There are numerous solar storms of varying intensity but this may mark the beginning of a series of solar super-storms. The sun is nearing the height of a predictable 11 year cycle. That cycle will culminate with its greatest solar activity between March and December 2012.

An alert from SpaceWeather.com warns, “”There is little doubt that the cloud is heading in the general direction of Earth. A preliminary inspection of SOHO/STEREO imagery suggests that the CME will deliver a strong glancing blow to Earth’s magnetic field on Jan. 24-25 as it sails mostly north of our planet.”

Solar flares have received increasing scrutiny over the years due to potential damage from what are called CMSs (coronal mass ejections). Coronal mass ejections are closely studied because they can produce potentially harmful geomagnetic storms when electrically charged particles from the sun interact with Earth’s magnetic field.

Many scientists are warning the sun is reaching a level of activity unseen in the modern electronic era. Our only frame of reference for such an event is the last recorded Solar Maximus of this level on September 1, 1859.

Numerous sunspots occurred on August 28 with solar flares occurring from August 28 to September 2. On September 1, the sun released an immense coronal mass ejection (CME). Hours later, telegraph wires in both the United States and Europe spontaneously shorted out, resulting in numerous fires. Auroras were seen as far south as Rome and Hawaii. The 1859 Event was a combination of three factors. The CME was extraordinarily fast; the magnetic fields were extremely intense; the magnetic fields were in direct opposition to Earth’s magnetic fields. This combination overwhelmed the Earth’s magnetic field, allowing charged particles to penetrate into Earth’s upper atmosphere; thus creating the havoc.

This cycle of solar activity may or may not be as intense as the one in 1859. But, one major factor makes this one much more troublesome. The worst event that could have occurred in the last century was what did – telegraph lines downed for short periods of time. A similar event occurring now could be near catastrophic.

Power grids are exceptionally vulnerable. What most people don’t realize is that a power plant requires an enormous amount of power to go online. A regional temporary interruption of power can quickly cascade into widespread chaos. A direct hit from a high level coronal mass ejection could throw North America’s power grid off line for weeks, months, or even years.

Vulnerable circuit boards and microchips are everywhere. Medical equipment, electronically dependent nuclear power plants, and most vehicles (land, sea, and air) are laden with microchips. In fact, most of our civilization’s entire infrastructure is one huge integrated circuit.

Except in this instance, the nightmares are very much based on reality. In fact, there are two different scenarios—one related to natural events, the other to intentional human action—under which an electromagnetic pulse could indeed bring modern society crashing to the ground, and both are considered likely to occur at some point by experts who study the question.

Given the fact that the electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, does present a real danger to all of humankind, it is incumbent upon all of us to learn as much as we can about the nature of this threat.

What is an EMP?—The Basics

The seven-minute-long artificial aurora created by the Starfish Prime high-altitude nuclear test explosion in course of Operation Dominic on July 9, 1962

An electromagnetic pulse is a massive atmospherically-conducted current of electricity that in certain circumstances would be capable of destroying every electrical power system, as well as every electric or electronic device or appliance, within range of its point of origin. The magnitude of the current involved, which is created by the interaction between masses of charged particles descending from above and our planet’s natural magnetic field, would be so significant that it would overwhelm any systems or circuits that draw or transmit electricity, literally blowing them out or frying them from the inside. EMPs originate in the upper atmosphere, and they can strike suddenly, silently, and without warning.

Nuclear EMPs

As many people may already be aware, one potential cause of an EMP is a nuclear explosion. In order for a nuclear bomb to create an EMP, however, it must be exploded in the earth’s atmosphere at a sufficient enough height for the gamma rays it emits to interact with the earth’s magnetic field. That’s why the bombs that were dropped directly on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for example, did not produce this kind of effect. One interesting fact about nuclear-generated EMPs is that it does not take a particularly powerful atomic bomb to create them; in fact, small-to-medium sized nukes that use fissionable uranium are more efficient at producing EMPs than hydrogen bombs or other weapons with a high-megaton yield.

