Independence Day. 2012. The Day After Tomorrow. Deep Impact. Armageddon. War of the Worlds. All movies portraying the possibility of destruction and annihilation of Earth and its inhabitants.
It makes for great drama, not to mention box office sales. But it isn’t the only way that civilization as we know it could come to an abrupt halt.
In a single moment devastation could be complete. Life as we know it could plummet into the dark ages.
Scenarios
You’re in your car on a busy interstate. With no warning whatsoever, cars come to a stop, except maybe that older Ford truck you passed a few miles back. While your car comes to a stop (hopefully without incident) that Ford passes you by. Several cars are involved in accidents due to the sudden stop. You attempt to turn on the radio but there is nothing but silence. You reach for your cell phone. It’s deader than a door nail.
You’re in your home, watching your favorite television show. All the lights go out. You don’t panic; it’s probably just a blown transformer as usual. Your cell phone doesn’t work either. You turn on a flashlight or light some candles, grab a book to read and wait for the electricity to come back on. Except, it never comes back on.
The possibility the world as you know it has just been attacked doesn’t even occur to you.
There was no explosion. No warning. No shots fired. There were no news reports of an impending threat. As far as you know, there’s been no alien invasion.
You’ve just been hit with an electromagnetic pulse.
What is an Electro-Magnetic Pulse?
An electromagnetic pulse is a short burst of electromagnetic energy. Depending upon its strength it is capable of disabling electronics for extended periods of time. Possibly indefinitely.
There are two ways an EMP can occur: nature-made and manmade.
Nature-made
A nature-made EMP occurs with solar flares. According to an article by Jason Samenow of The Washington Post (July 23, 2014) (link below), Earth narrowly missed a catastrophic EMP event two years prior (July 23, 2012). His story is backed up by a story of the event by NASA itself: Near Miss: the Solar Superstorm of July 2012 (link below).
Basically, if the sun throws one of those EMP storms at us our goose is cooked, in a manner of speaking. But it won’t be cooked in a conventional oven. We’ll be back to using hot rocks or an open fire to cook our meals.
Manmade
Man is capable of creating an EMP. All it takes is setting off a nuclear weapon 25 miles above the earth’s surface. The good news is that there would be no nuclear fallout from this weapon. The bad news is you can’t call anyone to tell them about it.
Because this has the same effect: it would knock out all electronics in the area below which it detonated for an indefinite period of time. The area affected and the length of time of disruption depends upon the strength of the bomb.
EMP Devices
In addition to a nuclear bomb, EMP cannons and devices are currently in development. In 2010, Eureka Aerospace was developing an EMP cannon for use in police cars to stop high-speed chases. I have been unable to find any recent updates regarding this. The last post on the Eureka Aerospace website was October 20, 2011.
Though fiction, an episode of the TNT series Leverage, The Big Bang Job, had someone develop an actual EMP bomb, no nuclear explosion required.
When you think about it, it took over forty years for the cell phone to become the icon that it is. At its inception it was a huge contraption that took hours to recharge and could only be used for minutes at a time. No one could afford it. Today, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t have a cell phone.
It may take another ten or twenty years to develop an EMP bomb. Or someone, somewhere could be working on one right this minute. Because terrorists have the information and technology at their fingertips: right on the Internet.
Will It Happen?
Whether the attack is manmade or nature-made isn’t so relevant. The real threat is that, either way, it is a distinct possibility.
According to NASA, the likelihood of a solar-made EMP occurring within the next ten years is 12%.
That may not seem like much. But consider this: Since 1972 there have been six recorded EMP events as a result of solar activity. These are recorded events. There is no realistic way of knowing the true number of times electronic disruption has occurred due to solar flares.
Experts on weather events as well as at NASA believe a solar-flare EMP event may occur within the next ten years.
What’s Being Done?
In the meantime, government officials drag their heels on protecting citizens against such an event or attack. Why? Because of the cost.
The cost for “hard-wiring” against an EMP event or attack is estimated from the billions to the two trillion mark.
What would the cost of the clean-up and rebuilding be afterwards? No one, as far as I can tell, has really considered that.
If the event was catastrophic and truly rendered all electronics in the United States useless indefinitely, how long would it take and how much would it cost to recover? Millions of cars littering the highways. Millions of unidentified corpses in homes and along the road. Acres of land damaged by out-of-control fires. How many lives would be lost? How long would it take and how much would it cost to reinstate the electronic infrastructure? Not to mention commerce and finances?
