As our sun’s activity slows and the star gets quieter, scientists’ fears of solar minimum are coming to the forefront. It isn’t the lack of activity that is terrifying those who study the sun, it’s what happens next that worries them all.
There would be nothing any of us could do if the sun’s activity decreases to the point that it causes the outermost atmospheric layer to collapse. No amount of taxation in the name of “global warming” will save anyone on earth from this outcome. But first, scientists have to worry about the sun reaching “solar minimum” and the possibility of losing the outermost layer of the atmosphere thanks to the rapid cooling.
Solar minimum is when the sun goes through a cycle of minimal activity, and right now, it’s on the verge of reaching this point. Our sun will near solar minimum in about 2019 or 2020. Unlike the name suggests, this lack of solar activity could cause an outer layer of the atmosphere called the thermosphere to contract and it’s not entirely clear what the effects of this could be on our planet.
The roughly 11-year cycle of the sun is reaching its low point, and soon. This means less energy is going to be released from our star in the form of solar flares, but it will mean we have solar winds to contend with. Professor Yvonne Elsworth at the University of Birmingham says that the next solar minimum could “be in about two years” but before then, the sun is expected to unleash significantly more radiation towards Earth. She also said that this cycle could mean that a “fundamental change in the nature of the [the sun’s magnetic] dynamo may be in progress.”
And she isn’t the only scientists who believes that this could amount to doom and gloom. Her theory is backed up by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory’s daily snaps, which have shown a spotless sun for 44 days in a row.
Solar minimums are known to spark lots of cosmic ray activity that can penetrate our atmosphere. These cosmic beams cause “air showers” of particles when they hit our atmosphere. They pose a health hazard to astronauts, and a single stray cosmic ray could cause a satellite to malfunction. As well as wiping out communication systems, a solar blast could down power grids.
It’s not entirely clear why low solar activity causes our thermosphere to collapse; or what it might be doing to our planet. Without having any effect on the sun’s cycle which will ebb and flow, “man-made global warming,” took some blame. Back in 2008 and 2009 when the sun was going through this same cycle, climate change alarmists claimed that the global warming was “adding to the cooling and contracting in the upper layer of our atmosphere.”
“This is not how it used to be and the rotation rate [of the sun] has slowed a bit at latitudes around about 60 degrees. We are not quite sure what the consequences of this will be but it’s clear that we are in unusual times. However, we are beginning to detect some features belonging to the next cycle and we can suggest that the next minimum will be in about two years,” Professor Elsworth said.
Not many are prepared for a massive power grid failure thanks to the sun’s cycle, but it’s a growing concern among many preppers, and scientists are now validating that anxiety.
Ain’t I been saying it
So if the sun is at maximum activity, we could get a big solar CME causing electrical disruption.
And if the sun is a minimum activity, we could also have electrical disruption.
Sounds like scientific doublespeak to me.
Good Scientists always cover their ass. I have found that it is way easier to just guess than use scientific reasoning anyhow. Just like the NRA members?
The NRA is the most effective pro Second Amendment group in the world. The prime example was the 1994 Clinton Assault Gun ban. The NRA knew that it was impossible to stop THEN but they squeezed in a 10 year expiration. A decade of hard work of the grassroots and it expired.
These are facts.
Shall Issue and now Constitutional Carry encompasses 80% of the US, up from 20% three decades ago. It would have been IMPOSSIBLE without the NRA.
Gandhi, you are nothing but a hairy Iranian pussy. I notice how you dodge me and anyone who calls you out. Ive seen how you claim to be a military veteran too, but none of your shit talk about the NRA bears out any sort of training at all. You’re a STOLEN VALOR COCKSUCKER! YOU’RE NOTHING BUT A SCUMBAG EMPLOYEE OF THE BRADY CENTER.
Comments directed at Gandhi, not you Kebin
*Kevin….damn this is turning into work…,,
Suspected Trolls always try to point at something that they think will get them attention. It worked – For about 2 seconds. Now we can totally ignore that Troll from now on.
