What is especially unnerving for me is this doomsday prediction was made prior to Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and Putin’s thinly veiled threats of nuclear attack.

The Doomsday Clock, originally developed to identify how close the world was to nuclear annihilation has been updated in recent years to include additional threats beyond just nuclear and now includes climate change threats as well as other threats driving us ever closer to extinction.

Of course, the Doomsday Clock only predicts the collective threat we pose to our own self-extinction, predictable things that we can and should control as responsible humans; it fails to account for those things we cannot control; the things that nature throws at us and that the heavens rain down.

At 100 seconds to midnight, the Doomsday Clock warns us that we are hurtling dangerously close to the annihilation, and while we may yet be able to save ourselves in the last 100 seconds, it is only reasonable to conclude that these same apocalyptic threats turning the hands ever closer to midnight are the same threats driving us closer towards a Black Sky.

In fact, the chances of a Black Sky occurring are far greater than the threat of global annihilation predicted by the Doomsday clock precisely because a Black Sky occurs at a much lower threshold than global annihilation and because those other threats, the ones the Doomsday clock fails to account for, including solar storms, earthquakes, super-volcanoes, and unprecedented weather events can and will at some point trigger a collapse of the electric grid and bring down with it the all of the other supporting critical infrastructure needed to sustain our world.

While we cannot control the geopolitical events moving us ever closer to Doomsday, we can take action over the things we do control in order to ensure that we are prepared to respond effectively to a Black Sky and forestall the cascading failures of critical infrastructure that ultimately lead to incomprehensible levels of human suffering and death.

What is within our power to control is taking immediate action to put in place the plans, policies, procedures, and equipment needed to effectively communicate in a Black Sky; the greatest predictor of Black Sky survivability.

I would like to invite you to join me on Thursday, April 28th at 11-12 EDT along with our distinguished guests Alice Moy-Gonzalez (SVP of Strategic Development at Anterix), Monika Stoeffl (Executive Director California Resiliency Alliance), and Yosi Shneck (Senior cyber consultant, IEC – Israel Electric Corporation) to explore this important topic: The (Black Sky) Elephant in the Room: How do we talk?

Curious how long 100 seconds is, about the same amount of time it took you to read this article.

Click on the link below to go to our Linked In event page in order to register for this important webinar:

https://grcom.eiscouncil.org/the-black-sky-elephant-in-the-room/

You can also directly access the webinar registration page on our website at:

https://eiscouncil.org/

Just click on the events page where you will find the registration information. While you are there think about signing up as an EIS member to get exclusive access to our latest material including a free digital download of our EPRO EMP Handbook. Membership is still free, for a limited time, for anyone wanting to join us in protecting the future.