Coronal Mass Ejections: Civilization Killers

 

 

What sorts of events could cause global industrial civilization to collapse? One of the less likely, but still quite possible, causes is a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). Basically, this happens when the sun ejects a large amount of superheated plasma. Inevitably, sometimes a CME hurtles through space in the direction of Earth.

This may sound like a nothingburger. But in fact it can be a civilization killer--when that civilization is so dependent upon electrical wiring as ours is.

A CME peaking on 1-2 September 1859--before radio or even voice telephone were invented--caused what is referred to as the Carrington Event. Electricity danced along telegraph wires, damaging telegraph stations, and even causing one station to burn down. Such an event occurring today, frying much of our electronics and electrical systems, could cause up to $7 trillion in damages just in the US, and even reduce global crop yields by up to half (more in Central Europe).

For all practical purposes, civilization would end, in an instant. The resulting chaos would be unthinkable. How many of us could survive that? How many of us could survive being thrust back into the late 17th century--without electricity, without the use of electronic or basic electrical machinery, without power plants to supply our heating and cooling systems, without motorized agricultural equipment or any kind of mechanized transportation, without even steam engines--and without the knowledge or skills needed to survive in such a world?

(For any of you thinking of retreating to the mountains and “living off the land,” heaven help you if you need any sort of modern medical care.)

How could we avert such a collapse? ***Harden the system.*** The electrical grid throughout the world could be made more safe through the use of shielding (such as with Faraday cages and the like). Manufacturing facilities could be placed deep underground in shielded locations to replace personal goods and other electrical equipment that cannot easily be shielded. Would this cost a fortune? Of course it would. But that problem is solvable, too; this, however, is a story for another post.

So, yes, a Coronal Mass Ejection of a certain magnitude would end civilization in a flash. However, as we shall see, that is not by any means the only scenario under which civilization could collapse.

All the more reason for focusing effort to  Avert Collapse.

 

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The image above shows a drawing of sunspots by Richard Carrington (1826-1875), the English astronomer who discovered the sunspots that preceded the Carrington Event. I obtained it from Wikipedia, which described the image as being in the public domain.

(Copyright 2025 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.)