Perhaps, Gandhi, you ought to read Dr. John Lott, Univ. of Chicago, who used to be a gun control supporter and then, after examining the facts, penned More Guns, Less Crime. Read that first, then let’s discuss facts and science.
I think this is their cover story for the real reason the grid will collapse which is anyone’s guess but will be purposefully done to kill us. People that don’t have their shit together already are gonna die.
Somebody was a C- physics student.
Theys just guessing
And a great stockmarket predictor of tops and bottoms, check the video for the chart and look at the dates!!!
OMG……2018-2019.
Yeh Andy,
@TnAndy, I agree, doublespeak. This doom and gloom article is intended for people who don’t have the wherewithal to do their own research. As an example, the Carrington event (a massive CME) happened at near the peak of the solar cycle in 1859.
ht tp://www.sidc.be/silso/yearlyssnplot
While coronal holes, which can unleash streams of charged particles, do happen during periods of low sunspot activity, there is little to no evidence that these particle streams can induce the kind of electrical disruption that can be caused by a CME because they’re not concentrated enough.
What concerns me more, about the upcoming relative quiescent state of the sun is the steady decline in peak sunspots over the last four cycles at solar max. (See link above) Should this trend continue, we could be heading for a Maunder or Dalton minimum period which would doom a lot of people on this planet due to the lack of food production from shortened growing periods.
the sun goes into cycles with regularity. during these cycles the sun can lay quiet or as in other times emit a belch of plasma that envelops the earth. the last interruption did cause a disruption. fortunately for us we had little to disrupt. it did take out the telegraph wires. this is documented should you care to see it. today it would fry all electronic devices. even if you had one shielded we would have no way to communicate because all the towers and satellites are gone. the hams would have protected gear that would provide our only public communication. so not doublespeak unfortunatly.
Grampa
The only thing worse than a grid failure is when you lose your job at Burger King and the Feds shut your power off at the mains.
I’ve been on this site for a decade now, and I’ve seen plenty of dumbasses come and go, but so far, you are the single worst piece of ANTI-AMERICAN FILTH that has ever posted here. You are a STOLEN VALOR SHITBAG.
FUCK OFF AND GO HOME TO IRAN YOU ASSBAG!! FUCKING SHITBIRD!!
Now we know where you work
Hope power has been restored for these folks. Reportedly, it is nearly 100.
Explosion, major fire rocks DWP power station; large swath of Valley without power
“An explosion at a Northridge power plant caused a fire that burned for hours Saturday, knocking out traffic lights, stranding people in elevators and leaving huge swaths of the San Fernando Valley without power…”
ht tp://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/california/la-me-power-explosion-20170708-story.html
140,000 Customers Lose Electricity After Fire at Power Station
“The fire at the station in the Northridge/Reseda area of Los Angeles started about 6:52 p.m. and involves equipment that carries high-voltage electricity and distributes it at lower voltages to customers in the surrounding area, the department said.”
“The power outage comes as much of California baked in heat that broke records. A record that stood 131 years in Los Angeles was snapped when the temperature spiked at 98 degrees downtown.”
ht tp://fox40.com/2017/07/08/140000-customers-lose-electricity-after-fire-at-power-station/
Direct links…
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/california/la-me-power-explosion-20170708-story.html
http://fox40.com/2017/07/08/140000-customers-lose-electricity-after-fire-at-power-station/
i should have posted here when the duracell flashlights were on sale at costco for 10 bucks for 2. the sale is over now, but you can still get them for 20$….it’s the best flashlight i’ve seen for the price. aluminum body, big rubbers on each end, and 700 lumens, with adjustable beam….amazing flashlight for an amazing price…..hope they bought some up there in northridge.
BCOD, I’ve got LED flashlights rated at 900 and 1100 lumens. They’re a bit more expensive than those duracells but worth the money. They also have aluminum bodies and good O-ring seals. Also have some good LED lanterns that give out some nice light for power outages. And don’t forget the batteries, LOTS of them.
The LED?
