Apparently, Modern Society Almost Ended Last Week

I’d imagine you’ve heard or seen the Northern Lights last week. I wasn’t aware of them until day two when my mother showed me some beautiful photos of the lights from the night before, which were taken from very nearby by my in-laws the first night. But even that anomaly didn’t register as a problem at the time. The fact that the Northern Lights were visible in the Midwest just didn’t bother me.

But it should have.

It wasn’t until I’d watched the video below that I realized just how problematic seeing the lights where I live in Kansas City (and for others as far south as Florida) could’ve been to life as we know it. I recommend watching at least the first half of the video below to understand why. I’ll include some thoughts below the video, stuff that stood out to me, if you’d like to know the crucial details.

Suffice it to say that we dodged a bullet. The problem? Bigger and stronger bullets are coming!

If you watched at least the first half, you should be highly concerned. Honestly, solar flares wiping out the global power grid just isn’t on my list of “things I must prepare for” but it’s heading that way.

Although there might be a bit of fear-mongering in the way Ben Davison (the guest being interviewed) put the threat, he does indicate that if things had been a little different, such as the solar flare penetrating instead of glancing off the Earth’s magnetic field, or if it had lasted longer or been a bit stronger, then we could’ve been in real trouble.

I also didn’t realize how a solar flare could’ve disrupted the entire global power grids because of the way the event envelops the planet, inducing current literally everywhere. I’d always assumed that, if the flare had hit the other side of the Earth, that we would be spared, but it’s not true.

[It’s also interesting to know that the color of the lights indicates how much energy is penetrating into our atmosphere. Red and pink colors are bad, and that’s what we’re seeing of late.]

As you may also know, Earth’s magnetic field is weakening due to a pole shift; coupled with the Sun currently being in a solar maximum cycle and we’re faced with both problems. But Ben also says that he’s not terribly concerned until about a decade from now when these two problems (Earth’s magnetic field weakening further and the Sun’s solar activity being at a solar maximum again) match precisely when the Earth’s magnetic field is at its weakest and the Sun’s activity is at its strongest. So, perhaps there’s still time to do something about that potentiality as a prepper.

Ben also points out something most of us preppers know, which is that when an EMP (or solar flare) hits that it can damage all sorts of electronics, including computers, phones, appliances, and the entire power grid. What I didn’t know (and contest to a degree) is that in certain cases even a Faraday cage won’t save your electronics. Interestingly, Ben recommends storing sensitive electronics inside plastic or rubber rather than anything metal because they will offer better protection. But my Faraday cage is literally a steel trash can with cardboard as the barrier inside, so maybe I need to adjust? I’ll have to look into this more.

About halfway in, they begin to discuss death statistics. I’ve head these government estimates before stating that after only six months about 90% of people in America would be dead, which Ben agrees as accurate. The reason is because of our over-reliance on the power grid for everything, which I talk about extensively in my book Why We Prepare, including for heating and cooling, refrigeration, water distribution and purification, agriculture, and so much more. Such an event would be an incredible mess for sure, but 90% dead might be a slight overestimation in my humble opinion.

There’s more they discuss in the second half of the video if you’re interested, but from a prepping perspective, those are the highlights.

So, what do you think? Is this more fear-mongering or is Ben spot on? Would preppers, like you and I, even survive the first six months? And what do the next six months even look like if 90% of people are gone at that point?

It’s a sobering possibility.