A 500-kiloton single-stage atomic bomb—a type of weapon that has been in existence since the 1950s—exploded 300 miles above the central United States could cause so much damage to our electric and electronic infrastructure that it would all but destroy the nation’s economy in an instant. Even a 100-kiloton bomb, if exploded at the right altitude in the right location, could cause the electrical grid to collapse completely through a chain reaction of systemic failure. The type of nuclear weapon we are talking about here is quite primitive, relatively speaking, and all the world’s nuclear powers, including Russia, China, North Korea, and Pakistan already possess or are capable of manufacturing simple weapons that would fall within the 100-500 kiloton range.

A sudden and unexpected nuclear attack, which could be carried out with surprising ease through a missile launch off the coast of the United States, would devastate power generation facilities, their communications and control systems, and power distribution equipment everywhere. The large transformers that support the power grid would be destroyed en masse, and because neither these transformers nor the parts that would be needed to repair them are manufactured in the U.S., replacing them in a short period of time would be all but impossible. While some of the vital information contained on computer hard drives would be salvageable, the cost of recovering it would be prohibitive, especially given the dire situation we would be facing in the wake of such a catastrophic occurrence. A large percentage of our automobiles, which now rely on complex electronic micro-circuitry to function, would stop working, and those living in colder climates would be left completely without heat—and with no place else to go to find it.

Stepping back and looking at the big picture, it is clear that we have now become so dependent on microelectronics and digital technology to assist us in meeting all of our basic needs that the collapse of society and the social order in the wake of a nuclear EMP attack would be inevitable—not to mention incredibly destructive and painful.

Solar Storms and EMPs

While many nations would be capable of unleashing a devastating EMP against their enemies through nuclear attack, at least there is some hope that sanity will prevail and this kind of event can be avoided. But unfortunately, EMP by nuclear attack is not the only threat we are facing. Nature is also capable of producing a powerful EMP, and the reason we use the word “unfortunately” here is because this type of pulse is not just a possibility, but an inevitability.

Solar storms associated with cyclical spikes in sunspot activity frequently result in an emission of a huge cloud of charged particles  from the surface of the sun, and when these clouds strike the earth’s magnetic field the result, just as with a nuclear explosion,  is the creation of an electric current that if large enough can cause serious destructive effects. The disturbing thing here is that once every 500 years on average the sun produces a solar storm so violent that the geomagnetic effects it causes would be strong enough to wipe out the electric grid in whatever part of the earth it should happen to strike. The only reason we have been protected from such an outcome so far is that alternating current was only discovered by Tesla a little over 100 years ago.

The last of these solar superstorms occurred in 1859, and while there was no electrical grid at the time, early telegraph systems had already been installed and operators reported extensive malfunctions and disruption in services. The primary effect of the gigantic charged particle emission associated with the 1859 geomagnetic storm was visual (as spectacular aurora borealis displays), and while usually confined to northern climes were seen all over the globe. But if this storm had taken place in the present time things would have been quite different—solar scientists agree that if this storm had happened in 2011, the result would have been a total breakdown in at least a part of our power grid.

There is one significant difference between the EMPs produced by the sun and those created by nuclear weapons blasts. Nuclear explosions actually cause three different types of electromagnetic pulses, each of which has different characteristics, while solar storms produce just one of these three varieties. The first type of electromagnetic pulse that follows immediately after a high-altitude nuclear detonation, usually referred to as E1, is a very rapid and high density pulse that is generated by the explosive force of the initial burst of charged particles, which are thrown out at a super high velocity and eventually collide and interact with the earth’s magnetic field. It is this process that produces the first massive electric current, and it is this powerful EMP that would be responsible for frying the micro-circuitry that we find inside of computers and other types of electronic devices and systems. The second burst of energy after a nuclear explosion, E2, is much less powerful than E1 and tends to only cause localized damage. Because solar storms do not produce E1 pulses in particular, such an event would not have the same effect on electronic devices and systems that an EMP generated by a nuclear attack would.

E3 is the type of pulse that nuclear and solar sources each produce. The sheer force of the charged particle collisions that precede E1 and E2 actually knocks the entire magnetic field of our planet out of its normal position, like a pool ball being struck by a cue ball. It then quickly snaps back into place again, but this oscillation causes the release of a long wavelength electric current that has a lifespan of up to several minutes. After either a solar storm or a nuclear attack, it is this kind of EMP that would overwhelm and ultimately destroy the electrical grid over a wide geographical area.

