Summary: A new day, a new fear barrage on America. Today we’re told to wet our pants in fear of North Korea or terrorists detonating a nuke to create an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) to burn out our weapons (as opposed to using it to destroy a city). The threat-mongerers exaggerate the danger, but more interesting is how experts debunking the threat are filtered out of the new media. It’s worth looking at this process. Perhaps understanding it can help us resist the propaganda and more successfully see the world. {2nd of 2 posts today.}
The time left to prepare against EMP attacks is running out — as it has been since 1982.
America has experienced a fear barrage that might be without precedent in history. Every week the face of another existential threat looms out of the news. We’re urged to wet our pants and fund — but not question — the Deep State, the only force that can save us.
Today’s fear barrage is an oldie from the early 1980s: “The Threat to Melt the Electric Grid“, Henry F. Cooper & Peter Vincent Pry, op-ed in the WSJ, 30 April 2015 — “An electromagnetic-pulse attack from North Korea or another U.S. enemy would cause staggering devastation.” Cooper is the former director of the Strategic Defense Initiative (another boondoggle). Pry is executive director of the EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security (a privately funded group; we can guess at by whom). Their websites are here and here.
The threat of EMP’s has been debunked many times. But only in the back pages. Experts know that speaking against the fear narratives gets one blackballed from the defense gravy train and blacklisted by journalists. Only the threat mongers, the warmongers, get attention.
The Wall Street Journal shows how the propaganda narrative works. There is a large body of analysis showing that the EMP threat is grossly exaggerated, especially versus the serious ones we face. For details see these posts about EMPs: Electromagnetic Pulse Weapons, generating waves of fear in America for 20 years and Renowned Physicists Cast Doubt on Gingrich’s Far-Fetched Scenario about EMP weapons. None of this appears in the WSJ, who give only the warnings. Some examples…
- “The EMP Threat“, editorial, 9 August 2008.
- “What a Single Nuclear Warhead Could Do“, Brian T. Kennedy, op-ed, 24 November 2008 — “Why the U.S. needs a space-based missile defense against an EMP attack.” Kennedy is president of the right-wing Claremont Institute.
- “How North Korea Could Cripple the U.S.“, R. James Woolsey & Peter Vincent Pry, op-ed, 21 May 2013 — “A single nuke exploded above America could cause a national blackout for months.” This op-ed accompanied Woolsey’s congressional testimony and new blitz. The WSJ ran a story about this the same day: “Former CIA Director Warns About Cyber Threats From North Korea“.
- “The Growing Threat From an EMP Attack“, R. James Woolsey & Peter Vincent Pry, op-ed, August 2014 — “A nuclear device detonated above the U.S. could kill millions, and we’ve done almost nothing to prepare.”
A serious e-threat
Since natural threats don’t have anything like the military-industrial complex to shill for them, we remain vulnerable to events certain to occur eventually. Such as solar storms. A repeat of the solar storm of 1859 (aka the Carrington event) might prove catastrophic — see NASA’s description –, and that’s not the worst that might happen. In 2008 the National Academy of Sciences took at first look at the danger: “Severe Space Weather Events: Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts“. The summary is here; here’s the bottom line…
The adverse effects of extreme space weather on modern technology — power grid outages, high-frequency communication blackouts, spacecraft anomalies — are well known and well documented, and the physical processes underlying space weather are also generally well understood. Less well documented and understood, however, are the potential economic and societal impacts of the disruption of critical technological systems by severe space weather.
As a first step toward determining the socioeconomic impacts of extreme space weather events and addressing the questions of space weather risk assessment and management, a public workshop was held in May 2008. The workshop brought together representatives of industry, the government, and academia to consider both direct and collateral effects of severe space weather events, the current state of the space weather services infrastructure in the United States, the needs of users of space weather data and services, and the ramifications of future technological developments for contemporary society’s vulnerability to space weather.
NASA wrote an excellent one-page summary: “Did you know a solar flare can make your toilet stop working?”Also see this 2011 report by The MITRE Group, funded by US Homeland Security: “Impacts of Severe Space Weather on the Electric Grid“.
We could better prepare for serious dangers if we spent less time on exaggerated ones.
For More Information
If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Also see these posts about EMPs: Electromagnetic Pulse Weapons, generating waves of fear in America for 20 years and Renowned Physicists Cast Doubt on Gingrich’s Far-Fetched Scenario about EMP weapons.