<i>male narrator:
Civilization is collapsing,</i> <i>and billions are in peril,</i> <i>thanks to a catastrophe</i> <i>that has wiped out
electrical power everywhere...</i> [electricity buzzing] <i>With a deadly strike
from space.</i> <i>[dramatic music]</i> - There would be massive death
and destruction. There's just no two ways
about it. [explosion] [explosions] <i>narrator: Will you be ready...</i> <i>when doomsday strikes?</i> <i>Can any of us survive?</i> [screaming voices] [woman shouts in Spanish] [screaming voices]
[glass shatters] <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>150 years ago,</i> <i>a giant solar flare heaved
a chunk of the Sun</i> <i>into our planet.</i> <i>It knocked out
the world's first</i> <i>primitive electric system,</i> <i>the telegraph.</i> <i>Experts agree:</i> <i>the next strike is overdue.</i> <i>What would happen</i> <i>if the same size storm</i> <i>struck our modern world
right now?</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>Would we survive?</i> - Think of the chaos in the opening days after a solar flare
hits the Earth. [electricity surging] - There's very few cultures
on this planet that know how to function
without electricity. [explosion]
- Go! Go! - It could create havoc on a scale not seen
in human history. [pulsing] [explosion] [pulsing] <i>narrator:
The disaster that blows out</i> <i>the world's electrical power</i> <i>and paralyzes civilization</i> <i>begins...</i> <i>on the surface of the Sun.</i> <i>[ambient music]</i> <i>[dramatic music]</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>Scientists monitoring the Sun</i> <i>suddenly notice a huge,
violent explosion</i> <i>called a coronal mass ejection,
or CME.</i> - Wow.
- Whoa. - The detector is completely saturated with protons. <i>♪</i> ♪ - A coronal mass ejection is
essentially a piece of the Sun. It's a large blob that gets
hurled out of sunspots <i>and off into space.</i> <i>narrator:
Ripping through space</i> <i>at over one million
miles an hour,</i> <i>this solar storm will hit Earth
in 17 hours.</i> <i>And it won't be the first time.</i> <i>Scientists believe these deadly
blobs of the Sun's surface</i> <i>strike our planet</i> <i>roughly once every 100 years.</i> - That virtually guarantees
that within our lifetimes or that of our children, we will experience
a catastrophic geomagnetic superstorm. <i>♪</i> ♪ [electricity buzzing] [explosion] <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator:
Now, as the scientists watch...</i> - It's hitting right there. - Yeah.
- That's early tomorrow. - Early tomorrow,
right around 6:00. - These are gonna be big. <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator:
They race to alert</i> <i>the world's
electrical companies...</i> - We've just issued a warning. <i>narrator: That a massive surge
of electricity</i> <i>is about to come crashing down.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>The solar flare slams
into the magnetic field</i> <i>that surrounds the earth,</i> <i>triggering a truly global
effect.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>As far south as the equator,</i> <i>the skies light up in auroras</i> <i>brighter than any
in living memory.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ - It'll be an otherworldly
experience, almost psychedelic,
all these green and red colors, <i>sometimes purple and blue.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator: As the atmosphere
becomes electrified,</i> <i>power surges
into high-tension lines</i> <i>and transformers
from pole to pole.</i> [electricity crackling] - The electrical grid will go
bye-bye. Wires will fuse.
High-tension lines will explode. [sparks crackle] <i>Transformers will turn into
large hunks of fused metal.</i> <i>Anything that runs on power</i> will be immediately affected. [electricity crackles
and fades] <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator:
In Denver, Colorado,</i> <i>it's a peaceful, starlit night</i> <i>when all of a sudden
the power goes out,</i> <i>and a family making dinner
gets a nasty surprise.</i> [electricity buzzing] - Ah! <i>- You get shocked,</i> because there would be
very strong and sudden currents flowing through these wires. <i>♪</i> ♪ - You would have sparks.
You would have fires. You would have short circuits
of anything electrical. <i>♪</i> ♪ - Let's go!
