What if the electricity grid blows up?

I read a piece about potential damage caused by sun storms next year, and would like to take a minute to muse on this. The basic idea is that a large amount of electrically charged particles is released by the sun and causes chaos for us in our technology dependent world. The next big eruption is expected for 2010, and would not only interfere with aviation and telecommunications, but also has the potential to fry the big power transformators, which is not so easy to fix.

So lets say this comes on pretty hard and we are left for a couple of weeks without electricity. The fact that you would have no means of snuggling up with a book at nighttime for want of a lightbulb would be the least problem. The internet and phones not working would be another blow, but again for a few weeks that would probably be bearable and illustrate just how dependent we are on the web. Thinking further, the prospect of food is more daunting. After all: no fridges. Would you still be able to trust the tap water? Does it get cleaned by machines that use electricity?

Would trains still be able to run? Eehm, no. And even for cars it could be difficult. After all, the pumps at the petrol stations run on electrickery too. So public life would be severely interrupted, way beyond the inconveniences presented by the fact that the iron or the microwave wouldn't work. I'd be particularly worried about hospitals, where life support surely can't run off the emergency supply for weeks...

Perhaps the unavailability of street lighting would also be inconvenient in some areas, although a large part of it consitutes a waste at the moment anyways. Hey, one benefit is that we'd be able to see the night sky again from our cities. And since if you don't have gas you'd have to start fires... well, the whole romantic campfire thing would seem quite appealing.

Speaking of romance, it does seem to be the case that blackouts lead to peaks in birth rates. This bewilders me, because in essence it seems to suggest that sex is the second best option after watching TV. I am bewildered, because I consider TV a waste of time and sex to be one of the best uses of your time that there is (within measure, of course). So, it would be a benefit that all those TV junkies out there would be forced to confront themselves instead of numbing their minds with the trash that flows over our screens daily.

All in all, it's scary stuff, and I hope nothing of the sort happens. But I do feel that for a number of weeks we would get by and maybe even learn to appreciate the fact that we are totally technology dependent. There's always two sides to the story.