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Modern WI: The solar storm of 2012 hit Earth directly?

Overall — Link, pages 9-19.
Military, in general — link.
Military, communications specifically — link.

All PDF, in English, about the US situation in particular.
 
Overall — Link, pages 9-19.
Military, in general — link.
Military, communications specifically — link.

All PDF, in English, about the US situation in particular.
That was efficient. Come on back to this forum. You appear to be welcome here. Also, the Interbutts does, and Facebook and other Intrabooty cancer along with it.
 
Also, the Interbutts does, and Facebook and other Intrabooty cancer along with it.

I appreciate the reply, but could you go into more detail about how this effects the world, particularly the internet and how human society adapts to such a drastic change?
 
I appreciate the reply, but could you go into more detail about how this effects the world, particularly the internet and how human society adapts to such a drastic change?
GPS dies for one, and all those satellites have to be put back into orbit, and preferrably de-orbited as well to avoid clutter. The Astronauts might survive, but need to be rescued ASAP. So much stuff takes GPS for granted its unreal. It'll cause some havoc but for overseas traffic, we can and will adapt.

1st off, it won't cause total human extinction or anything like it. But the blackouts and what not will cause severe issues with powerlines across the globe being set alight. Of course worst case scenario is about half of the nuclear power plants go poof, which would slowly spell our end as radioactive particles accumulated in body fat in animals everywhere, meaning humans get higher and higher doses of radiation the more we eat, and infant mortality rates go higher than they have ever been. That hasn't happened around Chernobyl because the people have had the option of consuming imported meat and fish, but in this scenario, it wouldn't be an option.

But "Rocks fall, everybody dies" is boring.

All cellphones everywhere are rendered useless, whether its a land tower or satellite phone, its done. Television is dead. Communication gets thrown back a full century in most places. Communication will rely on dudes in motor vehicles driving around. Which isn't too bad. What is bad is that large agriculture transportation is getting knocked down and hard. So seed vaults and food stores are getting released as everyody hurries to build gardens and small farms, everywhere, and livestock get distributed. This is more viable for some nations than others.

The Federal priorities would be ensuring nuclear powerstations remained intact and noncritical, AND THEN trains and boats. And from there, repairing the power distribution grid and seeing to the Dams, which don't just produce power but also act as flood control. As far as refineries go, I'm fairly positive the private companies will see to those themselves.

Once that happens, its a slow but steady road to full recovery. The automotive industry will adjust, for the next two years, to producing parts to get extant vehicles back on the road instead of producing new ones, because repairing the electrical bits would have a smaller and shorter supply chain. As far as car based communication goes, snail mail? A driver and codriver can cross America from Seattle to Miami in about 2 and 1/2 days if they drive in shifts and only stop for gas, food and bathroom breaks all in one. Break that down to include actually delivering anything and make it 4 days to cross the country.

That isn't to say everything would be peaches and cream. People will die. Millions. Especially when Emergency Services and Hospitals are nonfunctional.

But the point is, is that recovery can happen and is possible.
 
@Vashon thank you for that. I massively appreciate you going to the effort to write all that out. :)

Would it make any difference if it happened today in 2019 as opposed to 2012? I was kind of basing the thread on the solar storm hitting us back then as opposed to the present day.
 
@Vashon thank you for that. I massively appreciate you going to the effort to write all that out. :)

Would it make any difference if it happened today in 2019 as opposed to 2012? I was kind of basing the thread on the solar storm hitting us back then as opposed to the present day.
Infrastructurally, no, same damage, same response. More angry fatter people distraught at no Netflix. Tumblr wasn't huge back then and they have nuked the porn off so that stays the same.

And that was a very sanitized narration of what would happen. And only for a 1st world nation with the industrial power and spare land for agricultural use to recover with. All electrical lines everywhere are getting set on fire, causing a massive disturbance everywhere. Death toll from the disorder and chaos and inevitable wars, civil and otherwise, will reach over a billion outside of the powerful industrial nations.

Europe, Russia and its immediate friends, China, much of North America will recover the fastest. Of that group, Europe will have the hardest time, it will have to immediately get in contact with Algeria and Nigeria for oil, because Russia is going to be busy with its own problems and Coal Liquefaction takes time to bring online. Actually, no, I take Nigeria back, Algeria and Libya, Libya is closer and more thinly populated.

Of the major powers that are fucked and are likely to see greater than 50% loss? I'll work from the top toe the bottom as I think of them. Japan, North/South Korea, India and Pakistan(might very well nuke each other, might not), Singapore(not really major, too small), Indonesia(big and populous, but poorly industrialized), Brazil, Israel. Its either not enough food, or the transportation of the food is completely fucked, or both.

The Middle East is completely done. Water Desalination plants are going offline and aren't going to come back on quickly enough. It will be at least 2 years before the big boys can get everything back together enough to begin recovery, so thats 2 years of Middle Eastern electrical grid going offline and staying offline. On top of massive stockpiles of weapons and an already volatile political situation. Combine that with nobody having the spare resources to sit on them?

New Zealand should be alright though. It would be a bit rough, but overall, I see New Zealand being in an alright place. Australia is on the edge. It grows plenty of food, but only in the South East of the country does the population live near the growth of that food.

North Eurasia and China and the richest parts of North America have the resources and manpower to recover quickly enough to recover at all, but millions will still die. Much of the rest of the world will count themselves lucky if half their population survives and they have any industrial base left afterwards. The rest of the world that depends on how mucht relied on imports/exports just to survive.
 
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