Jonti
what the dormouse said
Mind you, if we're going to be wiped out by a Space Storm, there'll have to be one PDQ or it'll be too late. We* seem intent on destroying the basis of our civilisation for ourselves 
But it seems it's a real possibility. "Our modern way of life, with its reliance on technology, has unwittingly exposed us to an extraordinary danger: plasma balls spewed from the surface of the sun could wipe out our power grids, with catastrophic consequences," reports the New Scientist.
It happened already, but before our civilisation was so heavily dependenant on electrical gadgets, high voltage power lines, GPS, and all the rest. Just before dawn on September 2nd, 1859 following the Carrington event on the surface of the sun "skies all over planet Earth erupted in red, green, and purple auroras so brilliant that newspapers could be read as easily as in daylight. Indeed, stunning auroras pulsated even at near tropical latitudes over Cuba, the Bahamas, Jamaica, El Salvador, and Hawaii"
"Even more disconcerting, telegraph systems worldwide went haywire. Spark discharges shocked telegraph operators and set the telegraph paper on fire. Even when telegraphers disconnected the batteries powering the lines, aurora-induced electric currents in the wires still allowed messages to be transmitted."
A repeat of the event would wipe out GPS (the bodycount starts here), and induce strong currents in high voltage power lines, wiping out the electric grid. The huge inductive load would trash the grid's transformers by melting their windings across maybe a whole continent or so. That kind of infrastructural damage would take many months to repair. In the meantime, cities are left without running water, sewage plants, fuel and everything that depends on electricity. The only food would be other people.
Happily, one could dodge the bullet just by disconnecting the transformers before the storm hits, given enough warning.
How lucky do you feel?
* I mean them, of course, not us
But it seems it's a real possibility. "Our modern way of life, with its reliance on technology, has unwittingly exposed us to an extraordinary danger: plasma balls spewed from the surface of the sun could wipe out our power grids, with catastrophic consequences," reports the New Scientist.
It happened already, but before our civilisation was so heavily dependenant on electrical gadgets, high voltage power lines, GPS, and all the rest. Just before dawn on September 2nd, 1859 following the Carrington event on the surface of the sun "skies all over planet Earth erupted in red, green, and purple auroras so brilliant that newspapers could be read as easily as in daylight. Indeed, stunning auroras pulsated even at near tropical latitudes over Cuba, the Bahamas, Jamaica, El Salvador, and Hawaii"
"Even more disconcerting, telegraph systems worldwide went haywire. Spark discharges shocked telegraph operators and set the telegraph paper on fire. Even when telegraphers disconnected the batteries powering the lines, aurora-induced electric currents in the wires still allowed messages to be transmitted."
A repeat of the event would wipe out GPS (the bodycount starts here), and induce strong currents in high voltage power lines, wiping out the electric grid. The huge inductive load would trash the grid's transformers by melting their windings across maybe a whole continent or so. That kind of infrastructural damage would take many months to repair. In the meantime, cities are left without running water, sewage plants, fuel and everything that depends on electricity. The only food would be other people.
Happily, one could dodge the bullet just by disconnecting the transformers before the storm hits, given enough warning.
How lucky do you feel?
* I mean them, of course, not us
