Geostorm The Collapse: A Post Apocalyptic EMP Survival Thriller (The Geostorm Series Book 3) Read online

  In addition, a study published in Current Biology magazine confirmed that many animal species have some form of magnetoreception, enabling them to sense the Earth’s magnetic field. They use this to assist in long-distance navigation during migration. The study also showed that the weakening of the magnetic field, or shifts in the poles, also impacted animal and human brain waves.

  These magnetic pole shifts also affect our planet’s weather patterns. NASA has discovered a weakening in the Earth’s magnetic field that seems to be altering both wind and atmospheric pressure norms. One study claims the reversal has given rise to the recent superstorms around the world and the disastrous floods in Australia, Pakistan and the Philippines. NOAA records also indicate wide temperature extremes are the most pronounced in hundreds of years.

  Based upon the research, the most likely harm to humans when the poles reverse again would be the ways in which a geostorm impacts the Earth’s electromagnetic field. An ordinary, relatively benign solar event could cause exponential damage because of the weakened magnetic field.

  Aviation would probably need to be halted in order to take into account the pole shift, our satellites would need to be redesigned and repositioned, and the planet’s power grids could collapse under the weight of the solar particles that are ordinarily deflected, but allowed to pass through the weakened magnetic field.

  That being said, while scientists are unwilling to predict exactly when the next full reversal will occur, most don’t think it could lead to a mass extinction event unless humans have evolved to the point where they, literally, can’t live without their electronic devices.

  And we’re not there yet … right?

  Right?

  Thank you for reading the Geostorm series.

  Real-World News Excerpts

  Alaskan city sees heat and snowfall records in single day

  ~ Associated Press, November 17, 2019

  Alaskans have experienced both a record high temperature and a record amount of snowfall in the same day.

  The Anchorage Daily News reported Anchorage saw snowfall of more than a foot Saturday, breaking records dated back to 1958. That morning The National Weather Service says the city tied the high-temperature record by reaching 45 degrees Fahrenheit around 3 a.m. tying a temperature record set in 1967.

  There was no explanation given for the anomaly.

  Prepare for the Worst

  ~ Adm. R. James, Woolsey and Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, Contributors to Real Clear Defense, November 8, 2019

  EMP manmade or natural is analogous to the Cold War nuclear threat that, although considered highly unlikely by most experts, nonetheless demanded and deserved the highest priority and vast resources to deter and prevent a nuclear World War III, since the survival of Western Civilization was at stake.

  Yet a potentially worldwide natural EMP event from a solar superstorm is inevitable, sure to happen someday, the best estimate being a 12% chance every decade of a solar EMP catastrophe—a far more likely threat than was Cold War nuclear Armageddon.

  The biggest loss of life from natural or manmade EMP would be from starvation, disease, and societal collapse. EMP damage to the electric grid may not be repairable for months or years, or ever, if there is mass starvation and societal collapse.

  Almost irreplaceable equipment, like EHV transformers, require years to manufacture and replace and could require a decade or more to repair if destroyed in large numbers. And this is just one example of protracted damage to the national grid from EMP that could blackout electronic civilization.

  “The recovery of any one of the key national infrastructures is dependent on the recovery of others. The longer the outage, the more problematical and uncertain the recovery will be,” warns the EMP Commission 2004 Report, “It is possible for the functional outages to become mutually reinforcing until at some point the degradation of infrastructure could have irreversible effects on the country’s ability to support its population.

  ‘This one was different’: Weird earthquake crack in Le Teil, France has experts worried ~ National Geographic, November 15, 2019

  Geologists are struggling to explain a bizarre earthquake that tore the ground in two, just weeks after a similar event on the other side of the world.

  A rare earthquake has torn California in a new direction. Now, a weird rift has rattled France. So what’s happening to our stressed world?

  Earthquake is not high on the minds of the residents of the French town of Le Teil. Such things don’t happen there.

  So, when houses began to shake and deep booming echoed through the town last week, the first thing they thought was the local nuclear power plant had exploded.

  The event had registered at magnitude 4.8. That’s not at all catastrophic compared to the regular tremblors on the world’s rings of fire. Usually, it takes a scale 6 to damage property and hurt people. But, in an area in no way prepared for such an event, 4.8 was a severe shock.

  And this one was different.

  It tore through the surface of the earth. That’s something generally only expected among the world’s worst quakes of 7.0 or more.

  “It’s a very, very shallow earthquake, even for global standards,” seismologist Jean-Paul Ampuero of the Université Côte d’Azur in France told National Geographic. “Was it the melting Arctic ice? Retreating glaciers in the Alps? Was it Siberia’s evaporating permafrost?”

  Clearly, there are more questions than answers.

  Scientists looked at sea levels 125,000 years in the past. The results are terrifying.

