There was a major cyber attack on the U.S. in 2007. China was suspected of breeching national Internet security channels. The perpetrators were in the war department command room watching the action of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world! The capability existed of creating financial havoc, disrupting the electric grid, and destroying large generators and power plant safeguards. The breech occurred during a Pluto year for the United States. Pluto is the planet of nuclear power, computers, and espionage. Although nothing was destroyed during the breech, a vast amount of technical information was stolen.
Another cyber attack is likely in 2016.

In September 2010 a mysterious computer worm struck Iran in what has become known as the world’s “first cyber super weapon.” It wreaked havoc on computerized industrial equipment in Iran. This super cyber attack represents a new form of warfare, a danger NATO identifies as a key threat. The virus targets control systems made by German industrial giant Siemens commonly used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other industrial facilities. The source of the worm strike on Iran remains unknown, although suspicion has fallen on Israel and the United States. The U.S. urged the alliance to build a cyber fortress around its vital military and economic infrastructures. Drills were conducted to strengthen cyber defenses in the U.S. Aware of the growing danger, the European Union’s executive arm proposed new regulations to boost the 27-nation computer defenses. Cyber attacks are not new. NATO was lightly hassled by Serbian hackers during the Kosovo war in 1999. Several EU states were the target of a botnet, a network of computers infected by malicious software, in early 2009 that affected the computers of armed forces in France, Germany, and Britain. A cyber attack against Estonia in 2007 cost the Baltic states between 19 and 28 million euros.
In a major cyber attack as is now made possible with the emergence of Stuxnet, the cyber super weapon that infected Iran, populations would suddenly be left without electricity, hot water, heating, and television – or major centers of political, economic, and military control could suddenly shut down. It is a New World order.

Lawrence E. Joseph in his new book, APOCALYPSE 2012, details a very real threat coming from space. A massive solar storm producing a high level electromagnetic pulse (EMP) can impair or destroy much of the power grid anywhere in the world. Solar eruptions occur regularly, mostly during peak sunspot periods; we are currently heading toward a 2013 eleven-year peak that is expected to be weaker than usual. They are apt to be at very high levels near 2028 when Neptune and Pluto are sixty-degrees apart.

Although most solar storms have not been strong enough to disrupt the electrical grid, many have in fact done considerable damage. On March 13, 1989, two solar radiation blasts knocked out the Hydro-Quebec electrical utility in 92 seconds. Electrical anomalies were noticed in the U.S. but only one large transformer at a nuclear plant in New Jersey melted. Another close call came October 31, 2003 when a storm impacted at the poles. This solar impact did cause a brief blackout in Malmo, Sweden, and also fried fourteen 400 KV transformers in southern South Africa. South Africa had enormous problems supplying electricity for many of its customers for months.

The 1989 and 2003 events were one-tenth the size of the mammoth electromagnetic storms that hit the earth in 1859 and 1921. There was no electrical grid in the 1800s and in 1921 the system was small and localized. If, rather when, a storm of the magnitude of 1859 or 1921 strikes again, grids around the world will be severely effected.

The problem is large transformers. Electromagnetic storms can melt them. There are about 350 highest voltage transformers in the United States. These transformers connect nearly one third of the entire U.S. power grid infrastructure. These huge transformers receive power from high voltage transmission lines running from substations directly connected to the main power plant. The transmission lines are the ones held up by those big Y-shaped metal trellis structures capable of carrying current as far as 300 miles. Their transformers can’t be fixed in the field and the current worldwide waiting list for a new one is about three years.

Imagine having no power for months or a year, or more. Our modern life would come to a standstill. It would be mayhem.

Fortunately, there is a simple and economical fix. All that needs to be done is affix a large surge suppressor about the size of a washing machine to each of the largest transformers in North America. The cost would be $250 million or so. Sounds like a nice infrastructure fix and a boost for the economy in job creation. But the Obama administration isn’t pushing the idea and the electric utilities are in an outmoded mindset. The electric utility industry spends a pittance of money on research and development. They reason that no space weather blackout of any lasting proportion has ever happened before so why bother?

Another resistance is the complexity of a surge protection system. There would be more maintenance and expense over the long haul. The surge protector system should be capable of preventing up to 75% of intense space weather events. Since huge space-based storms are rare, this protection seems justifiable. Without any protection, like exists today, invites the unsavory possibility of societal collapse in the event of a massive solar electromagnetic storm.

John Kappenman, the man who figured this out, pushed the surge protector program into Congress in 2008. But the initiative failed and funding was cancelled. In the spring of 2010, a new initiative based on national security is before Congress. The House of Representatives bill, HR-5026, known as The Grid Act, was unanimously approved on June 9, 2010. The corresponding Senate bill, S-1462, known as American Clean Energy Leadership Act, is a complex, highly controversial package of energy-related initiatives pushed by the Obama administration. Most importantly, the Senate version makes no mention of protecting the grid from EMP, only from cyber-attacks.

Weather extremes – records being broken year after year – continue to be the norm! It is estimated that of the 20 costliest catastrophes in the world over the past four decades, half have occurred in the past decade alone – and 13 of the world’s total have been in the U.S. Estimates say that 91% of Americans now live in places with moderate-to-high risk of a natural disaster or terrorist attack. What is needed is an efficient response system modeled on the military to meet large-scale disasters like Katrina and the Gulf oilrig spill.

Frogs, bats, and sea plankton, along with certain plants, animals, birds and insects face mass extinctions. 22% of the world’s plant species, for instance, face extinction based on comprehensive 2010 studies. Mass extinctions of species cause entire ecosystems to go out of balance. It is like Nature pressing a giant reset button with potential dire results.