The other day, my trusty dusty Honda SUV suddenly wouldn’t start. Actually, it wasn’t so sudden, because it had been making a grinding noise for several weeks. Then, it simply locked up. I was stuck, with having to park on a slope and push it for several days, until time allowed to install a new starter. Fortunately, this old farm boy knows a little mechanics, and only a little, but I managed to save approximately $400 by doing it myself. (The Honda engine is so tightly wedged that I had to remove other parts to get down to the starter. A royal pain!)
While doing this solidary job, I began thinking of how fragile are some of the ‘appliances’ upon which we depend daily. Like the automobile. And the impact that would happen when 99.9% would not start — or even worse, stop in the middle of the road — if we were hit by a massive solar flare or an Electro-magnetic Pulse (EMP). I have blogged about an EMP before. It would be one of the great, silent, and sudden disrupters of Western society. And most damaging. Basically it’s akin to a colossal bolt of lightning hitting during a storm — and destroying any and all electrical and electronic circuitry in its path. In this case, it could be a very large path.
This includes automobiles made after, say, 1990, and some earlier models. Virtually all of today’s cars and trucks are computer controlled, and among other components, have electronic ignition. The supposedly greater fuel efficiency and convenience of newer models also carries with it a huge risk. An EMP would render them all useless, whether parked or running. The electronics, including all the computer circuitry, would be fried by the EMP.
Not only cars would be impacted, but perhaps more seriously, all electricity and electronics that allow for ‘western life’ as we know it in the 21st century. Depending on the massiveness and height of the EMP, it could wipe out all functions in entire regions of North America. Imagine one hitting the northeastern US, say above Philadelphia. It could erase all electrical components from New York City to Washington DC — and all points between. A higher launch powerful explosion could reach Boston and Toronto.
We could count on our fingers the number of services that do not rely on a dependable source of electricity, and by extension, electronics. Out go all lights, cellphones, ATMs, water pumps, food storage, elevators, air conditioning….I could go on and on. And the same for all cooking and heating — exempting a few that use propane or fuel oil, which would quickly be exhausted. Even if we had a pre-90s car, pumps at the fuel station wouldn’t operate, resulting in empty gas tanks. Again, electric pumps!
To me, the scariest element to an EMP is that it’s doable today by several ‘rogue’ nations, such as North Korea. The US is now involved in negotiations with this obscure country toward their allegedly looming nuclear capability. I believe the real threat is at EMP. It’s an important subject, so I will continue this topic in next month’s blog. Stay tuned and thanks for reading.
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