Got a bunch of em, damn good lights
That’s in commiefornia, KY. They made their beds. no one gives a shit about them.
KY Mom,
Thanks for all of your work
I always look forward to your posts
A prolonged power outage would mean the probable death of a huge number of older Americans who depend on medical equipment powered by electricity. In a sense, a lot of older Americans are kept alive by air conditioning. For the Social Security and Medicare programs, it would seriously reduce the payouts. There are people (mostly younger) that would see this as a good thing. If it were possible to do the blackout without impacting the overall economy, they’d love to see it happen. Sad commentary on humanity!
Well heck Im one of those Social security Ponzi scheme recipients. I am 66 years old. And I don’t give a rats ass about those who’s oxygen thieving lives are being enabled and prolonged by the electric grid. Heck I would see it as a good thing. I would love to see it happen. Let the weak die off. We don’t have any problem greater than too many taking parasites and too few making producers. If we do not get that lopsided imbalance corrected everything will still continue to decline. Now I do enjoy our electric convenience. I like my electric well pump. My shop tool,s welder compressor ect. The freezer is nice. We only air cond one room. But we could do without electricity if necessary. I grew up without electricity. My folks never got power until 1962 when I was 12 years old.
Old Guy, I’m the same way. That ‘lopsided imbalance’ WILL get corrected once we lose the grid. We can all count on that. The BOL already has a full-fledged solar setup so we can change over to it at the flick of a switch when the time comes. I’ve never cared for freeloaders either. Their time is coming.
“My folks never got power until 1962 when I was 12 years old.”
Your folks had power. Did you have a car? Buy gasoline? Purchased something other than hand made goods?
You did not live in vacuum. Your family BENEFITED from the availability and use of electricity.
Yes we had a flathead ford truck and a B john deer tractor. We never had electricity. carried out water from the spring. and kept stuff like milk in the spring house. When we got our first coleman lantern we where amazed at the amount of light it put out. Much better than a candle or coal oil lantern.
I am seventy-one and grew up the same way. It was a lot of hard work that modern people know nothing about. I love this modern electric operated life but think this circus can’t go on much longer. I still have the knowledge and tools to live in a nonelectric world. It will not be fun but doable for those that still remember how to survive, for the rest it will be one heck of a steep learning curve.
Brian, that’s especially true of young people. Nothing but shitheads.
No use to sit and worry about it. These are the things we can not change or prepare for. If we went into another ice age, most people on earth would die.
Feel like we’re being set up?
I feel that way every time I read a story about Ebola or bird/swine flu. They are just preparing us for the “inevitable” culling.
Most people will not look for someone to blame but merely accept it as an inevitable event.
Justice
I have no crystal ball but your analysis is very possible.
The public is conditioned to connect dots that TPTB put on parchment. The’ll believe that “oops, this disease, despite the best of intentions, was just too overwhelming”. “They tried their best”.
Hard not to be skeptical of pretty much everything the PTB tell us. All one can do is teach your kids how to survive and hope that they’ll never have to use those skills. -Hale
The Maunder Minimum that occured in the 1500s and the minimum that occured in the late 1700s about the time of the US Revolution did not cause the thermosphere to collapse. The cycle has been going on for thousands of years…more scare tactics to give you more to keep you awake at night and in a panic during the day. IGNORE THIS!
My thoughts exactly.
Copper – I have done a 400 page, 700 footnote of the whole AGW scam, and you are spot on. Better to worry about the dollar collapse, not the thermosphere
These crazy scientists have sun stroke on the brain.
OK the scientists are saying that the sun is having bowel problems. Its not like its something new. For those who don’t own some type of multi tool like Leatherman or one from the other knife companies, you ought to have one for EDC. Camping Survival has used ones for much less than a new one would cost you. You actually pick the one out that you want to buy and that’s the one you’ll receive. I’ve bought several for our packs including the Micra (smallest) Leatherman that can be put on a key chain. Great people to deal with out of N.C.
