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The EMP Threat: All It Would Take Is A Couple Of Explosions To Send America Back To The 1800s
TEC ^ | 04/07/2015 | Michael Snyder

Posted on 04/07/2015 7:40:59 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Our entire way of life can be ended in a single day. And it wouldn’t even take a nuclear war to do it. All it would take for a rogue nation or terror organization to bring us to our knees is the explosion of a couple well-placed nuclear devices high up in our atmosphere. The resulting electromagnetic pulses would fry electronics from coast to coast. Of course this could also be accomplished without any attack. Scientists tell us that massive solar storms have hit our planet before, and that it is inevitable that there will be more in the future. As you will read about below, the most recent example of this was “the Carrington Event” in 1859. If a similar burst from the sun hit us today, experts tell us that life in America could suddenly resemble life in the 1800s, and the economic damage caused could potentially be in the trillions of dollars. This is one of the greatest potential threats that we are facing as a nation, and yet Barack Obama has essentially done nothing to get us prepared.

The technology necessary to conduct such an electromagnetic pulse attack against the United States has become much more accessible in recent years. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, even rogue nations such as North Korea and Iran either already have or will soon have the capability to hurt us in this way…

Rogue nations such as North Korea (and possibly Iran) will soon match Russia and China and have the primary ingredients for an EMP attack: simple ballistic missiles such as Scuds that could be launched from a freighter near our shores; space-launch vehicles able to loft low-earth-orbit satellites; and simple low-yield nuclear weapons that can generate gamma rays and fireballs.

If a successful, large scale EMP attack ever did take place, it would be a catastrophe beyond anything that the United States has ever seen before. The EMP Commission, which was established by Congress, says that it is likely that most of us would end up dead

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.

In 2009 the congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States, whose co-chairmen were former Secretaries of Defense William Perry and James Schlesinger, concurred with the findings of the EMP Commission and urged immediate action to protect the electric grid. Studies by the National Academy of Sciences, the Department of Energy, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the National Intelligence Council reached similar conclusions.

If you are a terrorist, a dictator or a fanatic that is looking for a “killshot” for the United States, those kinds of numbers would certainly get your attention.

And it was recently reported by WND that the Iranian military has already been playing around with such a scenario…

Peter Vincent Pry, who is executive director of a congressional advisory group called the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, raised the alarm as the agreement is about to be finalized.

He said U.S. military officials have confirmed such an Iranian plan.

“Iranian military documents describe such a scenario – including a recently translated Iranian military textbook that endorses nuclear EMP attack against the United States,” Pry wrote in a recent column in Israel’s main online media network, Aruz Sheva.

“Iran with a small number of nuclear missiles can by EMP attack threaten the existence of modernity and be the death knell of Western principles of international law, humanism and freedom,” he said.

Very chilling stuff.

And of course there are many, many others out there that would love to see the U.S. taken down other than just the Iranians.

Meanwhile, our power grid is far more vulnerable than most Americans would dare to imagine.

In previous articles, I discussed a recent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission report which stated the following…

“Destroy nine interconnection substations and a transformer manufacturer and the entire United States grid would be down for at least 18 months, probably longer.”

Are you starting to get the picture?

Our entire way of life depends upon electricity. If you take away that electricity, our society is transformed literally overnight.

A successful EMP would be an utter nightmare for this nation. Just consider what U.S. Representative Scott Perry had to say about a potential attack last year

The consequences of such an attack could be catastrophic; all electronics, power systems, and information systems could be shut down,” Rep. Scott Perry said in prepared remarks during an EMP hearing in May held by the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security. “This could then cascade into interdependent infrastructures such as water, gas, and telecommunications. While we understand this is an extreme case, we must always be prepared in case a rogue state decides to utilize this technology.”

In essence, suddenly nothing would work and just about everything that we take for granted would suddenly be gone.

In a previous article, I spelled out some of the implications of such an event…

-There would be no heat for your home.
-Water would no longer be pumped into most homes.
-Your computer would not work.
-There would be no Internet.
-Your phones would not work.
-There would be no television.
-There would be no radio.
-ATM machines would be shut down.
-There would be no banking.
-Your debit cards and credit cards would not work.
-Without electricity, most gas stations would not be functioning.
-Most people would be unable to do their jobs without electricity and employment would collapse.
-Commerce would be brought to a standstill.
-Hospitals would not be able to function normally.
-You would quickly start running out of medicine.
-All refrigeration would shut down and frozen foods in our homes and supermarkets would start to go bad.

And as I mentioned above, all of this can happen even without an attack.

A direct hit from a major solar storm can cause the exact same thing.

In fact, NASA says that there is a 12 percent chance that such a storm will hit us during the next ten years…

NASA is warning that there’s a 12 percent chance an extreme solar storm will hit Earth in the next decade, sending out massive shock waves that would knock out grids across the world.

