Solar Flare poses huge threat: Glenn Reynolds/USA Today.
No, I’m not talking about the threat from asteroid strikes. This time, though, I’m talking about a different kind of civilizational threat: A solar flare that could wipe out the communications and electrical grids while frying a wide variety of electronics, quickly sending us back to the 19th Century.
That’s happened before. In fact, it happened in the 19th Century, with the “Carrington Event” of 1859. A massive solar flare sent a cloud of charged particles that struck the Earth squarely, creating massive currents in the Earth’s magnetic field and sending brilliant auroras south as far as Cuba and Hawaii. About the only thing electrical back then was the telegraph network, and the Carrington event had a literally shocking impact — causing some operators to be shocked, and inducing strong enough currents in the telegraph wires that operators could disconnect the batteries and operate the telegraph off of the flare-induced electrical flow.
Do the City of Boulder cost of municipalization include expenses to deal with a Carrington event, both preventive and the actual cost of repairs? A city that devotes considerable resources to study the 100 year and 500 year flood plains and takes actions involving, zoning, hazard zones and flood diversion projects, one would expect that a Carrington event is built into their cost estimates. Well?
