The Earth is expected by "complex catastrophes" that will forever turn the lives of millions of people
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Paul Stockton, who is in charge of security in the US at the Pentagon, is building plans for the event of apocalyptic catastrophes that can forever turn the lives of millions of Americans, Newsweek says. Stockton, the US Deputy Secretary of Defense, calls them "complex disasters" and notes that they will have a "cascade effect," including socio-political, writes journalist Christopher Dickey.
Stockton's models feature disasters that can kill tens of thousands of people, undermine the economy, and pierce a huge gap in national security. "And the terrorist guilty of these atrocities will be Nature," the newspaper reports.
Stockton and other experts do not doubt: calamities more destructive than hurricane Katrina will happen necessarily. Global warming and rising sea levels are already generating more powerful and wide hurricanes and more dangerous storms. According to Al Gore, some scholars want to add a new, sixth category to the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale. By the 5th category now include hurricanes with a wind speed above 155 miles per hour. The 6th will include hurricanes, when the wind is faster than 175-180 miles per hour. Gore also noted that in the current year in the US, 10 disasters have already occurred, the damage from which exceeded $ 1 billion, and the Emergency Management Department has almost exhausted the annual budget.
"The problem is not only that the juggernaut of nature has become so powerful - the trouble is that the areas along the path of natural disasters are densely populated," the article says. "People all the time move to these megacities, and they are located on the coast," explains Madhu Berivale of IEM, who studied threats to New Orleans before Katrina.
There are even darker scenarios than the recent earthquake in Japan, which caused a tsunami and an accident at the nuclear power plant, the newspaper notes. So, in the winter of 1811-1812 in the USA north of Memphis a series of strong earthquakes occurred. The Mississippi River flowed backwards, the banks began to collapse, new lakes arose. But the human losses were few, since then it was sparsely populated. American scientists have calculated that if an earthquake of 7.7 points is repeated today in the same place, 86,000 people will die or be injured, direct damage to the economy will amount to $ 300 billion, and damage to 15 nuclear power plants. It will take 42 thousand rescuers, and therefore, will have to recruit troops. That's why Stockton is so intently interested in potential natural disasters.
The events of September 11, Iraq and Afghanistan gave the Americans a wealth of experience in emergency situations. Rescuers will also be well served by ultra-modern military and reconnaissance equipment, the article says, but when it comes to drones flying over America, even for the sake of saving people, critics will surely doubt their need because they are wary of "eyes watching from heaven."