Long-Term Effects
As far as I can gather, an EMP itself is not capable of killing a person outright. But planes would fall from the sky. It would stop the electronics keeping people on life support systems. It would kill people with certain types of pacemakers, although it is undetermined which pacemakers would be affected. Cars built after 1980 with all the electronics and computer chips would be disabled.
More people would die from the long-term aftereffects.
It would disable delivery of food supplies and medicines. Law enforcement would be unable to enact the law due to lack of communications and transportation. Martial law would prevail and it would be a lawless land. Vigilantes and gangs would have free reign.
Emergency personnel could do nothing. Fires burn unchecked, many begun from candles or lanterns in homes.
Would people resort to cannibalism? Some believe they would. There are not many hunter-gatherers in this electronic age. Even so, wildlife would suffer for the purpose of human survival. Once all the wildlife is gone, would people be next?
Neighbor would be pitted against neighbor, friend against friend, in the interest of survival.
Scary? It is. And very real.
With the current state of the world, the unpredictability of nature and man, the question of an EMP event occurring in our lifetime is not if, but when.
Further Reading:
How a solar storm two years ago nearly caused a catastrophe on Earth
http://wapo.st/1peCewu
Near Miss: The Solar Superstorm of July 2012
http://1.usa.gov/1rs4VYG
Severe Space Weather -- Social and Economic Impacts
http://1.usa.gov/1pHvNSN
Non-Nuclear EMP: Automating the Military May Prove a Real Threat
http://bit.ly/1B2P3QT
An Introduction to Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse
http://bit.ly/1vpp2e5
The Sun's Wrath: Worst Solar Storms in History
http://bit.ly/1u9Juhm
One EMP burst and the world goes dark
http://usat.ly/1oU4KVM
Pen has self-published 20 titles in print and ebook formats. Her latest endeavor, Nero’s Fiddle – a fictitious account of an EMP attack, can be found here: http://bit.ly/1rsEQFX Follow her on Twitter @penspen, visit her website at www.penspen.info or follow her blog www.mytuppence.weebly.com Contact her at mytuppenceblog at yahoo.com to inquire about proofreading, editing and formatting services.
It makes for great drama, not to mention box office sales. But it isn’t the only way that civilization as we know it could come to an abrupt halt.
In a single moment devastation could be complete. Life as we know it could plummet into the dark ages.
Scenarios
You’re in your car on a busy interstate. With no warning whatsoever, cars come to a stop, except maybe that older Ford truck you passed a few miles back. While your car comes to a stop (hopefully without incident) that Ford passes you by. Several cars are involved in accidents due to the sudden stop. You attempt to turn on the radio but there is nothing but silence. You reach for your cell phone. It’s deader than a door nail.
You’re in your home, watching your favorite television show. All the lights go out. You don’t panic; it’s probably just a blown transformer as usual. Your cell phone doesn’t work either. You turn on a flashlight or light some candles, grab a book to read and wait for the electricity to come back on. Except, it never comes back on.
The possibility the world as you know it has just been attacked doesn’t even occur to you.
There was no explosion. No warning. No shots fired. There were no news reports of an impending threat. As far as you know, there’s been no alien invasion.
You’ve just been hit with an electromagnetic pulse.
What is an Electro-Magnetic Pulse?
An electromagnetic pulse is a short burst of electromagnetic energy. Depending upon its strength it is capable of disabling electronics for extended periods of time. Possibly indefinitely.
There are two ways an EMP can occur: nature-made and manmade.
Nature-made
A nature-made EMP occurs with solar flares. According to an article by Jason Samenow of The Washington Post (July 23, 2014) (link below), Earth narrowly missed a catastrophic EMP event two years prior (July 23, 2012). His story is backed up by a story of the event by NASA itself: Near Miss: the Solar Superstorm of July 2012 (link below).
Basically, if the sun throws one of those EMP storms at us our goose is cooked, in a manner of speaking. But it won’t be cooked in a conventional oven. We’ll be back to using hot rocks or an open fire to cook our meals.
Manmade
Man is capable of creating an EMP. All it takes is setting off a nuclear weapon 25 miles above the earth’s surface. The good news is that there would be no nuclear fallout from this weapon. The bad news is you can’t call anyone to tell them about it.
