Yes! What if the sun was turned
off? You may be wondering how such an idea got into a human mind. You may say
it is surrealistic. You may say it is not realistic. It may sound like a movies
theme. Maybe this is the first time the idea is occurring to you. Perhaps you
should consider its possibility. Have you ever heard of global dimming or mass
extinctions?
DUMSOR
In Africa for example, because
demand for electricity does not meet supply, many a time, in some African
countries power is rationed or there will be load shedding: the national grid will,
for example, supply power twenty four hours on, and twelve hours off etc.
In Ghana, we have christened the
on and off electricity supply as dumsor. Dumsor, a noun, is a product of the
integration of two Akan words, dum and sↄ. Akan is the language of a major
ethnic group in Ghana, West Africa. A person from that group is an Akan. As an
ethnic group they are Akans, and also the plural form of Akan.
Dum as an Akan word is a verb
with a range of meaning including: turn off, switch off, douse, extinguish and
blow off. Sor (an anglicized form of sↄ) also is a verb with a range of meaning
including: turn on, switch on, set fire and light. Dum is the antonym for sor,
and vice versa.
So dumsor in the sense of power
management, means power being turned off and on from the national grid, mainly
as a result of deficit in supply. Indeed the word was a precipitation of frequent
erratic power supply. The phrase “dum, sↄ” evolved into the word dumsor
probably in 2014, and hit Wikipedia in perhaps 2015.
Dumsor creates many unpleasant
experiences for Ghanaians. During the presidency of the late President John
Evans Atta Mills, on an occasion when the Ghana Black Stars were playing an
international match at Kumasi Sports Stadium under flood light, the light went
off suddenly. Could you imagine the embarrassment it caused the nation. The
match ended abruptly. There was tension at the stadium. There were thousands of
people in the stadium in darkness. When people are engrossed in telenovelas and
the power goes off, you hear a loud massive oh!!! The current telenovela in
Ghana that is causing sensation is La Gata ( the cat). It is airing on UTV, a
Despite Group television station. Blackouts rundown industries, collapses
businesses, creates more unemployment, it affects the economy negatively, etc.,
etc. The society is so vitally dependent on electricity such that blackouts
culminate in disasters, even vitally so. This is an analogy. During such
periods I stop buying lettuce, milk and yoghurt, and such supplies that perish
easily.
Blackouts give the feeling that
civilization is on reversal and obliteration. On the other hand, when power is
running through the grid it is a different story- life is stable and everyone
is in their element.
SUN
The sun is part of the Solar System.
The Solar System comprises the sun and objects that orbit it. The sun provides
light directly to eight planets that revolve around it, forming the planetary
system. Planet Earth is one of the eight planets. It is in the third position
from the Sun. The first four planets from the sun are terrestrial planets
because they are made mainly of rock and metal. The four inner planets are Mercury,
Venus, Earth and Mars. These are closer to the sun. The outer four planets are
substantially more massive. These four planets are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and
Neptune. Of the four, Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants, made of hydrogen and
helium. The other two outermost planets are ice giants, made of substances of
high melting points than hydrogen and helium called ices.
The Solar System is placed in the
Orion Arm, 26,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way.
The main component of the Solar
System is the Sun, a G-2 main-sequence star that contains 99.8% of the system’s
known mass, and dominates it gravitationally. The Sun which is made up of
nearly all the matter in the Solar System is composed of roughly 98% of
hydrogen and helium. The mass of the Sun is 332,900 Earth masses, and is the
star of the Solar System.
The Sun produces temperatures and
densities in its core high enough to sustain nuclear fusion of hydrogen into
helium. This releases an enormous amount of energy, mostly radiated into space
as electromagnetic radiation peaking in visible light. It is a layer of the
Sun’s atmosphere (photosphere or sphere of light) which emits light because of
its high temperature.
The total amount of solar energy
absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and land masses is approximately
3,850,000 exajoules (EJ) per annum. In 2002, this was more energy in one hour
than the world used in a year. Photosynthesis captures approximately 3000 EJ
per year in biomass.
BENEFITS
So, of what benefit is the Sun to
us, earthlings? Like the national grid
of Ghana, when it is switched on (sor) there is steady and stable development
and progress in the country; electricity has become a sine qua non for normal
life.
The Sun as a source of energy to
the Earth is of vital importance to earthlings. Let us look at it from these
perspectives:
- Photosynthesis
- Conducive Temperature
- Renewable Source of Energy
Photosynthesis: Photosynthesis is
the process whereby green plants turn carbon dioxide and water into food using
energy obtained from light from the sun (Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary).
By photosynthesis green plants convert solar energy into chemical energy which
produces food, wood, and the biomass, from which fossil fuel is derived. The kenkey (a meal derived from corn, it is a
Ga language in Ghana) and shitↄ (pepper, also a Ga language) we love to eat,
sunlight has a role in it. The fuel used in preparing the kenkey and shitↄ is
derived from wood. What about the chocolate we buy for our loved ones,
especially those made from the Accra fermented cocoa? Without the sunlight
there should be no cocoa plant, for that matter chocolate. What about wine,
which is derived from grapes? What about furniture? What about the bed (The bed
we cozily lie in when relaxing or sleeping)? What about the living room sofa?
They are all wood products, and without sunlight, plant from which you get the
wood cannot survive. In terms of photosynthesis alone you see how the light
from the sun is inextricably woven into our daily lives?
Conducive Temperature: The
temperature of the human body is because of the sunlight filtered by the ozone.
The light from the Sun gives us just the amount of heat needed to keep us warm
to sustain our lives on Earth.
Source of Renewable Energy: In 2000, the UN Energy Development Programme,
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and World Energy
Council published an estimate of the potential solar energy that could be used
by humans each year that took into account factors such as insolation, cloud
cover, and the land that is usable by humans. The estimate found that solar
energy has a potential of 1575 - 49,837 EJ per year, which is larger than the total
energy consumed by the world in a year in 2012(559.8 EJ).
BLACK OUT
Now back to the question “What if the Sun was turned off?” What I have
stated so far should be preparing your mind for what it will be like when the
Sun switches off. I have taken you through how the Sun generates light and its
benefits to Earth and its inhabitants. I have given the analogy of Dumsor in
Ghana. With Dumsor, when light is on life is pleasant, when light is off it is
unpleasant. I move on to give you the expected practical specifics in a
scenario where the Sun is turned off:
- There will be no green plant life.
- There will be no food for humans and animals.
- There will be no furniture from wood.
- There will be no orange juice, milk, corn flakes, oats etc. on your breakfast table.
- There will be no water to drink.
- There will be no jeans to wear, because jeans are made from cotton.
- There will be no leather shoes, mink stoles, mink coat, leather belts etc. to wear.
- There will be no sight- you are going to be dead blind.
- Human beings will lose their warmth and die.
- The transition from depending on depleting fossil fuel to abundant renewable solar energy to run our civilization will be brought to a halt.
- Planet Earth may become a lump of rocky ice.
With Dumsor, when the light is turned off there is a feeling of reversal
and obliteration of life as it is known, with the Sun there will be a real
reversal and obliteration of our civilization! Perhaps it could be caused by
global dimming or a mass extinction.
Source:
www_istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Sun1lite.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_system
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