fire in California was caused by homeless people stealing power.
Know your neighbors
What is discouraging is that it is preventable for relatively small money, but they want to throw it all at the Climate Change hoax.
Thanks for sharing that link. Everyone should watch that documentary.
What’s the down side?
I experienced the downside in 2021 when the winter storm hit Texas. It wasn't good. I lost a friend.
I agree.
I think people don’t understand how vulnerable we are.
A lot of people are aware someone might use a weapon on us that emits an EMP wave that could take things down, but...it is kind of shocking how few people are aware to even the smallest degree that we are at a greater risk of a naturally occuring EMP from solar activity.
My 1972 Ford Maverick in perfect working condition will simply need its distributor replaced and I'll be back driving again.
While everyone else with these fancy computer controlled & battery operated cars are eff'd.
Yep. It’s not a matter of “if”, it’s a matter of “when”...
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