Everyone out of the house now! Let's go! Let's go! [power winds down] <i>narrator:
The same thing is happening</i> <i>in cities all over the world...</i> <i>on land...</i> <i>and in the air too.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>In Berlin, New York,</i> <i>Buenos Aires,</i> <i>and elsewhere,</i> <i>air traffic controllers
switch to emergency generators</i> <i>and try to get planes
out of the sky.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>But in the cockpit,
GPS signals go haywire.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>- You're gonna get a GPS signal</i> that's gonna look terrible. It may tell you
you're way over there, when instead you're right here. <i>- You look down. Perhaps you
can see the lights of a city.</i> Wrong. The city lights
are all knocked out. <i>- If this happens
in the middle of the night,</i> probably hundreds of thousands
of people are gonna die from crashed airliners <i>trying to get down
when they run out of fuel.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ [crashing] <i>With communications down,</i> <i>most people don't yet realize
the event is global.</i> <i>It seems like just a typical
local blackout.</i> <i>But for scientists</i> <i>and national security experts</i> <i>it's a worst-case scenario.</i> <i>They know
that without electricity</i> <i>to provide food,</i> <i>water,
energy,</i> <i>communications,
transportation,</i> <i>and everything else that makes
modern civilization possible...</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>Mankind is facing
the worst catastrophe</i> <i>in recorded history.</i> <i>- Compared with
even a nuclear war--</i> that would be terrible,
and a lot of people would die, but losing the electric grid
would kill a lot more people. <i>♪ ♪</i> [power winding down] <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>[dramatic music]</i> <i>narrator: Scientists believe
that once a century,</i> <i>a gigantic chunk
of the Sun's surface,</i> <i>a coronal mass ejection,</i> <i>slams into Earth.</i> <i>If one hit our planet today,</i> <i>would we survive?</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>12 hours after the lethal
solar flare strikes,</i> <i>electrifying the atmosphere,</i> <i>high-tension wires
and transformers</i> <i>have been obliterated,</i> <i>wiping out power
across the world.</i> [power winding down] <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>Outside Denver,</i> <i>engineers assess the damage</i> <i>and realize the destruction
is unprecedented.</i> <i>- Our transformer systems
actually would fuse.</i> <i>The wiring inside would
just simply melt down and fuse.</i> Big problem, though,
is your high-transmission lines. You're gonna see a lot of them--
where'd the wires go? <i>It's because the overload was
so intense,</i> they just literally exploded
off the pylons. <i>narrator: Giant transformers,</i> <i>which convert energy
between two or more devices,</i> <i>are the backbone
of the world's electric system.</i> <i>They take up to two years
to build,</i> <i>and national security experts
warn</i> <i>that there are no backups.</i> <i>- They are
very hard to replace.</i> There's only two countries
in the world that build them for export: Germany and South Korea. <i>They weigh hundreds of tons.</i> <i>Bridges have to be reinforced.</i> <i>Roads have to be widened.</i> <i>There's only a few
flatbed railcars</i> <i>in the whole of North America</i> that are capable of moving
one of these things. <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator: In places like Denver</i> <i>and every other
urban metropolis,</i> <i>the solar flare's power surge
sparks countless fires</i> <i>when it charges into homes,</i> <i>offices,</i> <i>and most catastrophic of all,</i> <i>gas pipelines.</i> [electricity buzzing] <i>- This can cause sparking,</i> which can cause explosions
in the natural gas pipelines. [explosions] In fact, you can get firestorms
in cities. <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator: For those caught
in the fiery inferno,</i> <i>rescue will be impossible.</i> <i>At the same time,</i> <i>the blackout disables
vital pumps</i> <i>that maintain water pressure.</i> <i>- A lot of municipal
water supplies</i> are actually run
by electric pumps. If there's no electricity, there's no electric pumps keeping this water supply
active. <i>- No water to drink,</i> no water to flush toilets,
provide sanitation. <i>narrator:
The lack of electricity</i> <i>also siphons off another key
element to modern civilization:</i> <i>gasoline.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>Every day, the world consumes
94 million barrels of oil,</i> <i>most of which is pumped
through pipelines</i> <i>using electricity.</i> <i>Without electric power,</i> <i>even those pipelines
that didn't explode</i> <i>in the initial surge</i> <i>would shut down.</i> <i>And the gas that's
