The Day the Sun Broke Civilisation: Surviving a Solar Flare

Without giving too much away and especially for those of you soon to read my book, you'll come to understand the reasoning behind the subject of this blog. But for now, I'm quite content with readers querying it's randomness. I for one think this is a pretty interesting subject in its own right.

You’re getting on with your daily routine and then the sun sneezes and everything changes in an instant. We tend to think of a solar flare as a distant, dazzling phenomena, but a powerful coronal mass ejection^[1] (CME) could do more than just disrupt your Instagram scrolling, it could dismantle the very infrastructure that holds modern life together. If the flare was strong enough, the damage could be global, irreversible and civilisation-altering. This sounds like the stuff of speculative fiction, but it has happened and will happen again. We’re just lucky it hasn’t happened on an extreme level... Yet.

So what are the effects of a solar flare? Well, first to go would be all communication – radio blackouts, satellite disruption, power grids would be fried and certain electronic equipment would be damaged. Then thinking more widespread and long term, there would be economic disruption, costing organisations trillions in damages and years of recovery, as well as data loss and changes in climate patterns. And that’s not before fresh water runs out! In fact, it would be the more developed countries that would suffer the most as they have more to lose.

So with that in mind, here’s a quick survival guide for an impending solar flare. Could you adapt to this and survive?

T-24 hrs: global warning issued – this is where you need to start stockpiling essentials, then wrap all essential electronics in foil. Next, print maps, medical information and contacts because you may not be able to refer to electronics to do this. And most importantly, batten down the hatches – install surge protectors, unplug devices and make your home safe and comfortable. You may be in it for the long haul.

T-0- CME Impact: stay indoors to avoid exposure to electromagnetic surges and monitor the goings on via a hand cranked radio.

T+1 Week and beyond: ration your supplies. If you can, share resources with your community, but do this with a sense of caution; it could get ugly out there. And finally, get used to going analogue.

We think of the sun as a life-giving orb, but it’s also capable of taking that all away. If it did, survival wouldn’t be centred around tech – it would be about adaptability, community and the re-programming of how to live a life off-grid. This world ‘re-set’ sounds quite idyllic on the face of it all, but it would come at a cost.

^[1] A CME is a massive burst of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s outer atmosphere which is hurled into space at incredible speeds.