Because this has the same effect: it would knock out all electronics in the area below which it detonated for an indefinite period of time. The area affected and the length of time of disruption depends upon the strength of the bomb.
EMP Devices
In addition to a nuclear bomb, EMP cannons and devices are currently in development. In 2010, Eureka Aerospace was developing an EMP cannon for use in police cars to stop high-speed chases. I have been unable to find any recent updates regarding this. The last post on the Eureka Aerospace website was October 20, 2011.
Though fiction, an episode of the TNT series Leverage, The Big Bang Job, had someone develop an actual EMP bomb, no nuclear explosion required.
When you think about it, it took over forty years for the cell phone to become the icon that it is. At its inception it was a huge contraption that took hours to recharge and could only be used for minutes at a time. No one could afford it. Today, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t have a cell phone.
It may take another ten or twenty years to develop an EMP bomb. Or someone, somewhere could be working on one right this minute. Because terrorists have the information and technology at their fingertips: right on the Internet.
Will It Happen?
Whether the attack is manmade or nature-made isn’t so relevant. The real threat is that, either way, it is a distinct possibility.
According to NASA, the likelihood of a solar-made EMP occurring within the next ten years is 12%.
That may not seem like much. But consider this: Since 1972 there have been six recorded EMP events as a result of solar activity. These are recorded events. There is no realistic way of knowing the true number of times electronic disruption has occurred due to solar flares.
Experts on weather events as well as at NASA believe a solar-flare EMP event may occur within the next ten years.
What’s Being Done?
In the meantime, government officials drag their heels on protecting citizens against such an event or attack. Why? Because of the cost.
The cost for “hard-wiring” against an EMP event or attack is estimated from the billions to the two trillion mark.
What would the cost of the clean-up and rebuilding be afterwards? No one, as far as I can tell, has really considered that.
If the event was catastrophic and truly rendered all electronics in the United States useless indefinitely, how long would it take and how much would it cost to recover? Millions of cars littering the highways. Millions of unidentified corpses in homes and along the road. Acres of land damaged by out-of-control fires. How many lives would be lost? How long would it take and how much would it cost to reinstate the electronic infrastructure? Not to mention commerce and finances?
Long-Term Effects
As far as I can gather, an EMP itself is not capable of killing a person outright. But planes would fall from the sky. It would stop the electronics keeping people on life support systems. It would kill people with certain types of pacemakers, although it is undetermined which pacemakers would be affected. Cars built after 1980 with all the electronics and computer chips would be disabled.
More people would die from the long-term aftereffects.
It would disable delivery of food supplies and medicines. Law enforcement would be unable to enact the law due to lack of communications and transportation. Martial law would prevail and it would be a lawless land. Vigilantes and gangs would have free reign.
Emergency personnel could do nothing. Fires burn unchecked, many begun from candles or lanterns in homes.
Would people resort to cannibalism? Some believe they would. There are not many hunter-gatherers in this electronic age. Even so, wildlife would suffer for the purpose of human survival. Once all the wildlife is gone, would people be next?
Neighbor would be pitted against neighbor, friend against friend, in the interest of survival.
Scary? It is. And very real.
With the current state of the world, the unpredictability of nature and man, the question of an EMP event occurring in our lifetime is not if, but when.
Further Reading:
How a solar storm two years ago nearly caused a catastrophe on Earth
http://wapo.st/1peCewu
Near Miss: The Solar Superstorm of July 2012
http://1.usa.gov/1rs4VYG
Severe Space Weather -- Social and Economic Impacts
http://1.usa.gov/1pHvNSN
Non-Nuclear EMP: Automating the Military May Prove a Real Threat
http://bit.ly/1B2P3QT
An Introduction to Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse
http://bit.ly/1vpp2e5
The Sun's Wrath: Worst Solar Storms in History
http://bit.ly/1u9Juhm
One EMP burst and the world goes dark
http://usat.ly/1oU4KVM
Pen has self-published 20 titles in print and ebook formats. Her latest endeavor, Nero’s Fiddle – a fictitious account of an EMP attack, can be found here: http://bit.ly/1rsEQFX Follow her on Twitter @penspen, visit her website at www.penspen.info or follow her blog www.mytuppence.weebly.com Contact her at mytuppenceblog at yahoo.com to inquire about proofreading, editing and formatting services.