by re-translating them into the greatest tidal sea waves ever recorded in recent times. The devastation was so immense in terms of houses, buildings, roads, farms and equipment destroyed as well as lives lost, that it will take at least a decade before the affected areas fully recover.
Globally, and for good reasons, the greatest concerns have remained food and energy—the foundation for civilized human industrial and productive activities. At this juncture, national governments began to re-think their approach to problem solving in solar dynamics by redirecting their research activities towards more detailed solar activity observation and Earth-systems effects analysis.
At the United Nations, a conference addressing associated worldwide problems committed financial, material and personnel resources to delegating various research functions in accordance with available geographical facilities to which were assigned specific areas affected by the last solar conflagration.
Nations differed in economic development and resource utilization for comparative advantage, or rather for “opportunistic involvement” or “world engagement.” Some nations excelled in advanced technology while others, having less technological development, however, possessed great manpower availability. They thought that geography should play a role in situating experimental apparati, materiel transportation and personnel deployment since this worldwide concern touched the lives of all human beings who shared the planet.
They reached the conclusion that explosive materials, chemical plants and nuclear facilities, and the like, should receive the greatest amount of security and surety in the prevention of accidents, loss, or catastrophic damage. However, it was unanimously agreed that local autonomy in sensitive response to self-government and conventional comparative advantage in allocating roles and analytical resources, should be kept in mind as they implemented the motto that “a global threat demands a global response.” For, Nature and the sun could not be identified as the proverbial “enemy” though the threats were real as human lives and property hung in the balance.
That time however, the threat was really “extra-terrestrial,” that is, it was “outside of Earth,” from the sun itself—the very star that gives life-support systems to planet Earth as the only life-planet in the whole Universe.
Cultures all over the Earth and their forms of government began a redirection of their planning activities in whole new ways never encountered since before the very foundation of the world. For, changes brought about by disruptions in solar activity were systemic in nature; and a whole-energy system like the Earth, which presented especially complex sub-systems still under study at that particular point in time, was not even totally understood or known in all its multi-factorial contributing parameters. The sun had to be attended to; but more, the Earth had to be cared for simultaneously as the sun was being studied and researched and perhaps, even, “anticipated.”
The majority of research facilities, including solar observatories, weather reporting organizations, space analytical agencies and university research centers, all, were contributing to the understanding of solar events and Earth effects in a way that conformed to the needs of agriculture, construction, travel, communications, medical care, maritime activities and commerce, and continuum industrial productivity in general, with public reporting conveyed with utmost care in prevention of panic, fear and rash action. The crucial questions they were asking were, “What will the sun do next?” “How can we prepare for it”?
On Wednesday evening, a consortium of concerned scientists, led by the astrophysicist Peter Barlotuk, gathered at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, in order to ponder the ultimate question of physics for our times—was it the sun’s final death or “Terminal Entropy,” so prominently configured in mass media and astronomy programs to which the public was accustomed? Or, was the sun dealing with some energy variances due to re-calibrations as necessitated by “Functional Operational Entropy”?
In other words, how was the sun’s last “radio-magnetic activity” to be classified—was it like a “solar flare,” or “solar wind,” and thus, we had no need to worry about cataclysmic disasters? Or, was it something so totally out of the sun’s ordinary operational re-adjustment repertoire as to confirm its path towards “Terminal Entropy,” ‘star-death’ or ‘sun-death’?
Their reasoning, prepared by Peter Barlotuk, took this form of logic: “And that was no eclipse—the sun’s light was not blocked by the Moon, the Earth or any other space body! It did ‘go out’—and that was a global event! Now, if the sun is indeed ‘dying,’ right before our eyes, in the now, in the present and not in some future so-called 5 billion years, then can we determine from its subsequent activities how long it will take,—given its mass, core-fuel dynamics, electro-plasma mechanics, convection processes, fuel quantity, strength of magnetic field etc . . . —before its imminent death overtakes us? And, if it is ‘dying,’ what can be done to avert the extinction of the Family of Man, the human species? We, the human family, we need a direct theory of entropy, a specific time-span and an appropriate constructive, saving resolution.”
In Barlotuk’s summary, it was decided that “in the short-run granaries should be filled, food storage facilities upgraded, fuel supply structures reconditioned to accommodate surplus accumulation; and emergency preparedness protocols and procedures revisited for effects-sensitive responses addressing each respective locale that presents its own kind of potential endangerment. For example, a locale with an electrical generation nuclear power plant should expect the benefit of a nuclear disaster response team fully geared up through competent training, and completely equipped scientifically and medically, logistically and materially.”
They thought that it would be wise to have a set of reporting or communication protocols that began at the lowest local level, with pertinent information going through the county and state levels for appropriate response teams, up to the federal level, depending on the complexities, severity and intensity of predicted, and actual damage and loss.
“The Input-Process-Output principle ought to be operating at each level, thus providing ample observation, confirmation, data analysis and response options for each, as the complexities of the situation would govern final disposition. But time is of the essence in damage control procedures. For, preparedness and time make for operational readiness.”
Peter Barlotuk, being first entreated with a permission request, was approached by a young man with a piece of paper in his hands. He summarily read it and addressed the assembly in these words. “Friends, we have a new development. It is 8:30pm here in Illinois, that is U.S. Central Time, and the sun has already set; however, it has been observed, confirmed and reported that Aurora Borealis is now occurring, not just at the Poles, but as far down as the Equator. This is not a new event in the sense that it has happened in the past before, but given the current situation, it appears that there is such excessive solar coronal mass emission activity as to go beyond the bounds of expected Earth-effects. No dangers from a simple ‘light show’ except that it might trigger changes in atmospheric layer processing of ionized gas penetration for cloud formations, the condensates of which are necessary for rain, replenishment of the water table, the planting season and soil fertility.”
“Because of what occurred a few weeks ago, all processes, events or occurrences have to be driven to their logical conclusions; and the Earth can no longer be regarded as a so-called ‘closed system.’ The earthly Input-Process-Output mechanism has an intrinsic and inevitable connection to the solar Input-Process-Output mega mechanism. Every thing is important, and yet, not every thing can be factored in, with the same priority.”
“And, in anticipation, a crucial determination has to be made regarding how long the reciprocal ‘reaction chain’ will hold on Earth, for purposive quantification and qualification of sub-system affectations, for example, in terms of predictions in ecological and atmospheric developments, hydrosphere tidal activity, tectonic renditions, and bio-sphere forecasts etc . . . within the periods of accentuated