The economic impact of this doomsday scenario could exceed $2 trillion — or 20 times the cost of Hurricane Katrina, according to the National Academy of Sciences.

In recent years, we have been really lucky.

There was a close call in 2012 and another one in 2013.

The following is an excerpt from an upcoming book that I have co-authored with Barbara Fix that will soon be published entitled “Get Prepared Now”…

Most people have absolutely no idea that the Earth barely missed being fried by a massive EMP burst from the sun in 2012 and in 2013. And earlier in 2014 there was another huge solar storm which would have caused tremendous damage if it had been directed at our planet. If any of those storms would have directly hit us, the result would have been catastrophic. Electrical transformers would have burst into flames, power grids would have gone down and much of our technology would have been fried. In essence, life as we know it would have ceased to exist – at least for a time. These kinds of solar storms have hit the Earth many times before, and experts tell us that it is inevitable that it will happen again. The most famous one happened in 1859, and was known as the Carrington Event. But other than the telegraph, humanity had very little dependence on technology at the time. If another Carrington Event happened today, it would be a complete and utter nightmare. A study by Lloyd’s of London has concluded that it would have taken a $2,600,000,000,000 chunk out of the global economy, and it would take up to a decade to repair the damage. Unfortunately, scientists insist that it is going to happen at some point. The only question is when.

So keep an eye on the sun.

The giant ball of fire that we revolve around has started to behave very erratically, and it has the power to end our way of life at any time.

In fact, scientists tell us that we are about to get hit with a “glancing blow” on April 7th…

A filament of magnetism stretching halfway across the sun erupted during the late hours of April 4th (22:00-23:00 UT). The eruption split the sun’s atmosphere, hurling a CME into space and creating a “canyon of fire,” shown in a movie recorded by the Solar Dynamics Observatory: The glowing walls of the canyon trace the original channel where the filament was suspended by magnetic forces above the sun’s surface. From end to end, the structure stretches more than 300,000 km–a real Grand Canyon.

Fragments of the exploding filament formed the core of a CME that raced away from the sun at approximately 900 km/s (2 million mph): image. Most of the CME will miss Earth, but not all. The cloud is expected to deliver a a glancing blow to our planet’s magnetic field could on April 7th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

The event of April 7th is not going to cause us major problems. But someday there will be a solar storm that will.

Personally, I cannot even imagine what life would be like without electricity.

Because we have become so deeply dependent on technology, most of us would have absolutely no idea how to live without it.

An electromagnetic pulse attack would be one of the fastest ways to cripple America and end the dominance of the United States in world affairs. And in this day and age, there are hundreds of millions of people around the planet that would love to see that happen.

So to not take steps to protect our power grid from such an attack is very foolish. But that is precisely what Barack Obama (and presidents before him) have chosen to do. We have technology which would mitigate the damage from an electromagnetic pulse, but rather than spend the money Obama has decided to just hope that it will never happen.

Up to this point, we have been fortunate.

But someday, our luck may run out.


TOPICS: Military/Veterans; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: emp; terrorism
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To: discostu

“Nothing shows you have no facts like going after the person. Since that’s all you’ve done for multiple posts now we both know the facts don’t back you.”

I am not going after you, I am going after you ignorance. You amplify you hard-headed ignorance by refusing to look up the reference I sent you. it is nothing personal, it’s just that you have no knowledge of the subject. If you want to learn, follow the path I pointed you towards.

If you simply want to declare yourself correct, people on the thread should hear a contrary opinion.


61 posted on 04/07/2015 9:22:18 AM PDT by RFEngineer
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To: Kartographer

I agree with that at some level. Yet there were tons of people saying up to the last minute that the sky was falling. That businesses hadn’t done enough. That we should “prep”, there won’t be food etc. It is the nature of people.


62 posted on 04/07/2015 9:23:32 AM PDT by kjam22 (my music video "If My People" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74b20RjILy4)
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To: RFEngineer

For years I have seen you get on these threads and start playing expert, and sounding like you really know this topic and are going to start delivering good information, many times I have gotten excited at your initial posts, but nothing ever comes from them.

You never actually say anything, other than that everyone is wrong, and stupid.

You never back up your attitude with facts and actual information.


63 posted on 04/07/2015 9:24:37 AM PDT by ansel12 (Palin--Mr President, the only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke.)
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To: RFEngineer

Calling people ignorant is an ad hominem attack. It’s a fallacy that shows an inability or unwillingness to bring facts or logic. Meanwhile my points stand, neither us nor the USSR had any serious plans to use EMP in an offensive capacity, which shows it’s just not that powerful.

Now if you’re not going to bring in facts on the next post you really shouldn’t even bother to make it. More ad hominems is just a waste of electrons.


64 posted on 04/07/2015 9:25:49 AM PDT by discostu (Bobby, I'm sorry you have a head like a potato.)
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To: Nowhere Man

“I do agree that EMP is no the 800 lbs gorilla it is made out to be but more like the 500 lbs one.”