already at your local station</i> <i>is also out of reach.</i> - The pump at the
gasoline station is electric, so you can't even fill up
your five-gallon can that you've got in the garage. - You're gonna have people
lined up a mile long, in panic, trying to get gas, <i>or also get petrol</i> <i>for their electrical generating
systems.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator: The destruction of
the world's electrical system</i> <i>creates havoc in ways
many people never imagined.</i> <i>Take elevators.</i> <i>Without them, high-rise cities
become death traps.</i> <i>- You have a elderly couple</i> <i>that has their beautiful
penthouse on the 50th floor.</i> They have to do the equivalent
of hiking up a 500-foot cliff just in the hope of getting
a one-liter bottle of water. <i>Their life expectancy is
just about zero.</i> <i>narrator:
The modern food system is also</i> <i>totally dependent
on electricity</i> <i>for growing, harvesting,</i> <i>transporting,
and refrigerating.</i> <i>All of that</i> <i>has instantly collapsed.</i> - In our regional
food warehouses, we only have enough food to feed the population
for 30 days. <i>After 30 days,
there is no food,</i> <i>and, in fact, after 72 hours,</i> the emergency generators
that keep the food cool run out of gas, and its food starts to spoil. <i>narrator:
As people slowly realize</i> <i>the extent of the catastrophe,</i> <i>supermarkets become
battlegrounds.</i> <i>- First thing I would do is get
away from any grocery store,</i> because that will immediately
become a target for looting. If there's no way
to pay for your groceries, what are you going to do? <i>Are you gonna stand there</i> <i>with a handful of change?</i> This isn't happening. It'll be
a smash-and-grab situation. <i>narrator: And cash is not
just a problem in supermarkets.</i> <i>The entire global
financial system</i> <i>runs on electricity.</i> [power winding down] <i>Like most people
around the world,</i> <i>this family in Denver has
very few dollars on hand.</i> <i>Today, only 10% of money exists</i> <i>as cold, hard cash.</i> - The bank doesn't have
a pile of money sitting in the vault
for you back there that you can then access. <i>It's a bunch of bits, dots,
and dashes</i> <i>that are stored
in electronic computer systems</i> <i>that will be inaccessible.</i> So, suddenly, your lifetime
savings could be wiped out. <i>It is likely that we would
revert to a barter economy.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: As the world tries
to cope with the blackout,</i> <i>not everyone is
in a state of chaos.</i> <i>In some houses,</i> <i>like this one,
40 miles outside of Denver,</i> <i>the lights are still on.</i> <i>This family is part
of the worldwide community</i> <i>known as preppers.</i> <i>They get their power
from solar panels.</i> <i>Glowing lights make them
a magnet for neighbors,</i> <i>who bring over food</i> <i>that is spoiling
in freezers and refrigerators.</i> <i>They are happy to help...</i> <i>for now.</i> - You will have a source
of electricity. Even if it's minor, you'll
still have enough electricity to be able to run little things that would allow you to survive and actually be a hub
for your neighborhood <i>for people who aren't
as fortunate as you.</i> <i>narrator: But on the horizon,</i> <i>the glow from a burning Denver
is an ominous backdrop.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>A world without power
is about to turn</i> <i>into a world of anarchy.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>And no one is prepared</i> <i>for the nightmare to come.</i> [gunshot]
[woman screams] - The people living
in big cities or the suburbs-- they would die. <i>In a sense,
we're really talking</i> about the collapse
of civilization. <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator: A chunk of the Sun
has smashed into the earth.</i> <i>The massive power surge
from this solar storm</i> <i>has overloaded and destroyed</i> <i>the world's
entire electric system.</i> [explosion] <i>Without power,</i> <i>how long can we survive?</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>As modern society descends
into a state of turmoil,</i> <i>food becomes
the number one priority.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>People in cities
across the world</i> <i>head into the wilderness</i> <i>and begin hunting deer,
raccoons,</i> <i>squirrels, birds,</i> <i>and anything else
they can find.</i> - We're a nation of 320 million
people right now. A hunter-gatherer lifestyle
is not sustainable for 320 million people. Even if people were
survivalists, there wouldn't be enough food
to hunt or fish. <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator: And for many people,
this will be their first time</i> <i>trying to kill
their own dinner.</i> <i>3/4 of Americans have never
