10-26-2003, 03:12 AM
The only real threat they would pose is on our technology, like blackouts that have happened in the past. Acid is right... think about it logically... there's no particular reason for the Sun to be any more dangerous right now than in the past... it's all natural what's happening, it just seems scary because we can see it with sensors and telescopes. The one flaw in your logic, acid, is that life has survived and such... well, yeah, but not without some problems along the way. It's not as if there haven't been mass extinctions. But, on the other hand, I don't think solar flares have had anything to do with mass extinctions of the past, nor have I even heard any hypotheses suggesting that. The message is the same though... chill. If by some weird quirk of nature the Sun unleashes a solar flare large enough to destroy our society (which would take one huge goddamn solar flare by the way), then there is nothing we can do about it. If you want to worry about asteroids and comets, cool, because there are contingencies for that (which we should work on a bit more)... but solar flares? Nada. So don't worry about it.