Slashdot Mirror
Expert Warns: Civilian World Not Ready For Massive EMP-Caused Blackout
schwit1 (797399) writes "An electromagnetic pulse is a burst of electromagnetic energy strong enough to disable, and even destroy, nearby electronic devices. In the first few minutes of an EMP, nearly half a million people would die. That's the worst-case scenario that author William R. Forstchen estimated would be the result of an EMP on the electric grid. 'If you do a smart plan — the Congressional EMP Commission estimated that you could protect the whole country for about $2 billion,' Peter Vincent Pry, executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and director of the U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum, told Watchdog.org. 'That's what we give away in foreign aid to Pakistan every year.' He said the more officials plan, the lower the estimated cost gets. 'The problem is not the technology,' Pry said. 'We know how to protect against it. It's not the money, it doesn't cost that much. The problem is the politics. It always seems to be the politics that gets in the way.'"
And you get great synergistic effects, too.
Since you're constantly cycling through canned food for a significant portion of your diet, you're getting a lot more sodium and sugar and a lot less vitamins, phytochemicals and other good stuff; that shortens your lifespan, reducing the amount of time you'll have to suffer in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. And "maintaining preparedness" by eating out of cans all the time instead of enjoying fresh food reduces your quality of life, so you'll be happy that your life is being shortened!