PO’d Patriot, I’ve got a Gerber multi-tool I used to carry on my belt every day and now I’m trying out a new one made by SOG. Seems to work out well enough. They’re available at sporting goods stores or you can order it straight from SOG’s website. To me a multi-tool is a MUST HAVE ITEM for EDC. My old Gerber saved my ass in many a situation. I’ve tried one of the small multi-tools and it didn’t work out well for me. The bigger multi-tools work the best.
Good to hear it DB. I use mine several times a day. Save a lot of steps and carrying the tool bag. Feel naked with out it. Long before 911 you could carry something like that on the plane. We were taking a vacation once when my daughter was small and she noticed mine on my belt and asked me why I was wearing it. I told her, “In case there’s a problem and daddy has to fix the plane”.
Solar flares? What? Wait.
Ah, Mac Slavo, at it again. What about the super volcano at Yellowstone? What about the nine (9) other super volcanos just waiting to get us.? What about Global Warming? What about Climate Change? What about sea level rise? What about antibiotic flesh eating bacteria? What about a pandemic? What happened to being just one minute from nuclear Armageddon?
And you fool idiots want to get us all excited about solar flares? Get grip. You’re beginning to sound like CNN, or the “New York Times,” or the “Washington Post.”
I suppose the best way to prepare for grid failure is to set up your fallback to match the lifestyle of groups like the Amish.
You could have a few solar panels for lighting or charging batteries, but I don’t think a system with enough kws to live a life like today is realistic. It may work for a few years but the batteries are the weak point and they would eventually fail. I have a small system that is currently grid tied. It has battery backup and charge controllers to go off-grid, but in the long run this is probably futile.
Maybe we should be prepared for a life of waking up at dawn and going to bed at dark. It requires a shitload of hand tools to accomplish everyday tasks without juice. I will probably fail.There are too many things that are probably overlooked. Known unknowns…or is it unknown unknowns?
Try to shut the mains off for a weekend to see how well you are prepared. I guarantee they won’t be off for most for long. We are used to power, light and noise and most will go crazy if the blue light goes out for more than a couple hours.
If It actually came down to a real permanent grid failure SHTF situation. Even the Amish lifestyle wouldn’t be sustainable. There are not enough harness makers and farriers to do the job. I suspect we will save the milk cows bull calves and train them to be oxen. whittle a yoke from a log with a hatchet. It would be primitive almost stone age.
Research Edison Nickle Iron batteries. Change the electrolyte every 25 years and the batteries will last 100 years.
I have been checking those out. They are almost too good to be true. They are expensive but so is replacing lead-acid batteries every 5-7 years. I may have to spring for one of these just for testing purposes.
Sounds like blame-e needs to get a grip.
Did Snyder write this?
Scientists wet themselves when the wind blows. Hey look at me I wet myself.
Science statistics and %s are so corrupted by grants . Who knows ? Solar minimum can just mean . Instead of 100 little ones . One big one?
This has been going on since earth started.
There are long cycles that buried Canada under 1-2 miles of ice 12,000 years ago and short cycles that last 300-350 years and resulted in the Thames freezing in London. Side effects include unstable weather and volcanic activity. 1816 was the year without a summer in world due to volcanic activity and millions starved to death. Solar storms have also been evidenced in that past that would now knock out electricity in most of the world for years. HUMANS ARE NOT SIGNIFICANT AT DOING DIDLEY SQUAT TO EFFECT THIS OR CHANGE THIS.
Stan, you are 100% percent correct, but 1816, the year without summer, was actually caused by the Mt. Tambora volcano in Indonesia going off in April, 1815. But you are right. The MWP was as warm as, or warmer than today, as well as the Roman Warm Period and the Minoan Warm Period. There has been ZERO warming since 1998, but when there was prior to that, there was also warming on ex-planet Pluto (see Dr. Sallie Baliunas, Harvard Smithsonian, tho it is unclear if this may be internal causes), Mars, per Cal Tech, and also warming on Jupiter, where the famed red spot, which has been under observation since 1830, has been growing at the Hubble telescope shows us, due to – you guessed it – global warming on Jupiter. No word yet from the fascist left if our SUVs will take out Saturn.