gone hunting in their lives.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>- It's going to be
absolute chaos</i> when thousands
of complete random individuals with absolutely no experience
in hunting go out hunting
for the first time. You're gonna be shooting
at anything that moves. <i>♪</i> ♪ [gunshot] <i>♪</i> ♪ Pretty soon, human casualties
will outnumber deer casualties. <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator: As people across the
globe try to cope and survive,</i> <i>they are also trying
to make sense of this disaster.</i> <i>Most have never heard
of a solar storm.</i> <i>But this isn't the first time
it's happened.</i> <i>The last huge coronal
mass ejection to strike Earth</i> <i>hit just before
the dawn of the electric age.</i> - In September of 1859, the mother of all solar flares
hit the planet Earth. It's called
the Carrington Event. <i>Astronomer Richard Carrington
was analyzing the Sun,</i> and saw
this gigantic solar flare that took place on the Sun. <i>narrator:
17 hours later,</i> <i>the skies exploded in auroras,</i> <i>and the world's first
primitive electrical system,</i> <i>the telegraph,</i> <i>crashed and burned.</i> [electricity buzzing
and popping] - Telegraph operators record
enormous anomalies; fires, sparks taking place, and telegraph wires
being electrified <i>as if by magic.</i> [buzzing and popping] <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator: It took months
to repair the telegraph system,</i> <i>but the impact on civilization
was relatively minor</i> <i>because in those days,
the telegraph</i> <i>was the only electrical system
on Earth.</i> <i>The era of widespread
electrical power</i> <i>was still a few decades away.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>In modern times,</i> <i>there have been more recent
episodes as well.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>In 1989,
a much smaller solar storm</i> <i>blacked out the Canadian
province of Quebec.</i> [siren wailing] <i>And we had a dangerously
close call in 2012.</i> <i>- In 2012, there was an
enormous coronal mass ejection</i> <i>from the Sun.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>Fortunately for us,</i> the bundle of particles crossed
Earth's orbit about two weeks after
Earth was at that location. <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator: Just three weeks
after the solar storm takes out</i> <i>the world's electrical grids,</i> <i>modern society as we know it</i> <i>falls further
into a state of anarchy...</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>As people scrape and claw</i> <i>to get their hands
on vital resources</i> <i>like food and gasoline,</i> <i>only the strong survive.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ - You! This is my property! <i>♪</i> ♪ Don't be--don't be stupid. - We can just leave
with these two gas cans. We're not-- [gunshot]
[woman screams] <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>- We will devolve
into a tribal state.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ If you are starving to death and you have any semblance
of weaponry, you will try and take over
somebody that has more than you so you can survive longer. <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator:
Outside Longmont, Colorado,</i> <i>the prepper family
has retreated</i> <i>to their well-stocked
and isolated cabin.</i> <i>Right after the disaster,
they welcomed their neighbors</i> <i>and shared what they had.</i> <i>But now they become targets</i> [knocking at door] <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>- Those without
any moral scruples</i> will see this as,
"You got something I want, I'll kill you for it." <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator: As quasi-military
groups run rampant</i> <i>across the globe,</i> <i>chaos reigns,</i> <i>and nobody is safe.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ [gunshots] <i>but it pales in comparison
to the nuclear disaster</i> <i>about to engulf the planet.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator:
Scientists have long documented</i> <i>coronal mass ejections,</i> <i>giant chunks
of the Sun's surface</i> <i>that break free
and slam into Earth.</i> <i>If one hit our planet today,</i> <i>would we survive?</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>Six weeks after a solar storm
has taken out</i> <i>the world's electricity,</i> <i>millions of people
are starting to die.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>With the collapse
of electric-powered</i> <i>water and sewage systems,</i> <i>survival now depends
on water from polluted rivers,</i> <i>streams, and lakes.</i> - You've had human wastes
and hospital wastes and industrial wastes back-flowing
into lakes and rivers. <i>It would truly be fatal
