Apocalypse predictions not so far-fetched.

• Position: Civilization

Dire predictions of a coming apocalypse are popular again, but never before have they been accompanied by such chilling scientific gravitas. William Forstchen's best-selling One Second After--which details the horrific aftermath of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the U.S.--although a novel, has caught some serious attention from military commanders and lawmakers in Washington due to the author's education on the subject.

The book's scenarios also align with frightening new predictions from an international panel of specialists led by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: Even if high-atmosphere nuclear blasts do not cause an EMP effect that wipes out civilization as we know it, the same result conceivably could come from solar flare and geomagnetic activity.

NOAA scientists now predict a potentially catastrophic peak of solar geomagnetic activity in May 2013, although doomsday theorists have been trumpeting an earlier date, Dec. 21, 2012, which is when the ancient Mayan cyclical calendar is set to end, supposedly with highly destructive consequences. Nostradamus and the ancient Egyptians also are said to have predicted world cataclysm in the year 2012.

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, sides with Forstchen and the NASA-NOAA report, urging that we take this cautionary tale very seriously. Gingrich, who has coauthored two books with Forstchen, presented facts outlined in One Second After to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee at its annual policy conference. Gingrich stressed that, while the book is fiction, it is based on facts, and the U.S. has no national strategy in place to respond to such a...