Celebrate electromagnetic pulse attack recognition day!

Posted By Joshua Keating Thursday, March 25, 2010 - 5:02 PM Share

Via Danger Room, I see that the Heritage Foundation is proposing the establishment of an "Electromagnetic Pulse Attack Recognition Day." Here's how they would like Congress to observe the occaision: 

  1. Close all cafeterias. After an EMP attack, transportation networks would grind to a halt and no food would be delivered.
  2. Walk to work. Traffic lights would no longer function, so all roads would be gridlocked. The computer systems operating mass transit would be inoperative.
  3. Turn off Members’ Blackberries. Satellites in low-earth and many of the communication support systems would be disabled. Devices such as Blackberries and GPS would not work.
  4. Shut off the lights. Critical computers that direct the national electrical grid would be inoperative.
If Congress took these four steps for one day, all Members would understand the magnitude of the dangers posed by an EMP attack.

 

I don't know how well it would work to raise EMP awareness, but I suspect that quite a few citizens wouldn't mind the of keeping Congress cut off from communications and in the dark for a day.

Sharon Weinberger wrote about EMP's and the people who are terrified of them for FP in February.  

 

EXPLORE:MILITARY
 

DLIPPMAN

11:13 PM ET

March 25, 2010

EMP

Incidentally, on the Fox TV show 24, CTU New York was just hit by an EMP which knocked out most of their tech stuff. It's a great show!

 

ESQ

5:31 PM ET

April 1, 2010

Check out - Re: EMP

Check this out on FP website re: EMP: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/03/17/the_truth_about_emps?showcomments=yes

I don't know if an EMP recognition day would help congress fully understand the threat, but I'm glad to see that the issue is at least gaining more awareness. It is a serious problem that the general public is just starting to understand. In addition to 24, I've been seeing more and more info about EMP (man-made and solar) - and other "grid down" senerios (like from cyber attacks, nation wide flu pandemics, ice storms, solar storms etc.) on TV, in movies and even in video games. Most recently, I came across a YouTube video showing a scene from Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2 - Space EMP Nuke 'Second Sun'. It's just a game, and its somewhat flawed, but it illustrates the point when the country goes dark and aircraft start falling from the sky (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pGbdCrsbXA).

BTW - There's an upcoming National Geographic Explorer Special on EMP coming soon that looks really interesting (see http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/explorer/4821/Overview).

 

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