for people to be doing that.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator: People living
in hotter climates</i> <i>are particularly vulnerable.</i> <i>In places like Mumbai, Baghdad,
and Phoenix,</i> <i>some try to survive
by sheltering in place.</i> <i>But with triple-digit
temperatures</i> <i>and no air conditioning,</i> <i>modern houses in Sunbelt cities</i> <i>are essentially unlivable.</i> - If you're living in,
say, Phoenix, it's 110 degrees, 120 degrees, and the air conditioner
shuts off. <i>What are you going to do?</i> <i>Most of these communities
have elderly people in them.</i> <i>These people are going to die.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator: The living conditions
are no better</i> <i>for people in icy environments.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>The loss of electricity
also wipes out</i> <i>most forms of heating.</i> <i>From Russia to Canada,</i> <i>Norway to Japan,</i> <i>Korea to the northern US,</i> <i>millions in cold climates
face a frozen death.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator:
As modern society crumbles,</i> <i>and people fight to survive,</i> <i>the crisis is
about to go nuclear.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>The fuel rods
that power the world's</i> <i>400-plus nuclear reactors</i> <i>have to be kept cool
24 hours a day,</i> <i>otherwise they would melt down</i> <i>and spew deadly radiation.</i> <i>Operators keep them</i> cool <i>with a constant stream
of cold water--</i> <i>water that's pumped
with electricity.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>When the solar storm hit</i> <i>and caused the global blackout,</i> <i>nuclear reactors like the one
in Gravelines, France,</i> <i>kept the cold water flowing</i> <i>with emergency generators.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ - They have emergency generators
to keep them running, which will run out of gas
in about 72 hours, and then they have
battery systems, <i>which will last about a week.</i> <i>narrator: Now,
even the batteries have died.</i> <i>As the cool water stops flowing
over the nuclear rods,</i> <i>they start to heat up.</i> - The reactor cores
will actually explode from steam explosions... [explosion] And you get radioactive debris
scattered into the winds that will travel
for hundreds of miles <i>and cover huge areas
with radioactive materials.</i> <i>narrator: Towns and cities
near the world's</i> <i>400 nuclear power plants</i> <i>are right in the line of fire,</i> <i>and without warning,</i> <i>they succumb to the deadly
radiation that fills the air.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>The global blackout has</i> <i>now reduced the world's
population of seven billion</i> <i>to just two billion.</i> <i>And the solar storm isn't done
wreaking havoc.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: A lethal chunk
of the Sun has smashed</i> <i>into the Earth.</i> <i>The massive power surge
from this solar storm</i> <i>has wiped out power everywhere.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>Three months into the disaster,</i> <i>billions are already dead.</i> <i>With no food,
no clean water,</i> <i>with transportation
and communications obliterated,</i> <i>mass starvation, dehydration,</i> <i>deadly epidemics,
and social chaos</i> <i>sweep the planet.</i> [gunshot] <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>And now it seems
like the sky itself is falling.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>When the solar storm hit,</i> <i>it short-circuited thousands
of satellites in space.</i> <i>Now they plunge
into the atmosphere</i> <i>and rain fiery debris
onto a desolate planet Earth.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>How did modern society crumble
so quickly?</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>The last time
a giant solar storm hit</i> <i>the Earth's atmosphere,
150 years ago,</i> <i>the so-called Carrington Event,</i> <i>people lived
without electricity.</i> <i>It was simply a way of life.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>Transportation, industry,
and farming</i> <i>used steam and animal power.</i> <i>Water systems were fed
by gravity,</i> <i>muscle power, or steam pumps.</i> <i>Refrigeration didn't exist,</i> <i>so every major city was ringed
by local farms.</i> <i>But in the high-technology
21st century,</i> <i>a majority
of the world's population</i> <i>is not equipped
to live like this.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ - So you can't just say that
"well, let's turn off "the electricity, and we go back
to where we were in 1800, <i>and people lived just fine
back then."</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- We don't have
the 19th century infrastructure</i> <i>where all of this was done
by hand.</i> The harvest back in those days
