this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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You are correct that there are many devices and plenty of examples of infrastructure that is hardened against such things- but it's just plain wrong to assume it wont be a major problem- Multiple studies have found the damage caused by a solar storm equivalent to the 1859 example would cause trillions of dollars of damage and a lot infrastructure would be down across most of the 1st world for at least months if not years.
It would probably also trigger a lot of violent outbursts from populations around the world, probably a lot of mostly peaceful and fiery looting, riots etc.
Source on the first world countries being down for years?
https://youtu.be/oHHSSJDJ4oo?t=343 This is the video I was remembering, it has sources in the description if you want further reading- and it says 4-10 years, which is insane to think about.
Agreed, a black start of the entire grid is a huge ordeal. In the situation everyone is without power, people will have to work together to keep society going enough to let those people who will be doing that black start do the work. (Transportation, food, housing, etc.) But as we've seen with the relatively simple coronavirus actions, people are selfish and many will use the situation to try and get a leg up on everyone else.
Sadly, in this modern era the fabric of society & the ties that bind us all are weaker than they've ever been imo-
Perhaps if we were all a bit more civil and selfless and more self sufficient I could see communities coming together to survive a situation like this relatively unscathed, however in this age where everyone's at everyone else's throats over tweets from years ago and trying to ruin people's lives over benign opinions via getting them fired, swatted or what have you- my faith in such a scenario that lacks massive upheaval and violent looting, murder and worse... is near 0.