Sorry, my English is not so good. I just read the news posted by Maranatha in her thread. I quote:



No electricity means havoc - chaos. During the Hurricane Katrina, people just went into abandoned shops and stole things. I also read somewhere that even a 3 year old girl was raped as there weren't anyone there to protect her. So if the solar flare does hit us in 2012, everything will come tumbling down (we might not have to wait for 21/12/2012). No internet, no mobile phones, no transportation - worst of all, no foods? What EXACTLY does it (the solar flare) do to human beings? I mean, will it actually kill any living things roaming on earth - Humans and animals? What can we do to survive? How to survive? Do we hide deep in the caves? Should we keep our computers and mobile phones? Where to run to? Where to hide?

I'm totally lost here, so if anyone is kind enough to steer me to the right directions, I would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

Solar flares happen all the time. Its not dangerous to humans, animals or plants. We have a natural protection called the magnetosphere that is created by the earth's core. The harmful radiation from solar flares, Coronal Mass Ejections and sunspots are caught by the magnetosphere and ionized. When solar flares become particularly strong (like during the solar maximum at the end of 2012) the ionization start to affect radio and microwave communication. A strong CME can cause local black outs that the power company can usually fix in a couple of days.

What becomes alarming is that the earth is showing signs of shifting it's magnetic polarity. When this happens (and there is archeological evidence that it does happen periodically) magnetic north will be at the Antarctica instead of the Arctic where it now is. The process that happens when the poles shift is when the magnetosphere is at its most weakest (it may not be there at all) when that happens, there might be enuf radiation to cause skin cancer after a few years or severe sunburn (after several minutes) but nothing drastic like people poofing into fireballs when the walk outside into the bright sunlight. The bad thing is that all that radiation is being ionized by our atmosphere at great levels similar to an EMP (Electromagnetic pulse). That ionization will disrupt power grids throughout out the world, even when theyre facing the away from the sun because the EMP effect travels thousands of miles and solar flares lasts anywhere from 2 to 8 hours. CMEs last only 4 hours but they pack a larger punch.

So, in summary. Solar flares by itself. not too bad.
CMEs by themselves, not harmful
Loss of Magnetosphere, get more suntan lotion
All three of them together.... end of days.

Well I guess we can prepare to some extent for loss of electricity - through stocking up on food, water, tools etc and learning practical skills. That might help us survive till we can become self sufficient. But most people don't have access to either the land or know how.
Also, there will be no fancy drugs and you can kiss goodbye to your triple heart bypass. A knowledge of herbs will only take you so far.
It will be like it was centuries ago where a minor accident could kill you and with a much shorter life expectancy.
But initially there will be a terrible cull, the biggest danger being other humans. In my opinion.

slayer one has to account for the varying degrees of flare. these days it's too hard to tell the difference between real correlations of observations and simply jumping on the bandwagon, nevertheles there are plenty of people calling this a real threat. earths magnetosphere is far too weak right now to fight off anything!

Seriously Havoc and chaos, let it happen the better they kill each then survive with us.

What people need to also think about, especially in 3rd and 2nd world countries and rural parts of China/wherever. Is that if communications are lost and the entire globe is in havoc, this would be a prime opportunity for militant groups to set out in full force. Expect any number of pirate attacks on cruise ships and/or freightliners. Even southern USA (I live 10 minutes from the TJ border) could become vulnerable to drug cartel militia.

In the event of a global EMP effect, power hungry gangs/personal armies are going to have a field day on the people they've been warring with.

Will the pole shift happens because of the solar flare itself?