was not shipped across the country,
but it was consumed locally. And you had an infrastructure that would use horses and wagons <i>to bring it into the cities
where it would be consumed.</i> That is all gone. <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator: Another difference
is population.</i> <i>150 years ago,</i> <i>the world's population
was only 1.3 billion,</i> <i>and there were frequent
famines.</i> <i>It is now over seven billion,</i> <i>and famines rarely happen</i> <i>thanks to things
like modern agriculture,</i> <i>advanced fertilizers,
and refrigeration,</i> <i>all of which require
electricity.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>- We couldn't possibly maintain</i> <i>a population
of about seven billion</i> if there were a loss
of electricity and power for one or two years. Billions of people would die. <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator: After seven months,</i> <i>abandoned cities
in hot desert climates</i> <i>where water is
next to impossible to find,</i> <i>like Phoenix, Dubai,
and Las Vegas,</i> <i>have dissolved into ruins.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>And survivors have headed</i> <i>for more fertile terrain.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ - Where I would want to be--
I would want to be near a fishery, a lake. <i>If you also think
of a great orchard</i> <i>where there are fruit trees
and things like that.</i> <i>You can live a long time</i> <i>from the bounty of nature
like that.</i> I would also want to be upwind
of any nuclear reactor <i>or large industrial facilities</i> <i>that are likely
to create toxic clouds</i> <i>or environmental damage.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: The land surrounding
nuclear power plants,</i> <i>like France's Gravelines,</i> <i>have become radioactive
wastelands.</i> <i>People in these areas
are either dead</i> <i>or they have moved
to safer ground.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>Incredibly,</i> <i>one year after
the disaster struck,</i> <i>power hasn't been restored.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>Families like the preppers
in Colorado,</i> <i>who fled
to their well-stocked cabin,</i> <i>have fended off
gangs of bandits</i> <i>and protected their resources.</i> <i>It hasn't been easy,</i> <i>but they survived
the first year.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>These preppers</i> <i>and others who have weathered
the solar storm</i> <i>begin planting basic crops</i> <i>to see them through the first
meager post-disaster harvest.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>Meanwhile, people begin
jerry-rigging systems</i> <i>to restore small-scale
electricity.</i> -<i> It'll be kind of
this steam-punky</i> <i>hodgepodge thing going on.</i> You'll be able to make a fire, which heats water
that can turn a simple turbine and create electricity. <i>narrator: After enduring
the worst disaster</i> <i>known to mankind,</i> <i>civilization slowly starts
picking up the pieces,</i> <i>and the flickering sparks
of electricity</i> <i>are also the flickering sparks
of hope.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>- I do believe
we will be coalescing</i> <i>back into smaller
survival groups</i> that get their act together, get a social structure going
again, get a legal system, a fair system
of living together, and then try and rebuild
from there. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: But will it work?</i> <i>And how could
this whole catastrophe</i> <i>have been avoided?</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator:
The world's electrical grid</i> <i>has gone up in flames,</i> <i>destroyed by a solar storm
from the Sun.</i> [power winding down] <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>Just over a year
after the disaster,</i> <i>90% of mankind is gone.</i> <i>Without modern agriculture,</i> <i>without water systems,</i> <i>transportation,</i> <i>industry, or medicine,</i> <i>billions were killed off
by starvation,</i> <i>violence, lawlessness,
and disease.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ [birds chirping] <i>But for those
with the will to survive,</i> <i>there is a flicker of hope,</i> <i>especially now that small-scale
electricity is coming back on.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>- You know
how many solar panels there are</i> <i>out in the middle
of the desert?</i> Head there. Grab some. Find a battery. <i>Connect it up.</i> <i>All is not lost.</i> We just kind of hit
the reset button at this point, and we have to start again. <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator:
While survivors soldier on,</i> <i>trying to rebuild
modern civilization</i> <i>will be a daunting,
uphill battle.</i> <i>Large scale electric power</i> <i>will be much more difficult
