Scott Huler || Author of On the Grid

Infrastructure August: Electricity and the Sun

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

An amazing article by a blogger on the Christian Science Monitor site reminds us -- we're so completely dependent on our grid, and if the sun does anything nutty (like it did in 1859), poof! As the author describes:

The 1859 solar event was disconcerting as telegraph systems worldwide went haywire for several hours. Spark discharges shocked telegraph operators and set the telegraph paper on fire. Even when the telegraphers disconnected the batteries powering the lines, aurora-induced electric currents in the wires still allowed messages to transmit. Even simple magnetic compasses ceased to point north for hours.

Imagine the effects of such an event today: ATM machines? Down. Wireless calls? Down. Air traffic control? Don't ask. Electrical grid? Likely completely down -- think about what happened in Montreal in 1989, when a solar storm blacked out six million people.

Solar maximum in the sunspot cycle coming up in the next couple years -- so stock up on those tallow candles and plant tomatoes. And remind yourself of what that grid does for you every second of every day.

Posted by Scott Huler
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Wires, pipes, roads, and water support the lives we lead, but the average person doesn't know where they go or even how they work. Our systems of infrastructure are not only shrouded in mystery, many are woefully out of date. In On the Grid, Scott Huler takes the time to understand the systems that sustain our way of life, starting from his own quarter of an acre in North Carolina and traveling as far as Ancient Rome.