The Sun is the most powerful and abundant energy source for life on Earth... but on a bad day it could set our civilization back hundreds of years. All it takes is a coronal mass ejection that fires a solar storm straight at the planet. The worst part? It has already happened: it's known as the Carrington Event. It reached peak intensity on September 1, 1859 and caused the collapse of the telegraph network. When was the last storm of that magnitude? Let's just say it's much closer on the calendar than you might imagine.
Environmental destruction, nuclear war, the end of oil, asteroid impacts, a new ice age, gamma ray bursts, a nearby supernova, the death of insects... it's not hard to imagine a scenario compatible with the extinction of life on Earth or the definitive fall of modern civilizations. Of course, in real life there are many people who invest a substantial amount of resources to survive such events, but it's impossible to prepare a perfect defense. In fact, Earth already experienced a fairly intense "demo" 160 years ago.
The 1859 Solar Storm
Between late August and early September 1859, multiple sunspots appeared on the Sun's surface, with auroras extending as far as Queensland, Australia. At noon on September 1, astronomers Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson independently detected a solar flare, which was associated with a coronal mass ejection that took just over 17 and a half hours to reach Earth.
The storm was one of the largest ever recorded, and auroras were seen almost globally, reaching regions like Cuba, Colombia, China, and southern Japan. Telegraph networks and systems failed in the United States and across Europe.
Sparks, electric shocks, and messages sent even after the main power source was disconnected were some of its symptoms. Electrical distribution was still in its infancy, but it also suffered problems. Thus, the Carrington Event claimed a piece of history.
The best thing that could have happened to humanity during the 1859 solar storm is being so technologically undeveloped. However, history would be very different today. Satellites have been specifically designed to withstand solar storms, but they are not indestructible (Telstar 401 is a good example).
The main problem lies in the weakness of our electrical infrastructure. A solar storm knocked out the grid of Hydro-Québec in March 1989, leaving six million people without power for nine hours.
The 2012 storm had characteristics very similar to the Carrington Event, and missed Earth by just nine days. Finally, two facts: Lloyd's and AER published in 2013 a study revealing that a new Carrington Event could cause up to 2.6 trillion dollars (our trillions) in damages in the United States alone, and professor Ying D. Liu of UC Berkeley and the Chinese Academy of Sciences indicated that recovery could take between four and ten years... optimistically.
Source: UC Berkeley
Source: Solarstorm Watch
https://old.neoteo.com/survivor-library-una-libreria-contra-el-apocalipsis
