What is the most catastrophic event that could poss devastate humanity in the future?

[shunyadragon]

Many worry about catastrophic meteor strikes or the eruption of a super volcano like the Yellow stone caldera, but these are unlikely but yes possible events. Based on the evidence the Yellowstone caldera is not likely to erupt for thousands possibly tens of thousands of years.

The most likely catastrophic event would be because of our own high dependence on technology in all aspects of our life. The possible event is possibly common in history, and the last one was in 1859 called the Carrington event. It was a catastrophic solar flare storm. If one happened today it would not have to be as strong as the Carrington event to literally wipe out our technology world wide, including satalites, aircraft, all modern vehicles, electric power systems, and all forms of communication.

Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-what-would-happen-if-solar-storm-wiped-out-technology-geomagnetic-carrington-event-coronal-mass-ejection

Here's What Would Happen if a Solar Storm Wiped Out Technology as We Know It
PETER DOCKRILL 21 JUN 2018

It's a strange and lucky irony that the worst solar storm in recorded history happened at a time when human civilisation wasn't yet uniquely vulnerable to the Sun's inescapable geomagnetic fury.


The Carrington Event – aka the solar storm of 1859 – saw a huge solar coronal mass ejection unleashed at Earth's protective magnetosphere, producing an epic geomagnetic storm the scale of which modern civilisation had never before witnessed.

As a barrage of charged particles collided with Earth's magnetic field, intense auroras lit up skies around the world – but with strong electrical currents sweeping across the globe, the repercussions went far beyond colourful visuals.

Telegraph systems covering Europe and North America went down, as sparks flew from equipment, giving electric shocks to their human operators and even starting fires. Amid the electrified tumult, machines that had been disconnected from their power supplies eerily continued to relay their truncated messages.

It was, in other words, technological chaos. Yet from the comparatively futuristic perspective of 2018, as far as tech apocalypses go, it all sounds rather quaint and contained.

If a similar-scale solar storm were to strike Earth's pervasive technological systems right now – over a century and a half later – what would happen?

Nobody knows for sure how bad things would be, but given how scarily reliant we are on today's deep-rooted technological and electronic superstructures – compared to the primitive and relatively rare contraptions of 1859 – it would certainly be no picnic.

Perhaps our most relevant clue lies in some strange events that befell the world in the month of March, 1989.

Back then, a severe but not-Carrington-class solar storm struck Earth, courtesy of another coronal mass ejection from the Sun. Again, intense auroras resulted, leading some to think they could be seeing hazy after-effects of World War III.

Yet it wasn't a nuclear strike disrupting radio signals and satellite communication systems, but the flow of charged particles getting caught up in Earth's magnetic field lines.

The most extreme results were felt in Quebec, Canada, where the power grid went offline, meaning some 6 million people were immediately deprived of electricity. For many, the outage lasted only hours, but for others it took days for the power to come back on.

It's this kind of medieval scenario that has scientists at the White House worried a doomsday-scale geomagnetic storm on the level of the Carrington Event could effectively send the world back to the Dark Ages.

The thinking goes that "the big one", when it hits (about once every 500 years, if not sooner) would be powerful enough to knock out electrical and communications systems across Earth for days, months, or even years – nixing power grids, satellites, GPS, the internet, telephones, transportation systems, banking, you name it.

And forget taking out Quebec – we could be talking about all of Canada going offline, maybe the whole world – and with only hours of warning before technological darkness falls.

It sounds like something out of a disaster movie, but it's not the stuff of fiction. Conservative estimates suggest we could be looking at up to US$2 trillion of damage in the first year of such a calamity, with a recovery effort that could take a decade for the world to pull off.

On the more extreme side, others say US$20 trillion is a more reasonable figure – an inevitable damage bill that should perhaps make us reassess the risk factors of space-borne destruction.

"In terms of risk from the sky, most of the attention in the past was dedicated to asteroids," astrophysicist Abraham Loeb from Harvard University explained to Universe Today last year.

"But a century ago, there was not much technological infrastructure around, and technology is growing exponentially. Therefore, the damage is highly asymmetric between the past and future."

In a best-case scenario, a severe geomagnetic storm might only result in limited communications disruptions. But as history has shown, even such small-scale interference with the wrong kind of technological systems can have devastating consequences – like taking the world to the brink of nuclear war.

Just where a more powerful solar storm might take us next – or when – is the million-dollar question. Under majestic auroras, we might be forced to undergo a brutal, incalculable reset.

"An event of [Carrington] scale could be catastrophic if it happened tomorrow," director of research for MIT's Energy Initiative, Francis O'Sullivan, told CNET last week.

"It's not just the lights going off now. It's bank accounts disappearing… If you think what would happen if the stock exchange was taken offline for a week or month or if communications were down for a week or a month, you very quickly get to a point where this might be one of the most important threats the nation faces, bar none."

© Copyright Original Source

[rogue06]

What is the most catastrophic event that could poss devastate humanity in the future?

I'm more than a little surprised that you didn't say Trump

[shunyadragon]

I'm more than a little surprised that you didn't say Trump

He already happened unfortunately, but it would take away a lot of his toys, and he would not have a military to play with.

[shunyadragon]

There is an interesting side note to this potential catastrophic event in today's world In making a comparison of actual potential of catastrophic events that would devastate humanity, and this one is the most likely. Actually, the one in 1859 only caused minor problems of inconvenience, because we were in a low tech world, before that they would be hardly experienced except for extra brilliant world wide Northern and Southern lights.

[tabibito]

Yesterday's news today. This has been known for a long time now.

[shunyadragon]

Yesterday's news today. This has been known for a long time now.

. . .but not here.

[tabibito]

[Sparko]

What is the most catastrophic event that could poss devastate humanity in the future?

Zombies. Definitely zombies.

[mossrose]

Zombies. Definitely zombies.

What precedes the return of the King.

[Roy]

What precedes the return of the King.

The Two Towers wasn't that bad.

[Roy]

Many worry about catastrophic meteor strikes or the eruption of a super volcano like the Yellow stone caldera, but these are unlikely but yes possible events. Based on the evidence the Yellowstone caldera is not likely to erupt for thousands possibly tens of thousands of years.

The most likely catastrophic event would be because of our own high dependence on technology in all aspects of our life. The possible event is possibly common in history, and the last one was in 1859 called the Carrington event. It was a catastrophic solar flare storm. If one happened today it would not have to be as strong as the Carrington event to literally wipe out our technology world wide, including satalites, aircraft, all modern vehicles, electric power systems, and all forms of communication.

A world-wide power cut still isn't going to be as devastating as an asteroid or similar impact that burns everything above ground, and then darkens the sky for more than a year so that neither land plants nor marine phytoplankton can grow.

[Sparko]

There was a TV series about the world after a global blackout destroyed all electrical systems and basically electricity didn't work any more. ever. Revolution.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2070791/

[TheLurch]

I'm more than a little surprised that you didn't say Trump

That's because electing Sparko president would clearly be worse.

[Sparko]

That's because electing Sparko president would clearly be worse.

Sparko and Rogue would be even worse.

Rogue-Sparko-POTUS.jpg

[rogue06]

Sparko and Rogue would be even worse.

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