While there is no disputing the destructive impact the largest solar superstorm would have on the power grid, and consequently on society and the economy, it turns out that even a smaller storm could have profoundly negative effects. A few years ago, a study commissioned from the scientific research firm Metatech by multiple federal government agencies calculated the effects of a once in 100 year type of superstorm on the electrical grid, should the EMP generated by such a storm hit the earth’s atmosphere over North America. The study showed that a storm this size could cause the failure of enough large transformers to lead to a total or near total breakdown of the U.S. power grid, if its EMP impacted the magnetic field over the northern part of tour country. For your information, the last one-in-100 year solar storm occurred in 1921, which means that we are less than a decade away from the arrival of the next one, assuming the normal historical pattern holds.

Heeding the Warning

There are precautions that can be taken to protect both the power grid and electronic devices against electromagnetic pulses. In fact, just recently a company called Emprimus developed a new powerful shielding system that could be used to protect the largest transformers from damage caused by sudden surges of power, even those that would follow an EMP. Generally speaking, the knowledge of how to protect the grid from EMP-related damage exists, as do the technical means to make it happen; but not surprisingly, neither government nor the large utility companies has done much of anything to implement such protections, which of course cost money and do not offer any immediate return on investment. Estimates are that a severe solar geomagnetic event could cause up to $2 trillion dollars of damage, and that it could take from four to ten years for the country to recover completely (assuming that it could do so at all). It has also been estimated that installing the necessary equipment to protect against a solar EMP-related calamity would cost the average electricity consumer in the U.S. an extra 20 cents per year. And yet, nothing is done.

Electronic devices would require some kind of protective box or sleeve made from highly conductive metals like copper or aluminum in order to survive the vicious blast of a nuclear-based E1 current. The best way to protect computers or other kinds of precious electronics would be through the use of a Faraday cage, which offers full shielding from stray electric currents. Because of the effects that an EMP would have on television, radio, and the Internet, the best way to keep in contact with the outside world following a catastrophe of this sort would be with a shortwave radio, but this too would need to be kept inside a protective enclosure beforehand to be saved from the destructive effects of an E1 pulse.

The Price of Dependency

We have become so dependent on electricity and electronics for our very survival that society would no longer be able to withstand any disaster that took it off-line and off-the-grid. Those who have already unplugged and are living a self-sufficient lifestyle could be adequately prepared for the effects of a solar-based EMP, as long as they were relying on alternative energy to provide all their power needs. Off-the-gridders who want to be prepared for all contingencies, however, would be wise to begin investigating the protective technologies that currently exist to help shield electronic devices and home wiring systems from the effects of E1 pulses, which would present a threat to everyone if a nuclear attack should ever occur.

We do not know exactly when and where it will come; or if it will come because of something that happens on the surface of the sun, or because of actions taken by rogue nations and reckless leaders. But the one thing we know for sure is that an electromagnetic pulse is coming, and if we are caught unaware and unprepared, in the end we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

©2011 Off the Grid News

Electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) are bursts of electromagnetic radiation that can be caused by nuclear explosions or fluctuating magnetic fields. [Note: There is no current evidence that the government has technology capable of producing this effect without using nuclear devices.] The EMP effect can be produced by warheads detonated on the Earth’s surface or from detonations occurring high above the surface. The effects from these detonations will vary greatly depending on altitude and interaction with local magnetic fields.

EMPs will disable modern technology within a certain radius of the originating blast. Those caught in its path will have their cell phones, computers, cars, and household electronics cut out, and it will cut out the power grid as well. There are few ways at present to protect ourselves from this type of threat. One potential method of protecting your electronics and alternative energy sources is by using Faraday cages.

Faraday cages were discovered by Michael Faraday, and these devices can protect anything inside of them from electrostatic shocks (up to and including lightning) and from EMPs. They are generally built as metal cages with mesh on the outside, and they must be grounded. The metal mesh conducts the electricity or electromagnetic energy around the exterior surface of the cage, protecting the cage’s contents from harm, and the energy runs along the ground and dissipates. We use several examples of Faraday cages in everyday life: microwaves and coaxial cable. Each of these conducts energy around a particular surface to protect its contents.