  ~ The Conversation via Nature Communications, November 6, 2019

  Sea levels rose 10 metres above present levels during Earth’s last warm period 125,000 years ago, according to new research that offers a glimpse of what may happen under our current climate change trajectory. Melting ice from Antarctica was the main driver of sea level rise in the last interglacial period.

  This research shows that Antarctica, long thought to be the “sleeping giant” of sea level rise, is actually a key player. Its ice sheets can change quickly, and in ways that could have huge implications for coastal communities and infrastructure in future.

  The early ice loss in Antarctica occurred when the Southern Ocean warmed at the start of the interglacial. This meltwater changed the way Earth’s oceans circulated, which caused warming in the northern polar region and triggered ice melt in Greenland.

  This collapse increases the discharge of land ice into the ocean. The end result is global sea-level rise. What is striking about the findings is how high and quickly sea level rose above present levels. During the last interglacial period, carbon dioxide emissions were not the driving factor, leaving scientists baffled as to what caused the global melt-off.

  Scientists: Human Extinction is Extremely Likely

  ~ Kristin Houser, Futurism, November 7, 2019

  Forget nuclear weapons, biological warfare, and the slew of other ways humanity could cause its own destruction for a moment.

  If you take into account only naturally occurring phenomena — supervolcanic eruptions, asteroid impacts, plagues, geostorms, and the like — researchers from the University of Oxford recently determined that the probability of our entire species going extinct in any given year is as high as one in 14,000.

  Epigraph

  “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”

  ~ Henry David Thoreau, American poet and philosopher

  *****

  “Men, it has been well said, think in herds. It will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”

  ~ Charles Mackay, Scottish author and journalist

  *****

  “All of our exalted technological progress, civilization for that matter, is comparable to an axe in the hand of a pathological criminal.”

  ~ Albert Einstein, German physicist

  *****

  “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is doomsday.”

  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher and poet

  *****

  “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

  ~ Charles Darwin, English Naturalist

  Prologue

  One year ago

  Inuvialuit Regional Corporation Offices

  Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada

  Tribal Elder Natan Lampe settled into an overstuffed wingback chair in the waiting area of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, or IRC, located in Canada’s Northwest Territories. The entire concept of big governance of the Inuit people disgusted him, but he acknowledged the corporate structure was necessary.

  The Inuit, commonly referred to as Eskimos for hundreds of years, although the term was now considered to be pejorative, were indigenous people who lived primarily above the Arctic Circle stretching from Denmark to Alaska. Of the one hundred fifty thousand Inuit, the vast majority live in the Arctic regions of Greenland and Canada.

  For hundreds of years, they survived the world’s harshest conditions, living off their prey of birds, fish, reindeer, and seals. Although modernized, the Inuit people still wore their traditional clothing, which enabled past populations to survive the coldest environments on the planet. Pants, mittens, and footwear were made from caribou and sealskin and designed to be layered depending on the season.

  Some of the more desolate enclaves of the Inuit people still lived in turf huts, low-lying structures made of large stones and a roof supported by beams of driftwood, and in igloos during winter hunting trips.

  Modern towns, like Inuvik, certainly enjoyed newer forms of construction for their residences. Traditionalists, like Natan Lampe, largely rejected the modern way of life. His small tribe preferred to be isolated from the modern world. They identified with their ancient culture and were determined to teach their children and grandchildren to follow their tribal roots.

  He’d made the trek to Inuvik to meet with the so-called leaders governing the Inuit people before. He’d loaded his qamutik, a large sledge composed of two wooden runners topped with a simple platform, with seal and polar bear pelts to sell to retailers in the town. The pelts brought top dollar, as they were sold to tourists who came to Inuvik in the summer to view the Arctic’s natural beauty.

  His sledge was pulled by a team of four Qimmigs, the Inuit name for dogs. They resembled huskies, although some had been crossbred with wolves. For centuries, the Inuit used these powerful creatures capable of pulling twice their weight to hunt, act as guard dogs, and keep their masters warm while hunting in the frozen tundra.

  It was now September, and ordinarily there wasn’t sufficient snowpack at this early juncture to travel to the IRC. However, a freak snowstorm had overwhelmed the region, which puzzled meteorologists, but raised red flags for the tribal elders like Natan Lampe.

  Lampe had summoned other tribal elders from across Canada and Greenland to convene at the IRC to issue a warning. For centuries, the Inuit elders had studied weather patterns. Their lives depended upon their observations. Hunting was not a sport for the traditional Inuit tribes. It was their means of providing food for their families. When they needed to eat, they went to the sea for their sustenance, and traveling safely across the ice was of utmost importance.

  Lampe, the first to arrive, stood as the remaining guests of the IRC arrived. Elijah Nandok from Greenland. Elders Luddy Andamie and Inookie Punduluk were next. The four, known across Canada and Greenland as the elders with the special gift of being attuned to changes in the planet, were highly respected throughout the Inuit Tribal Nation.

