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In what could potentially be one of the most, or least, significant actions of his term in office, President Trump Tuesday signed an Executive Order requiring federal agencies to strengthen critical infrastructure against ElectroMagnetic Pulse (EMP) attacks.
EMPs occur for a variety of natural and man-made reasons including, most notably, Nuclear Explosions and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), either of which could potentially take out entire sections of the country's electrical grid and other infrastructure and capabilities, requiring require years or decades to recover from.
Members and supporters of the decommissioned US Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse have long warned of the possibility of an EMP attack, with some individuals, such as Peter Pry, who previously led the congressional EMP commission, asserting that an EMP attack on America could kill off 90% of the US population.
This is because a man-made EMP has the advantage of being highly asymmetrical. A small country able to pull one off would cause potentially massive disruption to a large tech dependent country such as the United States.
Past EMP related coverage here, here and here
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @02:50PM (8 children)
83% of people in the USA live in cities, if the food delivery infrastructure isn't fixed in a month you're fucked, and the looting when people's kids start to die will kill many.
(Score: 5, Informative) by deimtee on Friday March 29 2019, @03:32PM (7 children)
Your "fixed in a month" is way too optimistic. The average city is about 3 days away from food riots, and probably only a couple of weeks from cannibalism.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday March 29 2019, @03:42PM (1 child)
I guess, that makes a bit more sense in an absolute worst case scenario sort of way. One would hope, that the entire USA wouldn't be effected, but that would be a pretty large assumption. As someone who could put one EMP over US soil could likely be able to deliver enough to get the job done. Which would make EMPs a much more effective weapon against technologically dependent nations than your typical Nuclear Weapon. The death of 90% of the USA population would be dependent on multiple factors, though. Not the least of which would be, the willingness/unwillingness of the rest of the world to help out and the state of the USA military after the EMP. A country faced with starvation of most of it's population may be willing to do "insane" things that they wouldn't have otherwise.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Friday March 29 2019, @04:38PM
Profit.--
Two men walk into a bar.
1st man: I'll have H2O
2nd man: I'll have H2O too
...
The 2nd man dies
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @07:11PM (1 child)
The average city is about 3 days away from food riots, and probably only a couple of weeks from cannibalism.
So you understand why we in the UK are more worried about Brexit than EMP?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 30 2019, @01:54AM
Yeah, well, a high fat diet won't kill you immediately, will it?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 30 2019, @04:03AM (2 children)
The average food is less than three days away even in a EMPed US. It all depends on the quality of the response to the attack. Look at emergency response to some hurricanes. If it is incompetent and inadequate such as the recent one in Puerto Rico or Katrina, it's going to be a mess. If it's relatively competent and decisive, like New York City during Sandy, then it won't be that harsh and in a few months will be mostly just a bad memory.
The thing is the US is pretty resilient and a considerable portion of its transportation system would be immune to all but ridiculous levels of EMP. Any thing that's going to melt wire in a car probably will be burning any buildings with metal in them as well and maybe frying exposed blobs of water, like humans.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Saturday March 30 2019, @04:35AM (1 child)
Most disasters are alleviated because they are localized and the people involved know that both help and lawful control are coming in from outside. The people mostly work together to do what they can.
A widespread EMP attack that takes out power and communications will remove the rule of law. Expect immediate massive looting, with shopkeepers/hoarders shooting back. Food may be three days away, but it's not coming if the driver expects to get hijacked and shot.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 30 2019, @11:27AM
That would still be the case here. Even if it isn't localized spatially, it is in time.
Unless, of course, it doesn't do that. Rule of law is more than just electricity and temporarily disabled communications.
Here's one place that a competent, organized response fixes things fast. Things like curfews and shooting looters. Then the driver doesn't expect to get hijacked and shot.