By Dr. John O. Hunter
A letter from Prof. Richard Andres of National Defense University explains that electromagnetic pulse [EMP] can take two forms: the first comes from, he explains, the results of a natural or man-made EMP and would be very extreme solar activity; the second from an enemy detonated nuclear weapon above the atmosphere in the purposive attempt to create an EMP. different, but either could be catastrophic for the U.S.
” Research also determined that our systems are unable to respond effectively to an event that knocks out power to a large region or the nation as a whole… Because virtually all financial transactions and communications are now conducted electronically, without electricity regions would lose the ability to buy, sell,and communicate instantly… Most individuals would lose access to food and medicine after around three days. Law enforcement would cease to exist in most localities within a week… Over a year the effects of a nationwide blackout would approach the level of a limited nuclear war.”
Prof.Andres concludes that because the Grid is owned and regulated by so many different companies and groups, it is the individual states rather than the federal government, that are responsible for protecting against EMP.
It is not easy to assess the probability of EMP occurring in the future, and no one likes to imagine the effects. So it is probably easy, with so many other detectable problems, to ignore this disaster possibility. It is also not hard to recognize that this could be an enormous mistake.
What are the implications for action? First and foremost, as the National Defense University analysis contends, it is up to state and local governments to enact regulations to protect against EMP threats to the Grid. Companies should be required by law to protect themselves. Local communities should have at least some amount of local renewable power generation capabilities that they can fall back on to keep emergency services running during the outage.
Some may say that all of this bureaucratic regulation, which is often unreliable in the first place, will be expensive– probably true. Yet in the face of a real EMP disaster, preparation costs would be negligible in comparison.
If it should occur,I believe the American spirit would kick in again, but I also believe it is simply foolish to depend on this solitary escape.
I believe it is natural for us to pray against it, but if it should occur, the impact would be so harrowing and the tendency to cast blame in all directions so overwhelming, that the unexpected force of it could trigger Civil War.
Such a national catastrophe would be abetted by radical left leaders who would welcome it as the launching of their Socialist agenda for a new America unshackled from the traditional values and institutions they hate and seek to destroy.
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