Frankly, I think you have way, WAY too many "amateurs" on your list of "debunkers" to be considered credible.
Wow.
OK, so let me get this straight… because I am an amateur astronomer, my arguments are not "credible"? So if I point out that somebody's idea of a rogue planet (just to pick one) doesn't conform to known laws, that argument is not credible because I'm an amateur?
You're kidding right?
I invite you to go to YOUTUBE and type in "Michio Kaku solar flares Fox tv" and then tell me they're not worried.
Seen it.
If you don't know who Dr. Kaku is, just quit doing this site immediately because you have no idea what you are talking about.
I know who Dr. Kaku is.
Any credible astrophysicist, which Dr. Kaku is,
Er… no. Dr. Kaku is not an astrophysicist. Dr. Kaku is a theoretical physicist who has specialized in string theory, and the co-founder of string field theory (a branch of string theory).
… is worried enough to make alternate plans and is coming out to say everyone else should too.
I listened very carefully to the interview on Fox News and he did not say that.
What he did say is that we should be planning now for a strong geomagnetic storm such as the Carrington event, so that we are not caught by surprise. This is just common sense. However, this much of the 'interview' is the host projecting his words onto the un-cited "NASA Report", which I think must be Severe Space Weather Events — Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts: A Workshop Report published in 2008, and available online for free.
That report also details a worst-case scenario, and urges regulation to prepare for the next 'Carrington' event, but deals with hardening of power grids, communication servers, and satellites.
Just because the gov't doesn't come out and say, "Gee folks, um, we need to make sure we're all OK if everything goes down" you can't assume it isn't being planned for and we're just being kept in the dark so that the wonderful capitalistic society to which we are all enslaved keeps ticking until the last possible moment.
Uh…
I don't think we say that.
In fact, I'm positive we don't say that.
As far as I know, we are not being "kept in the dark"… quite the opposite. NASA is saying that there's a long-term problem that we need to look at. They are not saying that this event will happen in 2012… that was the news anchor, who was obviously fumbling around for words during that broadcast. I doubt he knew what he was talking about. Dr. Kaku's statement was about the next solar maximum coming up, and at the time that this aired, the opinion was that we would have a stronger-than-normal solar max sometime around 2012. Now it appears that we will have a weaker-than-normal solar max sometime in 2013.
My advice to you and your amateurs is to stop trying get everyone to not worry and spend that energy and actually educate people on how to get prepared because we will, eventually, have to deal with a natural disaster no matter where we live, and it may very well be planet wide.
My advice to you is to actually read the site, and see what its position is, and then argue against that (if you feel so inclined) instead of against some straw-man construction of things we don't say.
Let us be clear: The above referenced report paints a worst-case 'what if' scenario, and urges political leaders to begin preparing for this kind of event. There is no mention in the report of a specific time-line, and only mentions an upcoming "interval of increased solar activity".
Naia Kelly (guest) 08 Jun 2010 08:17