Ok, so we have all heard the waffle about 2012 and the end of the world, but have we ever really, deeply thought about what "might" happen?

Our nearest star, the sun, is asleep at the moment, but just a couple of weeks ago it gave out a loud snore which sent a barrage of solar wind in our direction!! Fortunatly nothing untoward happened and we have been used to these solar hiccups for as long as man has been on earth. But we only need to look at our sister planet, venus, to see what could happen to our home if we had no electro magnetic shield to protect us. Venus is a burning, greenhouse, fireball with a atmosphere that is 90 times more dense than our own! The suns deadly rays constantly fry the surface of venus and because of the dense atmosphere the rays are trapped, hence the greenhouse effect to its extream!! We are protected by our electro magnetic shield, which is generated by the iron core of the earth, but reading various reports and trying my best not to look at the scare-mongering stuff, our shield appears to be shifting and weakening. Now this is worrying as our sun is about to "wake up" from its 11 year slumber, and this time NASA has predicted it is going to wake up VERY p***ed off!!!!...and the worst solar storms for centuries are set to hit our home planet, due to our sun having a major hissy fit!!
Now the thing is, these storms have been hitting us every 11 years since time began, but consider this? Only now do we have super fast communications and technology, power systems, and ultimatly electricity, that will all be susceptible to the sun's waking rage! Consider world wide power outages, and the effects on the economies on this planet? We are in a bad enough state as it is, without our sun making it worse for us. But because of NASA and it recent announcment, things are set to get a lot worse! I remember back in 2003 when we had the last solar storms and there was major blackouts across Canada! It was also a nightmare to watch TV as I remember sky went down, and even when it was working the tv would flicker and cough, and be almost impossible to watch. Derek had asked what had been wrong with the tv. Solar flares, I explained. To my amazement my university educated beloved replied "Dont be daft!!! That can't be effecting our TV!!" ...but I am sorry to say, I was right. In 2012-13 we might be worrying about a bit more than flickering TV pictures! Major power outages could be possible as our sun throws out highly charged bursts of solar flares in our direction. These big flares (they have a fancy name that I can't remember just now) are magnetic and this is what could effect earths electricty supply, by actually melting transformers! Not nice!! Its possible that we could be without electricity for days, but is all this just scare-mongering. To be honest I think some of it is and some of it isent, but the problem comes when sorting fact from fiction, when there are so many differences of opinion by scientists. Personally I believe NASA! in the fact that there storms are due to be the worst for 50 years or more.
So should we worry?
Not really....whatever will be, will be, as the saying goes, and I don't believe we have the power to change the fate of our planet!
I am waiting for the delivery of a new 6 inch reflecting telescope, and I will be looking at the sun's active sun spots, and maybe even posting findings I make on here (if any!) Sun spot activity is a sign that the sun is about to go into a very active phase, so at the very least this might be helpfull in predicting when solar flares are likely to happen. As a side note NEVER look directly at the sun!!!! To view the sun with a telescope you must use white card to reflect the image! I have been doing this since I was a teenager with my old 3 inch telescope, so am well practiced in doing this! and even the image reflected on the card will be bright enough to hurt your eyes so I wear sun glasses to view the card....
Anyway...I hope this has been food for thought!
What will I do to prepare for 2012?
hehehehehehe....going to stock up on tons of candles, methinks! ;)