Category: Emerging Threats

While many of us were opening gifts on Christmas morning, SurvivalBlog reader “Hamlet” said that he was was casually watching Tim Russert and his guests on Meet the Press. He reports: “My jaw dropped as Tom Brokaw…told of… family bug-out plans and stored food/water preparations.” The following is brief excerpt from a transcript of the show. (The link to access the full transcript follows.) — MR. RUSSERT: Let me talk about an issue that is of grave concern to people but we don’t know much about it and that’s the Avian Flu, the potential for pandemic. We had Dr. Michael …

I’m curious to know what you think are the three most likely threats that we face?  Pick and choose from the list below–or perhaps you recognize a threat that isn’t on the list. Please e-mail me your top three, in order of likelihood. I plan to summarize the results of the survey in about a week. Special thanks to SurvivalBlog reader that prefers to be anonymous who provided the list below. NATURAL THREATS Natural Disasters on Earth Short Term and Regional -Severe Storms -Tsunami/Tidal Waves -Hurricane/Typhoons/Cyclones -Tornado -Floods -Fires – Forest/Brush -Landslides -Sinkholes -Drought (Dust Bowl) -Earthquake -Volcano -Animal caused …

SurvivalBlog reader Joe. K. mentioned in a recent e-mail that one of my heroes, Dr. Jack Wheeler, posted a dismissive article about the EMP threat, back in June. (It was posted at Wheeler’s excellent “To The Point News” subscription website: http://www.tothepointnews.com/  )  Wheeler is a fascinating fellow. Back in the 1960s, he swam the Hellespont, climbed the Matterhorn, and went tiger hunting as a civilian in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. All of this before he was 25 years old. He also spent a lot of time living with head hunters in the Amazon jungle. But I digress…  Wheeler’s article, …

Jim: See: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ A sub part of this site was mentioned in the article that you posted Friday, but I’d recommend posting this main page of the site. People forget we had an asteroid pass very close to us last year, just 2/3 the distance to the moon. (Called a lunar distance or “LD”). Let’s look at two more things. 1.) NASA just recently proved they can hit an asteroid with a satellite. Doesn’t that strike you as at least a little odd they would spend the money to do that just for researching the impact? 2.) Now, did you …

Mr. Rawles, I have been enjoying reading your excellent blog. Some thoughts for you on the post from Rourke and the troubles presented by EMP. The only circuit breaker that could possibly open before an EMP surge could do damage are some large (400+ pounds) industrial types and they start at about $40,000. Be quite the installation. Any breaker you can get for less than that just ain’t nearly fast enough. You want to be a bit careful about installing a grounding system in your house that isn’t connected to the house’s grounding system, if it has one. The National …

Electromagnetic pulse (EMP), is now a commonly know effect thanks to movies showcasing the nuclear version such as Goldeneye (James Bond) and the remake of Ocean’s 11 which shows a non-nuclear version. The real question for survivalists is: what is EMP actually going to do to my valued equipment and what can I realistically do about it? Let’s start with lightening since it is very well understood. We know that lightening will tend to seek out the highest conductive point that is grounded and then seek to flow through a conductor, often back and forth a few times, until the …

The statistical chance of a large asteroid striking the Earth in any given year is very small–in fact almost statistically insignificant–since such events occur on average only once in more than 10,000 years. However, the consequences if such an event were to occur would be tremendous–perhaps even an “extinction level event.”  Recent advances in astronomy have led to the realization that a large number of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) that have true “Earth-crossing” orbits was far greater than was originally estimated.  See: http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/mpc.html The Tunguska, Siberia event in 1908 and the Curucá incident in Brazil in 1930 (in both of which …

The World Tribune recently published some interesting excerpts from the new book, “War Footing: 10 Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World“, by Frank J. Gaffney and Colleagues, reprinted with permission from the publisher, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland. OBTW, I had the privilege of meeting Frank Gaffney, back when I was on the editorial staff of Defense Electronics magazine. I was favorably impressed with both his acumen and his common sense. For the full text of the review, see:  http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/05/front2453711.9284722223.html