Should we rally to put the world to work hardening our electronics for the next great solar Coronal Mass Ejection?

This evening and tomorrow, the Earth will be hit with a large solar flare. We are moving out of a solar minimum and entering the next solar maximum, a swing that happens in an 11 year cycle. The last solar maximum was a rather mild one, but there is no way known to predict in advance which ones will be severe. In 1958, a particularly energetic one disrupted communications on Earth. But since then, our electrical grid and communications networks have become much more vulnerable and much more vital to our way of life.

More disturbing, there is a grand cycle of about 100 years between very massive Coronal Mass Ejections. The last of these occurred in 1859 and set ⅔rds of the Earth’s skies ablaze with glowing aurora displays. It also knocked out power grids that were just blossoming then, set compasses to spinning wildly, and took down the entire telegraph network across the Earth. And since that was over 150 years ago, we are now overdue for a repeat performance. This is serious enough to even have Fox News believing in science.

When engineers built the seawall and canal system around New Orleans, they knew it would not withstand a category 3 storm or greater, and they knew that such a storm would eventually hit the city, and yet they did nothing to prepare for it. They reasoned that maybe it wouldn’t happen while they were around. Now, at a time when so many are out of work and when the global economy and very life of so many hangs in the balance if our electrical grid and communications networks all get simultaneously fried, why don’t we muster the international resolve to put people to work fixing the grid and networks in advance of what is sure to eventually hit us?