NASA senses global warming funding under threat, proposes new catastrophic danger

NASA, home of the modern day Trofim Lysenko, James Hansen, must be concerned that the fraudulent science created by Hansen and his ilk is about to be exposed with the consequence being a reduced ability to feed on the public teat through government funding.

So what do they come up with?

Another catastrophe that could threaten the world, which must be funded.

Nothing like having a bet each way.

A once-in-a-century solar storm would threaten catastrophic destruction if a worst-case scenario event transpired, a new NASA report has found.

That's in a "worst-case scenario". What about in the expected scenario?

Governments would be powerless to curb the loss of crucial infrastructure including power grids, potable water and sewage disposal, the report said, potentially crippling our way of life for months.

Yeah, OK. That's worst case but what is expected to happen?

The forecast is based in part on a similarly sized solar storm that took place in 1859, which melted telegraph wires and ignited widespread fires in Europe and the United States, Fox News reports.

If a repeat event happened now, scientists warn the consequences would be far more serious — even "potentially catastrophic" — because modern technologies have made our infrastructure more inter-reliant.

The danger lies in the sun emitting solar flares so intense that they produce magnetic pulses with the force to destroy power grids by melting transformers.

This would be the sun that has been remarkably quiet over the last decade or so?

The power outages could spur a series of devastating consequences:

"Impacts would be felt on interdependent infrastructures with, for example, potable water distribution affected within several hours; perishable foods and medications lost in 12-24 hours; immediate or eventual loss of heating/air conditioning, sewage disposal, phone service, transportation, fuel resupply and so on," the report writes.

"Emergency services would be strained, and command and control might be lost."

Or, the "worst-case scenario" never happens and water distribution is OK, food and medications are fine, heating and air conditioning continues to run etc etc.

The sun operates on an 11-year cycle, with the next "active" phase due in 2012 likely to present the nearest danger.

Ooooooh. Scary. Just a few years away. Better throw a few billion of the public's money at it. Sounds like the same sort of prediction as that promoted by the Climate Faithful.

Though worst-case storms are only expected to occur once every hundred years, smaller solar flares have caused major disruptions in modern times.

In 1989, a sun storm was so powerful it blacked out the whole province of Quebec in Canada — an area almost the size of Queensland.

Another event in 2003 knocked out two satellites circling the Earth and destroyed a piece of equipment on a Mars orbiter.

Satellites are designed to withstand solar radiation but the shields degrade over time and they tend to get knocked out toward the end of their anticipated life span.

"Obviously, the sun is Earth's life blood," NASA spokesman Richard Fisher was quoted as saying.

"To mitigate possible public safety issues, it is vital that we better understand extreme space weather events caused by the sun's activity."

So NASA wants to understand 'space weather events' caused by the sun's activity but doesn't want to understand 'earth weather events' caused by the sun such as our climate?

There must be some sort of political battle going on at NASA...

(Nothing Follows)