  They were, however, viewed with skepticism by the modernized, virtually self-appointed leaders of the IRC, whose primary responsibilities involved negotiating with the governments of Denmark, Greenland, Canada, and the United States over a wide range of matters. In Lampe’s eyes, they were nothing more than politicians. They were not the true people, the literal translation of Inuit.

  Nonetheless, he and his fellow tribal elders owed a sense of duty to all the Inuit to make the trip to the IRC. Expectations were low, for, as they’d experienced in the past, their warnings might fall on deaf ears.

  President and CEO of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, Duane Smith, kept the elders waiting for an hour past their appointment time. When he completed a meeting with the IRC’s attorneys, he instructed his secretary to show the tribal elders into his posh office that rivaled any Washington, DC, law firm’s environs. Smith didn’t know how Lampe and the other elders lived their lives. He’d never left the modern confines of Inuvik except to travel to the United States. He was Inuit by blood only, not tradition.

  “How can we help you this morning?” He greeted them with emotionless disinterest, much like a postal worker ready to accept a parcel for shipment.

  Lampe, who’d arranged for the meeting, took the floor. He was direct and to the point. “The Earth has changed its tilt.”

  Smith let out a heavy sigh and leaned back in his chair. He’d been actively negotiating to attain additional oil royalty compensation generated in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge, commonly referred to as ANWAR, to be paid to the IRC on behalf of the Inuit tribes by the U.S. government. He didn’t need to waste precious time on the rantings of the elders who refused to acknowledge modern science.

  “Elder Lampe, I’ve been made aware of your feelings about the changes in the planet’s climate. My team has reached out to you on numerous occasions and provided you evidence of the greenhouse gas effect and rising carbon dioxide levels. I know this is of no interest to any of you, but facts are facts.”

  Elder Luddy Andamie spoke up. “This change is noticeable. Daylight is much higher on the horizon. The snow is too early, and there is no ice freeze in many places.”

  Smith cut him off. “There are many reasons for these anomalies. The climatology science is real, and you, as leaders of your tribes, must accept the change in global weather patterns and adjust.”

  “We are adjusting,” began Elder Inookie Punduluk in a calm tone of voice. Of the four, he studied the scientific data more than the others. “In Greenland, we have felt the changes in the ground. Where the sun rises has not changed, but the animals no longer respect the sun’s location. They no longer understand their normal migration. Our hunters were the first to report this.”

  Smith shook his head and threw up his hands. “What do you want me to do?” He immediately glanced at his watch as if he was bored with the exchange. It had only been three minutes.

  Elder Lampe responded, “There must be warnings to the others. An official statement must be made. The lives of our people depend upon our leadership’s—”

  Smith grew more and more agitated as he considered his precious time being wasted. He didn’t need to be lectured by these tribal elders on their interpretation of climate change. “And say what? The Earth has tilted on its axis? Some rogue star or planet has caused a wobble?” Smith paused and caught himself before he insulted the elders further. “Gentlemen, we always appreciate your advice. Throughout our history, Inuit tribal elders have been known for their accurate prediction of changes to our planet and its weather patterns. What you are describing is part and parcel of what man has wrought upon the Earth.”

  “It is not as simple as you believe,” said Lampe. “The spirits of our ancestors can be seen in the skies more frequently. All of us have consulted with our angakkuq. There is complete agreement.” While many Inuit who inhabited the modern towns and cities had adopted Christianity as their religion, the traditionalists continued to look to their shaman, the angakkuq, for spiritual guidance and healing.

  “It is true,” added Elder Inookie Punduluk. “The great peril of our existence does not come from man. It comes from within the Earth. The spirits of below are causing the world above to face a great cataclysm.”

  Elder Lampe stood and proudly pull
ed his shoulders back. “It has begun.”

  Smith pulled his Waterman fountain pen from his shirt pocket and scratched the appointment off his desk calendar, indicating the meeting was over as far as he was concerned. “Fine, I’ll let them know. What else?”

  The remaining elders stood in unison and shook their heads from side to side with the same frowns on their faces as when they entered. They turned and left without saying another word.

  Two years after this brief meeting, Inuvik, much of the Northwest Territories, Northern Ontario, Northern Quebec and almost all of Manitoba would be consumed by the Arctic Ocean.

  Chapter 1

  The White House

  Presidential Emergency Operations Center

  Washington, DC

  Each administration, under the direction of the president, and with the guidance of their national security advisors, made substantial changes to the nation’s continuity-of-government plan. The concept of establishing protective measures for the president as well as the essential functions of government dated back to the usage of the nuclear bombs that ended World War II. As weapons of mass destruction proliferated, America’s leaders realized their adversaries could use them to attack the nation.

  President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 10346, specifically charging all federal departments to prepare plans for maintaining the essential operations of government in the face of an existential threat.