Sorry. Absolutely the one biggest lot of codswallop I've read in sometime.
Errors!! Worse there are more than a dozen errors in the article scanning through it. In the last few years New Scientist has gone a bit down-hill with more and more non-scientific speculation... so much for the scientific method.
This is not science, it is basically media hype not focussing on the facts but simple scare-mongering.
I will be definitely seeking out the original article, because it is certainly a cry for solar funding before the next solar maxima. What is more interesting, is nothing is said of the flares or the sun - only what the speculated effects on something that may or may not happen. (Pity there were few electrical devices around the the 1850s to measure it.)
The Carrington Event in August 1859 was certainly dramatic, which was very well described in "Kings of the Sun" by Dave Sorbel (2007) - well worth the read.
(Read the comments after the article to see my view is here supports some agreement.)
Mostly utter nonsense!
