British fail? I do astronomy as a hobby, I have books on this. The earth gets hit by solar flares all the time, very small ones. When a bigger one hits, all it does is just mess up with navigational systems and cause power cuts, nothing too serious. People in space are more at risk due to intense radiation, so are people flying at very high altitudes. Only the people in space are higher risks of things such as skin cancer, people in planes are more likely to get sunburn of sorts.


NASA also agrees that the earth is protected by a magnetic field, and that Mercury will get the worst of a solar flare, every time. They also agree that because the sun is emitting smaller ones, a BIG one is unlikely now because of a gentle release of pressure.