I like how you put this.

in the absence of data of modern electronics and systems vulnerability to EMP, you have to treat critical systems like they will face the 800 lb gorilla. You also have to leave open the possibility that it’s actually a 1000lb gorilla.


65 posted on 04/07/2015 9:27:21 AM PDT by RFEngineer
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To: ansel12

Private message me if you are curious


66 posted on 04/07/2015 9:29:41 AM PDT by RFEngineer
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To: discostu

“Calling people ignorant is an ad hominem attack.”

But you are ignorant. What am I supposed to do, congratulate you for being wrong?


67 posted on 04/07/2015 9:31:09 AM PDT by RFEngineer
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To: RFEngineer

The one thing you steadfastly refuse to do:
bring facts.


68 posted on 04/07/2015 9:34:06 AM PDT by discostu (Bobby, I'm sorry you have a head like a potato.)
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To: AppyPappy

I did not know that. Is there any keywords I could use to find out more about that.


69 posted on 04/07/2015 9:36:34 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (When you are inclined to to buy storage boxes, but contractor bags instead.)
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To: discostu

“The one thing you steadfastly refuse to do:
bring facts.”

I sent you the military spec for emp shielding. You didn’t even look at it.

That is a whole 100 pages or so of facts.

Before whining further at least look at it.


70 posted on 04/07/2015 9:38:10 AM PDT by RFEngineer
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To: kjam22

Any danger can be taken to extreme, but that doesn’t mean the danger is not real. To many people use the false argument of Y2K to prove that nothing untold can happen.


71 posted on 04/07/2015 9:38:28 AM PDT by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
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To: AppyPappy

For general FYI, I looked up USSR EMP tests and came up with this article:

http://www.futurescience.com/emp/test184.html

Pretty interesting.


72 posted on 04/07/2015 9:39:35 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (When you are inclined to to buy storage boxes, but contractor bags instead.)
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To: Kartographer
Y2K didn’t happen because it couldn’t it didn’t happen because business took it serious and at the cost of millions of dollars they had programmers rewrite millions of lines of code.

Spot on, thank you for posting that!

73 posted on 04/07/2015 9:40:26 AM PDT by Las Vegas Ron ("Medicine is the keystone in the arch of socialism" Vladimir Lenin)
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To: ModelBreaker
I’m assuming we need world socialism to avoid this threat?

Yep, and high taxes on any kind of energy consumption. Plus, you must reduce your water usage by at least 25% right now. Oh, and get rid of your guns. The metal in them will amplify the destructive effects of EMP.

74 posted on 04/07/2015 9:41:09 AM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: RFEngineer

No thanks, nothing would change from what you can’t post on years worth of threads, and what you can’t post to someone in a private exchange.

You always give the impression that something informative is going to follow, or that you could inform everyone of why they are wrong about EMP if you choose, but it never happens.


75 posted on 04/07/2015 9:43:20 AM PDT by ansel12 (Palin--Mr President, the only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke.)
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To: kjam22

Look at it this way the Yellowstone Super Volcano could blow again at anytime, but just because Y2K didn’t happen does that mean Yellowstone won’t happen?


76 posted on 04/07/2015 9:47:05 AM PDT by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
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To: RFEngineer

Which had nothing to do with what I’m saying. The assertion is that EMP can do massive damage to civilian electronics. Which begs the question of why that wasn’t our plan in the event of nuclear war. We know NEAR the blast is a strong EMP so things that will be near it need to be hardened, but that does NOT indicated that “a couple of explosions” would reek havoc across the country. So at best you erected a strawman, yet another fallacy.


77 posted on 04/07/2015 9:51:34 AM PDT by discostu (Bobby, I'm sorry you have a head like a potato.)
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To: ansel12

“You always give the impression that something informative is going to follow, or that you could inform everyone of why they are wrong about EMP if you choose, but it never happens.”

My objective on these threads is to counter misinformation. I do it well. If someone wants to know more in depth, they can private message me, as can you if you really want to to know what you say you do.


78 posted on 04/07/2015 9:51:51 AM PDT by RFEngineer
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To: dfwgator

That is an excellent little video, theory of survival is mostly fantasy, and illusion when compared to the nuts and bolts reality of it.

This is part of why I love the prepper/survivalist movement, the more people who store food, then the better for our nation, the more millions of tons of long term stored food shoved back into the corner of our basements and closets, then the better for the big picture, in a worst case scenario.


79 posted on 04/07/2015 9:55:39 AM PDT by ansel12 (Palin--Mr President, the only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke.)
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To: RFEngineer
in the absence of data of modern electronics and systems vulnerability to EMP

Was the data that was collected in the past pre IC integration? Are there subsequent studies on how an EMP would affect our current electronics with IC integration?

80 posted on 04/07/2015 10:00:38 AM PDT by Las Vegas Ron ("Medicine is the keystone in the arch of socialism" Vladimir Lenin)
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