While it is possible to protect numerous objects by placing them in these cages, homeowners must consider the utility of doing so. Protecting an outdoor generator by placing it inside a Faraday cage presents little impediment to daily life; in contrast, placing a television and stereo or game system inside a cage would make it difficult to use these appliances. It’s also not practical to place a stove or refrigerator inside a Faraday cage — you can plan ahead and replace your stove with a wood-burning or a propane/natural gas unit to avoid losing use of it due to an EMP incident.

It’s impossible at this point to protect energy sources such as solar panels from EMPs, but it may be possible to protect the generator components of wind turbines and hydro units. This depends on the individual unit construction, and whether it’s possible to have the generator itself be connected to the unit rather than be an interior component, which cannot be protected without shielding the entire device.

Numerous online resources exist that describe various Faraday cages and their applications. It’s possible for people to build cages using plans found on some of these sites. A homemade Faraday cage can be constructed simply by using a wood frame covered with metal mesh. However, a mesh with wide openings will not be useful for protection. The best sets of construction plans make use of a very fine mesh to ensure protection.

Please note that Faraday cages must be grounded in order to properly protect their contents. Some websites claim you can build cages from anything (including cardboard boxes and tin foil), but most of these will not work. Tin foil, while metallic, is not thick or strong enough to resist EMPs. You must have a solid structure, a metal mesh (not tin foil), and the cage must be grounded. Even the common Faraday cages mentioned earlier utilize grounding: coaxial cable contains a grounding wire, and all microwaves make use of three-pronged (grounded) plugs.

Faraday cages can offer excellent protection if properly constructed and grounded, so please be very cautious when reviewing instructions on how to build them. Make sure to select a comprehensive plan that includes and explains how the grounding works, and follow the specifications to the letter to ensure optimum protection for your appliances and electronics. Finally, avoid any plans that instruct you to use flimsy materials such as cardboard, as these will simply leave you unprotected.

One final note: a popular online myth is that cars are Faraday cages on wheels. While this may have been true to some extent when our vehicles were made out of more metal than anything else, this is no longer the case with vehicles that involve more fiberglass than steel. A car may ground some energy and offer slight protection from a lightning bolt, but it will not offer protection from an EMP. Do not rely on them to protect your small electronics (cell phones, laptops, etc.) from harm in the event of an EMP strike.

For Further Reading:

http://preparednesspro.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/emp-101-part-iv-faraday-cage/

http://www.disaster-survival-resources.com/faraday-cage.html

An EMP and major geomagnetic storm are similar, though not identical. Both can vary in severity, the exact wavelengths experienced, and the effects they would have on your technology. Like lightning, they send super-charged electromagnetic energy through any electrical device which would fry most circuitry in the equipment – including batteries. Unlike lightning, the pulses are very generalized, and so harder to shield against.

So, if there is something you want to still work (your car, your radio, your laptop) after an event like this, what do you do? Here are some ideas to get you started:

Faraday cages

There is a lot of information available online–some good and some not so good. Much of it is contradictory. If you really want to learn more, consider taking a basic electrical wiring class at your local community college. Until then, the basic components of a successful Faraday cage are:

• a continuous circuit of heavy metal
• no antenna to wick charges in
• good grounding

There is much discussion about what types of metal will work. Wire mesh is often suggested, but that may still allow some charges in to wreck havoc on what’s inside. Other sites will proclaim that you can wrap anything in tin foil and it will be saved, although it is probably too thin to protect from anything but the most minor bursts. Your best bet on a budget is to have a nested cage – one container inside another, each layer wrapped in a non-conductive substance like bubble wrap alternated with the conductive substance like foil. However, this type of shielding would be difficult to ground, though some argue that a nested cage does not need grounding.

As for the continuous circuit, any gap at all will open the circuit and destroy its ability to work as a shield. Any metal that extends outside the shield may draw the current in. And of course, everything must be grounded! You can be creative here as long as you follow these guidelines. You can make a cage big or small, depending on what materials you have to work with. For example, wrap your radio in bubble wrap, then place inside a metal safe and ground it with a copper pipe.

