If the year 2012 is going to be a peak time for solar flares, as scientists anticipate, and one big one does penetrate the magnetic field of the Earth and knock out civilization’s electrical grid worldwide, then it would seem sensible to me to set up if it is not already in place a global monitoring system that would alert all the utilities that supply electrical power world-wide to shut them down to avoid their destruction by a super-sized magnetic-electrical surge from the sun.

Since the surge could reach the Earth within minutes, it would seem prudent to either mandate the installation of some type of shielded surge protection systems if possible and if they are not already in place, or a manual shut-down procedure and communications system if that is also not already in place.

As the Discovery Channel’s production “2012” scientists point out, we are incredibly vulnerable otherwise to a total disruption of power, prolonged blackouts and months of being left without electrical power.  This situation would be further hampered by the fact that power needed to repair and/or replace damaged or destroyed power stations could otherwise be largely unavailable.

As the scientists in the Discovery Channel’s production mentioned, otherwise we would just have to hope the “perfect storm” involving chain reactions of super volcanoes, earthquakes and super tsunamis triggered by the potential mega-solar flares are minimal or do not take place to any doomsday magnitude.

-- Fred Pulver