Also, as noted below, the Kegwin study on marine radioisotopes in the Sargasso Sea, published in Nature, showed that we are indeed warmer than 100 years ago. No duh, given that we were still emerging from the Little Ice Age. However, WE ARE STILL BELOW THE 3,000 YEAR AVERAGE TEMPERATURE
Don’t ask the anti-science leftists about that, as they aren’t intellectually honest enough to even look at the study.
I feel sorry for Pluto. It was robbed. How demeaning to be kicked out of the planet club.
Not very “inclusive”. I need Play-Do and coloring books. Please send videos of puppies or kittens playing. (Funny how the people who want to “empower” women treat them like toddlers, what with the whole Play-Do and coloring book thing).
Skank ass femenists (Is there any other kind?) please stay away.
10K years after humans are extinct, a visitor to planet Earth will have to REALLY search to discover that we were ever here.
With a solar telescope, you can view changes in the sun’s activity yourself. The nice part, is that viewing can be done during the daytime. Homeschooling moms should think about incorporating binoculars, night and day telescopes. Never look directly at the sun.
It is a natural cycle of the sun like the four seasons, each has it’s particular advantages and disadvantages. I prefer the beginning of spring and the beginning of fall, but nature doesn’t care about my preferences; she just does her thing her way. We are her servants. Man will never conquer Mother Nature, but don’t try to stop the fools from trying.
__
Too many Americans are dependent on medical devices running on electricity. Too many Americans really depend on air conditioning. The death rate, particularly for older Americans, would definitely rise.
The people that should fear grid failures the most are the desert dwellers.
Talking about the urban folks in Vegas and Phoenix.
Think you can live without A/C when it’s 116 degrees consistently? Not for long.
Not today’s climate-controlled, spoiled folks.
Nameless, They’re not spoiled. It’s about heat stroke, triggering an asthma attack and/or dehydration. Temperature extremes also means reduced productivity. Temp extremes aren’t healthy, they are deadly for many. It’s not about being spoiled.
Great idea to build megacities in the desert. That part of the world has traditionally been sparsely populated for a reason.
Florida, same thing.
So, a EMP explosion set of by a Missile from North Korea or a Solar event from The Sun?
Pick your poison please.
But…
Cosmic rays can seed clouds, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. Cause (link) cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in the general population.
Why are cosmic rays intensifying? The main reason is the sun. Solar storm clouds such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays when they pass by Earth. During Solar Maximum, CMEs are abundant and cosmic rays are held at bay. Now, however, the solar cycle is swinging toward Solar Minimum, allowing cosmic rays to return. Another reason could be the weakening of Earth’s magnetic field, which helps protect us from deep-space radiation.
Credit: http://www.spaceweather.com/
P.S. Also reporting 13 per cent increase in Radiation over California in a two year stratosphere Balloon test over a certain area and a informative post on that site.
Humanity has survived 10’s of thousands of years with the Sun doing it’s thing. The only difference this time is we have more electronics.
IMHO, and being a prepper for decades. Sounds like fear mongering this time.
Yup,
We dont need no steenkin electronics
Ok I went on a walkabout in the new mexico area for a couple of weeks. somewhere near Tucumcari I got off the beaten path. I came across Where some Hopi or Navaho’s where relocated by the government. They had been given new built FHA type houses. And those folks had tore out the bathroom wall and let the livestock drink from the bathtub. They didn’t live in the house. Nope they had dug a large excavation in the ground and built a Hogan to live in. That was naturally cooler and warmer than the stick built house. When its sweltering hot we go and hang out in the root cellar. Got a couple Hammocks in there and take a siesta in the afternoon. Its always 58 degrees in there.
There is a silver lining to the darkness of a downed electrical grid if you are an astronomy buff. The level of background lighting will be very low. Should make to some great astronomy!