The Microwave Faraday

You probably already have a Faraday cage in your house – it is called a microwave. A microwave cooks by bouncing around electromagnetic waves, which need to be contained instead of bouncing around your kitchen. If you can find a free (working or not) microwave on Craig’s List or Freecycle, then you have an instant box for all your electronic goodies. Well, almost. There is still the issue of an antenna, since the cord can grab the electrical currents and bring them in. You will need to remove the cord, and cover with a metal plate to create the complete electrical circuit. Also, find a way to ground it. (In normal operation, it is grounded by plugging it in to a grounded outlet, but obviously this will not solve the problem in an EMP.)

Speaking of microwaves, they are not only a Faraday cage, but provide a great visual for how and why one works. In an interesting YouTube video, someone builds a Faraday cage with Peeps in it and then microwaves them. (No, not REAL chickens! Marshmellow ones! You can come down off the ceiling now!)

As you will notice, the clamps on the wire mesh provide the continuous circuit. Instead of the Peeps being fried, the electronic rays bounce off the metal conductor. They keep from being fried because the electricity goes around the objects and does not touch them. Note: if these were electronic items, and not Peeps (which do not conduct electricity, naturally), they would need to be surrounded by a non-conductive substance to avoid coming into contact with the metal.

Your House a Bunker?

If you really want to be the hero and have a house full of working electronics, some suggest that you turn your whole house into a Faraday cage. While this is technically possible, it would be extremely difficult. Some claim you could just tin foil all your walls and cover this with wood paneling or wall paper to make it look normal. But those people forget the crucial element of a continuous circuit—the antenna.

In order to make this work, you would have to have metal covering every door and window, overlapping to cover any gaps. And you would have to get rid of all electrical wires coming into the house from elsewhere and make your house its own completely contained circuit. Possible? Maybe. But what might be more realistic would be to create a single room (ideally in the basement) that would be completely lined with copper or other metal. You can even buy these types of room kits pre-fabricated on the internet, but they are not cheap, running as much as many houses in today’s market. You can also buy all types of metal sheeting, vents, doors, and more to make your own, but again it will be a significant financial investment. You may also raise some eyebrows purchasing this kind of stuff, since its usual applications are for medical, military, and high level computing application.

As a side note, if your cell phone works in your Faraday room, then the room doesn’t, since the fact that you are receiving a cell signal means the room is not completely shielded.

Buried Treasure

Given the economical and technical constraints of trying to build all this shielding, you may be better off just burying whatever is really important. As long as there is at least 2 feet of ground on every side (including above), any buried items would probably be safe. Of course, you will want to package it to withstand the process of decay from being underground, and protect it from moisture. Surrounding it in a non-conductive material or even a partial Faraday-type cage could also help.

What to Protect

While you may want to keep every electronic device you have, that is probably not feasible unless you are able to build a room big enough to house everything. Even then, if you wanted to use any of these items while shielded, you would have to consider how you are going to get power to them, since bringing in typical electrical wiring would defeat the purpose of having the room in the first place (the wiring would serve as an antenna to direct the negative current right into the room).

So, you will have to be selective. Purchase duplicates of critical items like a radio, or even a laptop, and protect those. Remember that anything relying on others to also have power (such as your cell phone) will most likely be useless anyway. Put lots of extra batteries in Faraday cages on the off chance that replacing the batteries from items that were not in use when they got hit (or items that did not have batteries in them) may be enough to get the item working again. And be aware of data backup. We store so much vital information digitally that our whole society would be set back even farther if lost (think about the electronic storage of all medical files the government is now requiring). Protect information that you and your family need. And remember, data stored on CDs, DVDs, and other optical media will not be affected. You will only have to concern yourself with saving a device (like a laptop) that can read that data.

A New World

As a final note, remember that saving electronics of any kind would make you a prime target in a world suddenly without them, so keep their existence and use covert. On the bright side, those who have managed to save even some of the technological advances that have helped give our society so much could be a part of the beginning of rebuilding what was lost in a solar or nuclear event, and provide a critical service to all of humanity.

Weigh the pros and cons, consider your budget and priorities, and then start experimenting! Of course, Off the Grid assumes no liability if you put your cell phone in the microwave, and you really might want to sign up for that college engineering course. Happy building!

