by Terrence Aym

Created on: February 21, 2011

Warnings have been voiced for the last two years: the sun is waking up and it could be very destructive.

Recently, the strongest solar flare in four years hit Earth a glancing blow and caused havoc in China, splashed a rare display of the Northern lights over the UK and prompted aviation officials to route planes away from the higher polar regions.

The sun is waking from a long quiet period and this go around it may prove to be very, very active.

That's not a good thing.

Scientists strongest predictions of a worst case scenario for the new solar maximum falls into the category of a "global Katrina" possibly plunging the world into an extended financial depression and a loss of two trillion dollars or more.

Now again scientists have underscored their previous warning by issuing another at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C.

“We have to take the issue of space weather seriously,” said Sir John Beddington, the UK's chief scientist at the gathering. “The sun is coming out of a quiet period, and our vulnerability has increased since the last solar maximum.”

The previous solar maximum occurred about a decade ago and saw flares with greater intensity than any that had ever been measured.

“Predict and prepare should be the watchwords,” agreed Jane Lubchenco, head of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “So much more of our technology is vulnerable than it was 10 years ago.”

The last massive cycle that occurred in 1859 brought catastrophe and caused telegraph lines around the US to burst into flames.

The day the Earth stood still

In the recent article titled, "NASA warns solar flares from 'huge space storm' will cause devastation" The Daily Telegraph illustrates the step-by-step destruction of the first world countries.

Among all the countries with exposure to the solar devastation, the United States is the most susceptible.

As The Daily Telegraph writes, "National power grids could overheat and air travel severely disrupted while electronic items, navigation devices and major satellites could stop working after the Sun reaches its maximum power… "

Mammoth magnetic storms

Experts on the sun are very concerned as they see the sun awaking from its unusually long slumber with a violence unseen for generations. That violence could be in the form of mammoth magnetic storms. Those storms hitting the Earth will be like a giant's fist slamming into the

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