Perhaps we should wish for a small geomagnetic storm destroying some basic electric infrastructure.

This Economist article talks about catastrophes.

What typically causes beautiful Northern lights happened in very large scale on 1859. This was observed by many across the world and it came to be known as the Carrington event, a big geomagnetic storm. The folks in Colombia saw the Southern lights - amazing, right?! Not.

Just think about it. If this caused some mayhem in the telegraph networks back then, we can only imagine what the similar level of geomagnetic activity today would cause. The hyper electified world of today could become quite messed up. Imagine the satellites and the earth level communication systems.

The prediction is that there will be another huge geomagnetic storm, it’s a matter of time. But are the risks considered enough for this event, also called “coronal mass ejection” (CME)?

The typical risks for civilization are considered to be at least:

• pandemics
• volcanic super-eruption
• impact of a big asteroid
• advanced bioweapons
• articifial intelligence

But how about CME? A bit CME event would possibly damage the transformers in the electrical grids beyond repair. These transformers step the voltage down between the long-range transmission grid and the distribution grid with lower-voltages that can be used by individuals. And it takes between 6-12 months to have a replacement for these transformers.

This would be absolutely devastating.

But taking these types of risks seriously will of course not be easy. The best case scenario would probably be a “minor huge CME”. The Economist article writes that the countries that were hit badly with SARS, were in a relatively better position to handle COVID-19.

So if we could get a minor taste of CME, let’s say, destroying about 10% of the electrical grid transformers, it would probably be something to wish for. That would give time to get our act to gether for a real blow from the sun.