Think about a world with no food, no water — no cars, phones, lights, TV or radio. Just silent darkness while you agonize over where your children are. "Impossible," you say? Perhaps not. Here's why.

Last month, on December 12th, North Korea successfully launched a satellite into orbit.This was their first successful launch following years of back-breaking and costly failures. Some friends of North Korea say this latest satellite may be used for commercial purposes. But Pyongyang has bigger plans than that. According to the North Koreans, themselves, they intend to build an arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of destroying the United States.

And this is no pie-in-the-sky boasting on their part. According to Victor Cha of the Center for Stragetic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., North Korea "has developed the ballistic missile launch technology to fly a missile possibly 2,460 to 3,730 miles" – enough to bring it into the continental United States. North Korea has the ways and means to attack the United States – right now! 

Yet, this alarming news gets even more urgent. So urgent, in fact, that it should even stir our Department of Defense from their customary slumber. Then again – perhaps not.

North Korea has another, more insidious weapon to annihilate the United States. This weapon would suddenly strike our entire population with starvation, disease, and death. After the attack, the land, itself, would remain intact and open to takeover. There would be little, or no population left. This "other weapon" is an EMP, or "Electromagnetic Pulse."

An Electromagnetic Pulse attack occurs when a nuclear weapon is detonated at an altitude above 18 miles. The electromagnetic pulse from this weapon is enough to annihilate our entire electric power grid from coast to coast. A super-EMP weapon, like the one North Korea is perfecting, would not cause a nuclear explosion. Instead, it would silently emit enough gamma rays to instantly bring down our power grid. Suddenly, without power, night would descend on every corner of the land and extinguish all vestiges of modern civilization. The infrastructure would be obliterated. Without food, water, or communications, we would be wiped out by riots, disease, and starvation.

Informed estimates say that within one year of an EMP attack, up to 90% of the U.S. population would perish.

So, what is our government doing to protect us from suffering, death, and loss of our children? I think you already know – they are twiddling their thumbs.

As far back as 2004, a group of prominent Russian generals sounded the alert to our congressional Electromagnetic Pulse Commission that North Korea had obtained all the information necessary to build a super-EMP nuclear warhead. That was nearly a decade ago and still, our government has done nothing to even update our antiquated power grid — to say nothing of protecting it.

In 2011, Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess Jr., head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee that North Korea had developed its nuclear devices into warheads for ballistic missiles.

Recently, the congressional EMP Commission alerted the President of the mounting danger from an EMP attack and drafted an executive order to protect the power grid. Nothing has come of this.

Then, there are those advisors who follow North Korea's nuclear progress and who, like our government, cannot bring themselves to face the threat seriously. Following North Korea's sucessful launch last month, Philip Yun, head of Ploughshares Fund, a nuclear disarmament association, reportedly scoffed: "The real threat from the launch was an overreaction that would lead to more defense spending on unnecessary systems. The sky is not falling, we shouldn't be panicked."

In reality, the sky is falling. The threat is real. The situation is grave.

The following are three steps we can and should take now:

First, Congress must pass the Shield Act (H.R.668) which details steps to be taken to protect the electric power grid from a super-EMP attack.

Second, we should begin construction on an alternate power grid that is secure from an EMP attack and can be self activated immediately, should the primary grid fail.

Third, the Electric Infrastructure Security Council (EIS) must forthwith present a plan to reinforce our electric infrastructure with geomagnetically induced current blockers. The government has so far failed to order even this simple procedure.

Unless our government builds up the courage to face the threat of annihilation, the question is not if that catastrophe will come – but when?

Is anyone listening?