Other articles in this issue:

• Off-Grid Machines: Labor Saving Devices to Save Your Sanity
• Sprouts: A Genuine Super Food
• Which Kettle is Blacker?

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For example, a major solar storm would be easy to misdiagnose, primarily because the biggest one on record (that experts predict could wipe out the global power grid if it was repeated) happened in 1859. So how will you know?

• British news outlets – This one may sound silly, but it’s true. England has been one step ahead of the U.S. in predicting solar storms with a system designed by Metatech (former employer of John Kappenman who was interviewed on Off the Grid Radio). They may report information related to a solar storm sooner or more accurately. Setting up a Google alert would be one way to stay on top of this information. Know the terminology and look for reports of “coronal mass ejection,” “massive sun spot,” or “solar flares.”
• Weather radio – Don’t just have a radio in your survival supplies, have a Weather Radio. NASA technology may be able to predict a solar storm anywhere from half an hour to up to three days in advance. This may not make the regular news or weather though. Most people see these storms as regular and meaningless occurrences, and forget or don’t know the possible severity.

• Radio disruption – September 18, 1941 was the playoff game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates. Unfortunately no one heard the end of the game since a solar storm disrupted radio signals. If it is a regular power outage you will probably still have radio. If it is a solar storm, the signal will be affected.
• Cell/Satellite TV disruption – If your cell phone, satellite TV, or GPS cuts out, and then the power does too, you should suspect a solar storm. The satellites that relay these technologies would be hit by the storm waves a few seconds before earth. The signal may not cut out all together however. You may just start hearing someone else’s phone conversation, or see another channel on TV without changing anything.
• Power outage – If the power is not out, then even if a solar storm has hit, it apparently is not big enough to be of the kind that we should be gravely worried about. However, this could be the final sign you see. Just like any natural storm, a solar storm is not a single second event. You may experience radio or other disruptions over a period of minutes or hours before the big part of the storm hits, the one that deals the final blow to our power grid.
• Northern/southern lights – Every solar storm on record has also recorded massive lights, even in places that usually never see them. If you are seeing auroral lights and don’t usually, take note that something serious is going on with our sun. During “The Fatima Storm” of 1938, the lights were so intense that people in Salzburg and London thought their whole city was on fire.
• Ball lightning – Like solar storms, ball lightning is a little-understood phenomenon. However, it could be correlated with solar storms, and may help you know that something is up.
• Widespread fires or electrical arcing – In a major solar storm on Sept. 26, 1909, the New York Times reported bright flashes in the gaps in telegraph wires. You could expect to see some of the same arcing of electricity between electrical lines. All this electricity flying around is bound to cause some fires, as it did in several past solar storms, including those in 1882 and 1921 to name a few.
• Airplane movements – According to the hearing before the subcommittee on environment, technology, and standards before Congress on October 30, 2003, one reason for investing in solar storm forecasting equipment is that it will “disrupt satellite and ground-based communication systems.” If you notice erratic movement such as planes flying unusually close to the ground or one another, it may be because they have no control tower guidance.

• Shooting “stars” – As noted earlier, massive solar storms interfere with satellites, even causing them to fall out of orbit. If the conditions are right and enough of them are affected, you might see them appear as shooting stars as they fall.

It would be easy to think that, instead of a solar storm, what we are actually seeing is a localized power outage, a nuclear attack, or perhaps some other kind of weather anomaly. If we react to a solar storm as we would to any of these things, we are likely to waste precious time and resources on the wrong things! Remember that you may see only one or two of these, depending on the time of day a storm hits. Knowing your neighbors and being able to compare notes will help in determining if a solar storm is occurring.

Preparation isn’t just merely the accumulation of material goods, but also the knowledge we amass to arm ourselves to endure through the times ahead. Understanding and preparing for a solar storm is one of the ways we arm ourselves to survive.

Other articles in this issue:

• Everyone Poops: Off-grid Toilets
• Soil Fixes
• What Has a Bee Done for Me Lately?