to come by.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>It takes
a huge industrial complex</i> <i>to build and transport
gigantic new transformers,</i> <i>and that has vanished.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ -<i> Even with our current
modern civilization,</i> unaffected by a catastrophe, it's very hard for us
to replace even one transformer. For a civilization which has now
had the props knocked out from under it,
it's hard to imagine <i>that it would be possible
for that to happen.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator: The level
of worldwide devastation</i> <i>caused by the solar storm</i> <i>is exactly
what scientists predicted</i> <i>when the U.S. Congress held
hearings on the subject</i> <i>in the early 2000s.</i> <i>- Congressional studies
here in the U.S.</i> state that about 90%
of the population would be dead. That's 300 million people. [wind whistles] - And on a global level, out of the population currently of about 7 to 7 1/2 billion, that means there would be less
than a billion people still alive. <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator: The Congressional
hearings also stated</i> <i>solar storms are
just part of the threat</i> <i>to our electrical grid.</i> <i>A similar phenomenon
of massive blackouts</i> <i>could be caused</i> <i>by the detonation
of a nuclear bomb in space.</i> <i>The energy released would cause
an electromagnetic pulse,</i> <i>or EMP.</i> - They were first discovered
in 1962, when both the Americans
and the Russians detonated in orbit
nuclear weapons. And both the Russians
and the Americans were surprised at how long these waves reached and knocked out
the transformers. [explosions] [power winding down] <i>narrator: National security
experts warned for years</i> <i>that if terrorists
exploded nukes in space</i> <i>and triggered an EMP,</i> <i>modern society
could be devastated.</i> <i>So various government plans
were hatched</i> <i>to harden and protect
the electrical grid,</i> <i>which would safeguard it</i> <i>from both
electromagnetic pulses</i> <i>and solar storms.</i> - Hardening<i>
narrator: But little was done.</i> <i>Most electrical systems are run
by private companies,</i> <i>not governments.</i> - Try to tell
any utility executive that you meet anywhere that that's what utilities
ought to be spending their money on, and you will not get
a pleased response. <i>Everybody's saying, "Well, no,
that's not my job. It's yours."</i> <i>"No. Wait. It's yours."</i> <i>narrator: Others were skeptical</i> <i>that terrorists had
the capability</i> <i>to detonate nukes in space.</i> <i>And as for a giant solar storm,</i> <i>there hadn't been one
in the 120 years</i> <i>since mankind became dependent
on electricity,</i> <i>so many government officials
had a hard time</i> <i>believing scientists' warnings.</i> <i>- What response did we get?</i> We got the giggle factor. Politicians
simply giggled at us, and said, "What? "This is something
from Hollywood. <i>You guys don't need any money."</i> <i>- Nobody has ever really</i> lived through anything
of this nature, so it's very difficult
for people to even fathom its existence. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator:
Experts in the community insist</i> <i>that the threat
of a solar storm is very real.</i> [solar flare whooshing] <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>But they also believe</i> <i>the whole nightmare
can be avoided,</i> <i>and survival can be assured</i> <i>if the right precautionary
measures are put into place.</i> <i>- The chance of another event</i> which could paralyze
civilization is about 1% per year. That means in one decade, there's perhaps a 10% chance that all our electronics
will be wiped out. <i>We'll be thrown back 100 years
into the past.</i> [power winding down] <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>Here are a few
common sense steps:</i> first, reinforce the grid. Create redundant systems,
backup systems. Train emergency crews
so that they know <i>how to get the power stations
up to speed again.</i> <i>We know how to prepare for it.</i> We know what to do. The question is money, planning, changing our orientation, <i>because it's not a question
of "if."</i> <i>It's a question of when
the Sun blows its top again.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - This is the violent universe
telling us that really we're pretty weak
on the global scale. <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>And there are forces out there</i> that we have to contend with in a very real way. <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>- We know that this type
of event is going to happen.</i> Our star is the most relevant
thing in the universe because it's the thing
that's going to affect us. It gives life, and it can
take it away just as quickly. <i>♪</i> ♪
