The Most Sobering News Report You Will Ever Read
What would a successful EMP attack look like? The EMP Commission, in 2008, estimated that within 12 months of a nationwide blackout, up to 90% of the U.S. population could possibly perish from starvation, disease and societal breakdown.
The above is from a new Forbes article by a former CIA director and EMP expert. We have discussed on this blog, many times, the catastrophic effects of a Carrington Event or an EMP attack on the United States. For those new to the blog, an EMP attack would be trigged by a nuclear weapon in the upper atmosphere that would wipe out our entire electrical infrastructure. Immediately, the U.S. would be back to 1870 without the 1870 infrastructure -- horses, buggies, carriages, stream-fed grain millers, etc., etc.
There is reason to believe hostile governments are testing just such a capability.
The Forbes article goes on to state:
Surge arrestors, faraday cages and other devices that prevent EMP from damaging electronics, as well micro-grids that are inherently less susceptible to EMP, have been used by the Defense Department for more than 50 years to protect crucial military installations and strategic forces. These can be adapted to protect civilian infrastructure as well. The cost of protecting the national electric grid, according to a 2008 EMP Commission estimate, would be about $2 billion—roughly what the U.S. gives each year in foreign aid to Pakistan.
The cost to prepare is trivial in the grand scheme of things but we need the will to get it done. I noted this comment to the Forbes article:
The most likely source of a strong EMP is a solar flare. NASA constantly monitors the sun and issues warnings.
Regardless of whether the sun is the most likely source, it is true that NOAA (not NASA) monitors space weather and would issue a warning. Then, what? We have virtually no protection at the present time.
What is the Department of Homeland Security doing to keep our nation secure these days?
(CNN) -- The Transportation Security Administration stood by its security officers Sunday after a Florida woman complained that her cancer-stricken, 95-year-old mother was patted down and forced to remove her adult diaper while going through security.
True homeland security would involve securing the United States against major threats instead of harassing people at airports. Given the mess on our southern border and the TSA's misguided screenings, it is long past time for Washington to reevaluate the threats that face us and effectively move against the biggest threats we face.
Remember the great Northeastern blackout in 2003? For months afterwards politicians talked about how we needed to improve the grid.
ReplyDeleteThen 4 years later in 2007 the I-35 bridge collapse in Minnesota. Again politicians talked for months about how we had to improve our roads and bridges. But nothing done.
A year later came the financial collapse. This time the government was ready to dump Trillions of debt into the economy. Would have been a perfect time to find "shovel ready" jobs to improve the US infrastructure deficiencies. Was it done?
I still can't figure out where all that money went.
I teach a capstone course at Penn State that features a semester-long exercise based on a post-cyber society after the earth is bombarded by a CME event that knocks out the grid and all other electronics...scary indeed!
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