Ben Davidson of SuspiousObervers posted this solar wave story this morning. I watch them every day to see whats coming our way. There is a Person called MOTHER NATURE and sometimes SHE can be quite the BITCH. Be strong for this is not all to life and there is A BEYOND.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR74njVaTeY
“it’s not entirely clear what the effects of this could be on our planet”
This cycle has been going on for eons. If they haven’t figured out what can happen, they’re retarded. It will be some variation of what’s happened all the thousands of times before. Duh.
Old Guy,nice to know how our tax dollars are spent
Al Gore and his BIG GREEN MONEY travel carnival show will save us. Operations for Al should be run from his HQ at his Montecito digs, with, per LA Times: “The Italian-style house has high ceilings with beams in the public rooms, a family room, a wine cellar, terraces, six fireplaces, five bedrooms and nine bathrooms in more than 6,500 square feet of living space.” http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/08/home/la-hm-hotprop-20100508
Oh yeah. Goldman Suchs, JP Morgan, all the big banks are behind the AGW scam. And the Financial Stability Bd recently said that the cost to implement all the AGW plans will be $73 TRILLION over 15 years. Think Solyndra times one billion other scams.
Oh yeah. We are just coming out the the LIA, so of course it is warmer than 100 years ago. What the charlatans behind AGW won’t tell you is that, according to research by Kegwin, et al, published in Nature, we are indeed warmer than 100 years ago… but ****are still today BELOW the 3,000 year average temp.*** AND it was warmer during the MWP, which even lead warmer Phil Jones was forced to admit to BBC, before he was dumped for the Climategate scam, which proved the whole enchilada was a fraud – think Trenberth’s “hide the decline” (in temps) email, or Mann’s fake hockey stick.
I call bullshit!
Asthmatics need air conditioning as prolonged heat triggers an asthma attack. Same for the cold air, freezing temps, also triggers an attack.
Keeping Omega-3 levels up (fish oil/Alaskan Sockeye salmon, etc) helps alot too, but still need to be aware of the temps, especially if the asthmatic is a child. Many child asthmatics have died from being out of temperature controlled environments for too long. Their lungs can’t tolerate it.
Asmatics -old – infirm- mentally and physically handicapped ect. Keeping them alive and prolonging their oxygen thieving parasite existence for as long as possible is a luxury & a burden. If you are responsible for one of those burdens and pay for it all by yourself that’s ok by me. However when you have to sponge off of the producing makers to enable parasites Im not Ok with that situation. Like it or not. Until the situation of too many parasites and too few producers is addressed the decline will continue. Like it or not. There eventually will be a great culling.
Old Guy:
There is a good deal of truth to your position about producers and takers. The problem with ignorant, stupid people is a little more complicated than their narrow minds can confront. I would hate to see some idiot culling disposable people. Here is why.
I have a friend. He has asthma, very severe asthma. But, as far as producers go, he is incredible. Barely old enough to shave, he is working in his own laboratory. His work is up there with the greatest geniuses of all time.
I could just picture some idiot wanting to cull without the sense God gave an ant.
__ that said, I feel ya.
I think about these things often.
We have created a suicidal situation.
Look at South Africa. White farmers produced so much food, low IQ blacks swelled their numbers greatly. Now they are killing their golden goose, the whites. Stupid is as stupid does.
__
__
I hear ya old guy. Out with the old, in with the new. Hopefully you’ll be the first to go old guy.
Love that video, Mac! Thought I had mentioned the power of coronal holes. Nice to see my comment backed up by science!
Is it just me or did I see that Solar minimums in the video coincide with stock market crashes.Take a look yourself 2008 and now 2018 onward.
Omens my friends…………
“Possibility,” “should”, “expected”, “theory”, “not entirely clear”, “believes”, “not quite sure”.
I’m unfamiliar with these scientific words and phrases.
Scientific proof is based on repetition, so what has happened in the last several cycles?
Weasel words, some of them. Nobody who makes a forecast is without them. Lest you be accused of claiming omniscience or being a fortune teller. Al Gore come to mind?
You’re spot on about looking back.