Brian's Brain

Not that I'm trying to be all alarmist on y'all, or anything, but I confess that an article I recently read in Wired Magazine, entitled 'The 2012 Apocalypse — And How to Stop It', has me more than a little bit freaked out. And considering how much interest another tech topic little-covered by mass media, cold fusion, got when I pointed it out to my online readers two weeks ago, I thought I'd pass this one along to you as well for scrutiny and feedback.

Electromagnetic interference can hamper or even cripple the functions of close-proximity electronic equipment, as anyone who follows claimed extraterrestrial life sightings (remember the scene with Richard Dreyfuss in the pickup truck at the railroad tracks in Close Encounters of the Third Kind?), nuclear weaponry, EMP-specifically-generating weaponry, or for that matter Wi-Fi can attest. I'd also periodically heard that coronal mass ejections from the Sun during periods of heavy solar magnetic activity (as evidenced by abundant sunspots, and which normally last for 11.1-year periods; the most recent cycle began early last year) could put astronauts at risk. But I'd always thought that the Earth's inhabitants were largely protected from solar-sourced EMI pulses by the planet's geomagnetic field.

My understanding may unfortunately be overly simplistic, at least according to Lawrence Joseph, the author of 'Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation into Civilization’s End'. A number of factors converge to make us especially vulnerable during this particular solar cycle, which will likely climax sometime in the 2012 timeframe:

• A NASA satellite recently discovered a massive 'leak' in the geomagnetic field, which appears whenever the Sun's magnetic field is aligned with that of the Earth (sunspots' magnetic fields 'flip' at the beginning of each active solar cycle)
• The current active solar cycle, approximately 1.5 years in duration so far, is unfortunately one in which the Sun and Earth's magnetic fields are aligned, and
• Increasingly power-dependent cultures across the globe are increasingly reliant on ultra-high-power transformers as critical links in the power distribution 'backbone'...transformers that (in conjunction with power lines acting as antennas) are particularly at risk due to solar-generated EMI, and that are extremely expensive and time-consuming to replace. As Wired's interview says (and yes, I already know that they meant volts, not kvolts, and I think they meant to say 'Around 50 percent already handle more current than they’re designed for'!):

Ultra-high voltage transformers become more finicky as energy demands are greater. Around 50 percent already can’t handle the current they’re designed for. A little extra current coming in at odd times can slip them over the edge...The 500,000- and 700,000-kilovolt transformers are particularly vulnerable. The United States uses more of these than anyone else. China is trying to implement some million-kilovolt transformers...When the transformers blow, they can’t be fixed in the field. They often can’t be fixed at all. Right now there’s a one- to three-year lag time between placing an order and getting a new one.

A satellite called ACE could provide power providers 15 to 45 minutes of warning, but it's six years past its original 5-year operating lifetime, and there are no plans to replace it once it fails (as it's beginning to do). Shunting energy or worst case shutting down the grid in preparation for an incoming solar pulse, assuming a response could even be mobilized in time, is an equally costly proposition, especially if ACE's warning consequently turns out to be false. And ground resistors, which theoretically could protect the power grid from solar EMI-induced spikes, are untested technology.

Thoughts, folks? Is it time to begin amassing supplies and survival expertise in preparation for a few years without electricity?