Do you find the dark unsettling?
Have you ever watched the big game
on your refrigerator?
With all the conveniences
of modern living available in your pocket,
or at the press of a button,
you have to wonder,
what if Earth lost power for a week?
This is what if,
and here's what would happen
In 2019,
a massive power outage
crippled Venezuela,
leaving the South American country
in shambles.
Armed biker gangs roamed the streets,
policing the citizens at gunpoint.
Hospitals were left without power,
and ransacked supermarkets
were left bare.
But what if the power went out worldwide?
And stayed off for a week?
The U.S. Energy Information Agency
estimates that in 2015,
With about 7.3 billion people on Earth,
that's enough energy for each of us
to have 78 million BTUs.
So if a geomagnetic storm
swept our entire planet,
there's no doubt there would be
massive upheaval of social norms.
This event, dubbed a Black Sky Hazard,
would take out
all our communication networks.
The storm, caused by coronal mass
ejected from the Sun,
would propel electromagnetic energy
at our planet at the speed of light.
The excited particles
in the upper atmosphere would disrupt
radio signals used by satellites.
You wouldn't be able to contact
your friends and relatives
who live further away.
Your cell phone may be fully charged,
but without an active network,
you'd essentially be holding a paperweight.
In the beginning,
you might not even realize
that the outage is global.
You may even enjoy the first night,
since there wouldn't be
any electronic distractions,
and you'd have a clear view
of the night sky.
But there would be a cost.
30 minutes after the initial hit,
a wave of electrons and protons would follow,
damaging the electronic circuits
in satellites.
This deadly dose of radiation
could also threaten
astronauts in orbit
or passengers in high flying aircraft.
Many of our satellites
need space flight operators
on the Earth to control their courses.
With no one at the helm,
satellites could crash into space debris
or each other.
Meanwhile, back on Earth,
hospitals could face catastrophic effects
from the power outage.
The energy currents produced
by a geomagnetic storm
could induce power lines
to destabilize the grid’s operation.
This massive surge
could destroy transformers
across the world.
The best backup generators
are only able to provide
about 24 hours of power.
So intensive care units across the world
would suffer tremendous losses.
Ventilators wouldn't function.
And medical staff
would have to use manual devices,
like rubber lungs, to keep patients alive.
People who need dialysis
would go without it,
and doctors would have to make
difficult choices about people's lives.
And power plants
across the world would fail.
Whether they're fueled by coal,
natural gas,
or nuclear fission,
it could take days or even weeks
to restore them to full capacity.
The cooling systems of nuclear reactors
would fail,
and total nuclear meltdowns
would happen.
It could take weeks to restore
Europe's massive interconnected power grid,
which supplies energy
to over 24 countries
and 400 million customers.
And none of this includes
the cost in dollars,
assuming that we'll still be using money
once the power comes back.
When 2 million customers in California
lost power for two days,
According to the U.S. Department of Energy,
33% of American businesses
could lose $20,000 to $500,000.
With the banks shut down,
you wouldn't be able to access the cash
in your accounts.
Let's hope you kept a little savings
in your piggy bank.
But the stores have limited stocks of items.
And without cash registers
and payment systems,
things could get ugly fast.
The masses could grow restless,
and take these essential items by force,
if it means keeping their families alive.
So with chaos reigning in the streets,
could you drive away to the woods?
Well, unless your car has a full tank,
you won't be getting far.
Gas pumps wouldn't be functioning.
Traffic lights wouldn't work,
and the roads could turn into
a demolition derby.
But it's not just your car at risk.
Thousands of people would be stranded
underground in subways.
If you were flying,
airports would have 24 hours to land
the planes before their
backup generators quit.
The world's transportation industry
would be crippled,
and unable to deliver needed supplies.
And depending on where you live,
there's more than the lack of supplies
that should worry you.
It's the sudden stoppage of services.
Emergency services
couldn't take your calls.
People stuck in elevators
couldn't call for help.
And without furnaces supplying heat,
people in colder areas
would have to rely on burning wood,
or a tight snuggle to stay warm.
And without power,
the pumps in water towers wouldn't work.
So many areas would suffer
devastating water shortages.
You would have to conserve
your water carefully,
because there's only so much left
in the tanks to distribute.
Each glass of water
would drain our supply.
The electric sewage systems
couldn't pump away waste,
so every flush could wreak havoc
on your plumbing.
This could cause an overflow
of waste that backs up into your home.
And that's not all that's going to reek.
On Day Two,
the perishable items in your fridge
will start to expire.
And without garbage pickups,
these rotting items would
pile up in the streets.
With so many of our services
dependent on electricity,
a geomagnetic storm
wouldn't just leave us bored
without social media.
It could leave us stinky,
starving, and desperate.
And while this event
might seem unthinkable to you,
Worse still, hundreds of millions
live with unreliable or expensive power,
keeping several developing nations
in the dark.
To combat this,
some experts are working to develop
artificial intelligence that
could predict power outages.
And there's still a lot of research
to be done
on how to make renewable energy sources
more reliable for mass consumption.
But maybe you're tired of living
in this modern nightmare,
and want to live
completely off the grid.
What if you lived in a closed biosphere?
Well, that's a story for another What If.