The more worrisome source of electromagnetic radiation is the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) produced by explosion of nuclear weapons. It appears that most of our electronic devices are designed on the gamble that that won’t happen within their lifetime. There have been more severe instances, and there is the possibility of a solar event that could damage electronics across much of the world. Solar flares are a common and, in most cases, relatively mild source of electromagnetic disturbance. By contrast, electromagnetic damage could be a one-shot, virtually instantaneous affair. Depending upon their rate of reproduction and other factors, that could be a very long time. Plastic-eating microbes would presumably survive until they ran out of plastics to eat.
The durations of these two threats could of course be very different. This post contributes a brief mention of electromagnetic damage as another existential threat to computing.
A previous post observes that efforts to develop plastic-eating microbes could spell the end of computing.