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When the world kept right on ticking without missing a beat as the new millennium dawned, most people threw their Y2K preparation manuals in the garbage, tried to figure out what they would do with a year’s worth of prepackaged food, and went on about their lives. The majority breathed a collective sigh, and a few made fun of those who had prepared for the worst. Ten years later, most still don’t realize that catastrophe was avoided because IT companies all over the world invested billions of dollars and spent thousands of man-hours retooling every line of application source code that mattered.  In other words, because there was something that could be done about the looming disaster, it was.

Now we approach the year 2012 and yet another end-of-the-world prognosis is emanating from very divergent sources: one is dubious, but the other must be taken much more seriously.

The Mayan Calendar and the End of the World in 2012

The rapidly expanding urban or Mesopotamian legend goes something like this: the Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012, therefore cataclysmic things are bound to happen. It is true the Mayans were a very advanced culture. The Mayan empire flourished from A.D. 300 to 900 and had well developed schools of writing, mathematics, and astronomy. The Long Count calendar was intentionally designed to track 5,000 years before resetting to zero. The end of calendar cycles were not times for fear to their creators. In fact, Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies notes each end of a short cycle was a time of great celebration in the empire.

One factor that drives the mythos around the year 2012 in conjunction with the Mayan calendar is a rare astronomical event that will occur during the winter solstice of that year. For the first time in 26,000 years, our sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way, temporarily disrupting whatever energy typically makes its way to Earth from the center of the galaxy. But that the Mayans possibly had any knowledge of such a future event and that it will affect anything, are highly disputed by scientists around the world.

The Solar Cycle – A Very Real Possibility

NASA has consistently been reporting the possibility of extensive solar flares and even a once-in a-millennium-type solar storm in the next few years. The agency has documented past geomagnetic storms in 1859 and 1921 that disrupted telegraph systems around the world. A number of scientists are predicting this to be the most intense solar cycle since such record keeping began 400 years ago. With our world now dependent on computers, communications, and electronics in ways the people of 1921 could never imagine, a solar storm even on the magnitude of the one at the beginning of the 20^th century would indeed throw modern man into what amounts to the Dark Ages.

Our Response

Though it is doubtful the Mayan calendar has any consequence to modern man, (other than a lot of money being spent on movies and books), what might happen as the solar maximums reaches their zenith over the next few years is something that should cause all of us to evaluate a lot of things. First and foremost it should make us examine our dependence on technology that few of us even fully understand. Several Christian fiction authors have given us fictional accounts of what might happen to society should a major solar event hit the earth. In Terri Blackstock’s Restoration Series, she chronicles what happens to one small southern town as it is suddenly cut off from the world. The author does a great job of depicting how unprepared most people would be for an event such as an EMP blast from a solar flare that destroys everything electrical in the world. A decade earlier, Larry Burkett presented the same scenario in Solar Flare. While of lesser literary quality, Solar Flare relentlessly drives home two points: such an event would indeed throw everything into chaos, and where chaos reigns, someone will also step in to take over.

There are some practical things to prepare one’s self for in the aftermath of a major solar event. Fiber is not affected by electromagnetic pulses, so in lesser solar flares, totally fiber networks will not be compromised. Vacuum tubes are immune, so pre-digital radios may still work after a major event. But, since the vast majority of infrastructure would be affected, neither will help much. Therefore the best preparation for a major solar event is to have back-up plans that don’t require electricity from the grid. Static electricity (wind-up) flashlights and radios are inexpensive and really work. Direct Current (DC) devices would not be affected by EMP disruptions. Some knowledge of electricity would go a long way as well. As Burkett notes in his novel, newer automobiles would be totally disabled. Pre-1980s engines may be disabled because electrical polarities could be reversed; however, a good electrician could fix that by rewiring alternator and generators.

The Big Question

Could the Mayans have been preparing for the end of the world to come in 2012? Possibly. But the real question is, are we? Christians are told to live as though each day might be the last. The early believers of the New Testament met each other with the greeting Maranatha, “even so Lord come.” That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t prepare ourselves in every way possible for what might happen. We have a duty to protect our families and ourselves. We all should be prudent and alert to the possibilities of what lies before us. But, in the end, we should remember that neither the Mayans nor modern science knows what the last day of the human calendar will be. Only the One who writes it does, and as believers, we can trust Him implicitly.

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