The resultingsolarstormcouldcausea geomagneticstorm on Earth, knocking out electricity grids around the world for hours, days, or evenmonths, bringing muchofnormallifegrinding to a halt.
As Holdren and Beddington note, the solar maximum, and increased possibility of a great geomagneticstorm, is fast approaching, now less than a year away.
White House Science Advisor John Holdren and Sir John Beddington, Science Advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron, in a recent joint article "Celestial Storm Warnings" published in the New York Times, warned that a solar flare from the Sun could cause a great geomagneticstorm, with catastrophic consequences for the United States and the world.