As Director of the U.S. Task Force on National and Homeland Security, Dr. Peter Pry warns an electromagnetic pulse could fry the grid. In the following year, 90% of the population dies. What we can do. Then Elisabeth Rataj on mental health impacts of extreme weather in the developing world.
Interviews and music by Alex Smith of Radio Ecoshock
In the Affiliates version, there is a break and re-intro at 30.03 for stations needing to insert station ID and announcements.
This Radio Ecoshock show contains disturbing possibilities. It may not be suitable for small children or anyone already prone to fear or depression.
Incredibly, a pulse of high energy radio waves can knock out everything electrical over a continent, or over the whole world, in nano-seconds, with no warning.
It comes from an EMP - an electromagnetic pulse. The cause could be a small nuclear weapon detonated 300 kilometers up in space by a hostile power or terrorist group.
We wouldn't see it, hear it, or feel any health effects. The lights go out, communications stop, commerce stops, travel stops (airplanes would likely drop out of the sky, causing up to half a million deaths).
Because most utilities have not protected their giant transformers, and there are no replacements, the grid would stay down for at least a year, or a decade, or forever. There are ways to protect the system, but a captured Washington regulation system has not pushed for these simple steps.
A hostile power aside, our expert guest tells us an EMP hit is "inevitable" within the time of those living now, because the Sun can also crash our electrical systems world-wide.
A large solar storm, big enough to do it, was seen in 1859. It's called the Carrington Event. If part of the Sun blows our way, all satellites are knocked out. The wires of our electric system act like antennae, receiving the deadly pulse.
It's chilling.
Then we discover the rare: what are the mental health effects for all the people in the developing world who have been ravaged by typhoons, fires and other violent events related to climate change?
It turns out kids are hit hardest, but people of all ages suffer from PTSD - as did Americans after Hurricane Katrina. Eventually, will humans become too weakened mentally by repeated extreme events, too weak to respond anymore?
We explore what little we know with Elisabeth Rataj, the German-trained public health expert currently on assignment in Muslim Mindinao, the Philippines.
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