Our closest star, the Sun, broke records in June for having the most sunspots since 2002. This doesn’t mean it has any impact on the climate of Earth, despite what countless people on Twitter might think.
It wasn’t just America that was blowing stuff up on July 4th, 2023 — the Sun was also hurling out back-to-back solar flares, a trend that appears to have started far earlier in 2023 and will run until the solar energy calms down, according to NASA, Fox Weather and a slew of other outlets and agencies. Tuesday’s flare was so big that it prompted the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) in Colorado to issue a geomagnetic storm watch, the impacts of which will make landfall at some point on Thursday or early Friday.
But despite folks on Twitter crying about how this is all fake news and that these heightened times of solar activity will be used to push the climate change rhetoric, this couldn’t be further from the truth (or scientific accuracy).
Geomagnetic storms, solar flares, all types of heightened solar activity rank on a small scale. On the lowest end of the spectrum, people of Earth may witness a slightly increased aurora and a couple of power grid fluctuations.
At the highest end of the scale is an X flare. The sun started emitting an X-size flare July 4, according to NASA, which poses risks to spacecrafts, astronauts, radio communications, electrical grids and various types of navigation signals. However, the SWPC only issued a G1 or maybe G2-level warning ahead of the hit later on Thursday or Friday.
‘Starvation, Death, Destruction’: Superstar Actor Makes Strange Warning To Society | @DailyCaller
Dennis Quaid would probs be super into my commentary for the Daily Caller. Glad to hear at least one sensible celebrity among the idiots. https://t.co/WHRSEBnU0F
— KAY SMYTHE (@KaySmythe) April 6, 2023
So, while everyone is screaming that this is just fake news to push the climate change theory, think again. Solar activity has little to no impact on Earth’s climate in this context, but it does impact the way humans live on Earth.
In extreme cases, solar activity has knocked out all communication and grids. There is no reason why something like this couldn’t happen again, to devastating levels. Just consider how much we all rely on the internet and technology to survive. Now imagine waking up and nothing electrical works anymore. Would you survive? (RELATED: Did Flight Systems Go Down Because Of Solar Storms? Well …)
There are plenty of ways to reinforce our infrastructure against threats posed by extreme solar activity, all of which have been detailed in the fantastic film “Grid Down, Power Up.” These protection mechanisms just don’t seem that important to most politicians, or anyone, really, because our generations haven’t lived through the possible impacts yet. But we will, one day.