Do you still believe that the coming years leading
to December 21, 2012 are no cause for concern?
From a NASA-funded study by the National Academy of Sciences dated January 21, 2009:
“January 21, 2009: Did you know a solar flare can make your toilet stop working?
That’s the surprising conclusion of a NASA-funded study by the National Academy of Sciences entitled Severe Space Weather Events—Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts. In the 132-page report, experts detailed what might happen to our modern, high-tech society in the event of a “super solar flare” followed by an extreme geomagnetic storm. They found that almost nothing is immune from space weather—not even the water in your bathroom.”
“The problem begins with the electric power grid. “Electric power is modern society’s cornerstone technology on which virtually all other infrastructures and services depend,” the report notes. Yet it is particularly vulnerable to bad space weather. Ground currents induced during geomagnetic storms can actually melt the copper windings of transformers at the heart of many power distribution systems. Sprawling power lines act like antennas, picking up the currents and spreading the problem over a wide area. The most famous geomagnetic power outage happened during a space storm in March 1989 when six million people in Quebec lost power for 9 hours:”
“According to the report, power grids may be more vulnerable than ever. The problem is interconnectedness. In recent years, utilities have joined grids together to allow long-distance transmission of low-cost power to areas of sudden demand. On a hot summer day in California, for instance, people in Los Angeles might be running their air conditioners on power routed from Oregon. It makes economic sense—but not necessarily geomagnetic sense. Interconnectedness makes the system susceptible to wide-ranging “cascade failures.””
“To estimate the scale of such a failure, report co-author John Kappenmann of the Metatech Corporation looked at the great geomagnetic storm of May 1921, which produced ground currents as much as ten times stronger than the 1989 Quebec storm, and modeled its effect on the modern power grid. He found more than 350 transformers at risk of permanent damage and 130 million people without power. The loss of electricity would ripple across the social infrastructure with “water distribution affected within several hours; perishable foods and medications lost in 12-24 hours; loss of heating/air conditioning, sewage disposal, phone service, fuel re-supply and so on.”
“The concept of interdependency,” the report notes, “is evident in the unavailability of water due to long-term outage of electric power–and the inability to restart an electric generator without water on site.””
“Above: What if the May 1921 superstorm occurred today? A US map of vulnerable transformers with areas of probable system collapse encircled. A state-by-state map of transformer vulnerability is also available: click here. Credit: National Academy of Sciences.”
Read more:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/21jan_severespaceweather.htm
March 26, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Why have I not heard this before? Are there any plans to create electricty closer to where it will be used? California has the possibility of solar, wind, geo-thermal. A review of the amount of people able to live in an area checking water, power, etc., and then putting a cap on building after it reaches that level seems like a good idea. Uncontrolled growth that an area cannot sustain hurts all.
March 26, 2009 at 6:22 pm
I am generally not a conspiracy theorist, however, given the US Governments attempts
to cover up UFO sightings and other things “we should not panic about”,
nothing surprises me anymore.
I watched the UFO show on the History Channel last night.
They were covering a story about an alleged facility in Dulce NM. It was alleged
that a huge underground facility existed there where humans and aliens alike
(greys and reptilians) experimented on humans and aliens.
The jury is still out on this one, but again, it would not surprise me.
It is interesting that NASA is coming out with alarming stories about solar
activity peaking around 2012. However, we have never in recorded history
had a peak solar cycle occur during the solar system being positioned as
it will be on December 21, 2012.
What are they not telling us?
One has to believe there is always something.
Is the movie “Knowing” a mechanism for breaking the news to us?
May 4, 2009 at 11:52 pm
i think this is all a big fat load of bullpoopie. Yes the goverment hinds things from us, yes a lot of things say 2012 will be “the end”. But saying something as exact as on December 21, 2012 all our electrical power will go out when they don’t even know what causes solar flares and all that junck is just plane retared. Unless ofcourse they are the ones going to preform it and just happen to blame it on a bad space weather day, hell they can hardly tell whats going to happen with the weather here in Austin!
May 20, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Solid site.. hope to visit once more..