OT: Something new to worry about

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How is it going to take down very low impedance power grids exactly? How is it going to kill us all exactly? It's a bit light on details

NT

The earth's mag field has reversed many times in the past, the latest one about 40,000 years ago. Our ancestors survived.

I'm guessing they're suggesting everything computer-controlled is susceptible to EMP of any type. Just a guess...

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I only posted it to take Fred's mind off the er, "climate disaster" and cheer him up a bit.

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Oh, OK, that was thoughtful of you.

Cursitor Doom didn't realise that ZeroHedge doesn't do science at all, and that somebody who does know a bit of about science as Fred does, would discount it as incoherent alarmist rubbish.

The last solar storm of any note was in 1859.

If something similar hit the earth at precisely the right moment during the reversal of earth's magnetic field (which wouldn't eliminate it but rather break it up into bits that summed to zero) it would probably have much the same effect.

What that might be is a trifle uncertain - we didn't have power grid in 1859 and the telegraph grid wasn't designed to cope with high voltages (beyond the occasional lighting strike).

Whatever they might be ZeroHedge isn't a reliable source on the subject (or any other).

• Sorry, FALSE ASS-umption. Check out the BellLabs open line calculations.

• No power anywhere = = no transportation, no food moved anywhere, = = starvation.

They had no technology to be dependent on..

The trend in power system engineering has been using fiber optic control lines whenever possible.

Due to the strong magnetic field, the charged particles from the sun hit the earth mainly into the auroral oval. During the 1859 Carrington event the oval extended further away from the poles.

This bombardment causes potential differences between different locations on the ground. The ground resistance determines how large currents will flow in the ground to even out the potential differences.

Recently humans have created much better metallic conduction paths between different geographical locations in the form of pipelines, telegraph lines and EHT lines. If the metallic conductor is grounded at two or more geographical locations, a very large DC current will flow in the conductor.

For pipelines this current causes mainly corrosion.

If the EHT system uses star connection and the star point is grounded in two different location, the DC current flows from the grounding electrode to the star point and runs through the windings, runs in the three phase lines down to the other transformers star point and into the grounding electrode at different geographical location.

Of course transformers (without air gaps) do not like DC currents and can cause high dissipation and catastrophic failures.

There are multiple ways to avoid such DC currents is to use ground isolated networks, such as delta-feeds, ground a single point only or have protection relays, which disconnects the phase conductors from the transformer. Unfortunately, if such protection relays are set incorrectly, they disconnect too easily and caused large blackouts as happened a few years ago in Sweden.

It has known for a while that the North Pole has been moving out of Canada towards Siberia. This no doubt will move the aurora oval.

There are also claims that the total magnetic field is weakening which might be an indication of a pole reversal. During the reversal, there might be 4 or 6 weak magnetic poles with their own aurora ovals. If the magnetic fields disappears completely, there will be no aurora ovals. While currently pregnant crew members should not fly on polar routes through the aurora oval, this may extend to all high altitude flights if the magnetic field disappears completely.

To conclude, even if there is a completely pole reversal, this

Robert Baer wrote in news:kHyuE.133498$ snipped-for-privacy@fx13.iad:

Yes, for him to trivialize the effects a mag pole shift could/likely would cause is a big flag on his grasp of reality grades.

It's one thing to survive, it's another to survive unscathed. Mankind may well survive a nuclear war, too, but civilization as we know it would be destroyed. I dunno, if I couldn't get the ICs and transistors I need for my daily bread ...

Cheer up! Climate Change is going to kill all of us in 10 years.

Even though the rebuilt levee specification was to protect against a 100 year flood, if you stay in New Orleans, maybe...

"The $14 billion network of levees and floodwalls that was built to protect greater New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was a seemingly invincible bulwark against flooding. But now, 11 months after the Army Corps of Engineers completed one of the largest public works projects in world history, the agency says the system will stop providing adequate protection in as little as four years because of rising sea levels and shrinking levees."

But who cares about New Orleans anyway?

Well, I spent 30 years there and left. At least the food is great.

NOLA flooded because of the idiotic dredged 17th St and Industrial Canals, which had token, badly maintained levees. The manmade 17st St Canal (in the backyard of a friend, a modest pile of dirt) had no locks to keep out lake water piled up by a hurricane. The main river and lake levees held. And the US Corp Of Engineers have been wrecking things for centuries.

Sea level is rising about 2 mm per year. Little girls carrying pink pails of dirt could keep up with that.

NOLA keeps sinking because it is built on a swamp that used to get topped off every year by Mississippi River silt; the levees stopped that. And the ground water has been pumped out for about 200 years, causing subsidence.

NOLA isn't suffering from climate change. It's being wrecked by people.

Legend has it that Bienville picked the location for New Orleans because the local indians gave it to him. They wouldn't live there themselves.

The Corps wants more money. No miracle there.

I don't see why you limit yourself only to climate disasters. There are plenty of other potential end of the world as we know it scenarios suitable for ruining Fred's day.

List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events

List of predictions of the end of the world

Five global catastrophes that could happen tomorrow

THE END OF THE WORLD!!!

I'll give the climate disaster doomsday enthusiasts credit for following the methods of the predecessors. Always have an exit strategy and associated excuse available for when things don't quite go according to the prediction. It also helps to be as vague as possible and provide a designated scapegoat or culprit. It should also be possible to make some money from the disaster such as carbon credits, tax credits, market manipulation, prepping, financing cults, etc.

Personally, I suspect that the next scheduled natural disaster will likely be something that few have thought about, and even fewer have predicted. Disasters always seem to be a surprise.

Massive volcanoes could be really bad. That happens now and then.

Some nasty virus or crop-eating insect could happen too, but it wouldn't kill everyone.

We should park a lot of nuke missiles at the currently useless ISS, to deflect comets.

True. The *real* disasters are the ones that come with no warning at all.

Even the worst natural disasters have left a few human and animal survivors behind.

What I meant are potential disasters that don't attract much media attention or public awareness. Those are the types of things that will get us when we're not paying attention. For example:

California Megaflood: Lessons from a Forgotten Catastrophe According to the article, such megafloods happen every 100-200 years. So, we can expect something in the next 60 years. Mark that on your calendar.

Another might be the unexpected results of our technological progress. For example, AI could produce a homicidal monster far worse than any mythical alien invader from outer space. Silicon semiconductors may become sufficiently complex to become intelligent and self-aware. These silicon life forms might go on a rampage to exterminate all carbon based life forms. The potential dangers posed by nanobots has been widely discussed. While producing nano-scale black holes is unlikely, it might be that various colliders might accidentally blunder on a method that works followed by the implosion of the planet. There are probably more threats possible, but I haven't had time to read much science fiction or apocalyptic literature lately.

The current wisdom is that converting a incoming meteorite, asteroid, or comet from a solid projectile or rubble pile into a (radioactive) flying gravel pile, doesn't really do anything useful. It's still going to do significant damage no matter where it hits. The energy necessary to deflect such a high energy projectile is more than can be produced by even our biggest nukes (about 50 megatons).

It's funny how it's always *almost* too late to act. There is only ever just enough time to save the world by putting up taxes massively and immediately. For some curious reason, we *never* cross that rubicon where paying more tax won't help at all.