In the Changing Earth series, a national disaster is why the government declared a “National Emergency.” This situation caused an “emergency” plant to go into effect, allowing for a complete takeover of the country by the executive branch and FEMA to control the chaos. Although the basis of a fiction story, the concept and the “National Emergency” parameters exist. Most people are unaware that our president’s declaration of a “National Emergency” has far-reaching implications that will directly impact their everyday lives.

Episode three of The Changing Earth audio drama presents many concepts about a post-collapse world. The audio podcast will walk you through all of those facts behind the fiction. However, the Changing Earth Series is based upon the concept that once a “National Emergency” is declared, the executive branch of the government can take over the United States until the situation improves.

In some ways, this makes sense. During a nuclear attack or severe disaster affecting the entire country, the president, executive branch, and disaster relief organizations need to move fast and have the authority to make split decisions without the lengthy democratic process. This preparation began back in the 50s when war times dictated specific actions the president may have to take.

Presidents over the years have put a series of executive orders in place that provided the executive branch with more control over the resources of America, including labor, housing, raw materials, air, food, water, etc. Eventually, these executive orders were all combined into a single executive order that would give the president and FEMA total control of everything if a “National Emergency” is declared.

13603 - National Resource Defense Preparedness Act - enacted in 2012 by Obama, takes all of the previous pieces that would have to be passed as individual acts and puts them all under one order. The president could seize all water, all human and animal food, all transportation, all energy, all construction materials, all health resources, all farm equipment,  all fertilizers, all fuels, all human resources, all housing, etc. For a complete list of these executive orders and the timeline, check out The Death of Freedom article.

Strangely, these “executive orders” have become much more common during these last few presidencies. The constitution does not authorize executive orders. Presidents initially used executive orders to decide while Congress was out of session. It was a temporary decision until Congress could decide the issue.

If all this wasn’t enough, Glenn Beck recently released a video titled The Dangerous Powers Biden may have under a Climate Emergency. Glenn explores an article written in The Atlantic while Trump was president in this video. This article discusses their concerns that Trump could declare a “National Emergency.” Then his Presidential Emergency Directives could go into force. These directives are unsigned executive orders waiting for an emergency to go into effect. They give the president 140 special powers like the ones mentioned in the National Resource Defense Preparedness Act. However, it doesn’t stop there. Although it is unknown what these documents exist, their contents are not released. However, The Atlantic reports that the government released some of the Presidential Emergency Directives from the 50s-70s due to the freedom of information laws. Some provisions that would have gone into effect are martial law, the suspension of Habeas corpus, revocation of US passports, and the round-up and detention of subversives identified in F B I watch lists.

The fear is that with a declaration of a “National Emergency,” these parameters would go into effect. Even if a “National Emergency” is declared over the “Climate Crisis.” Order 706 would give the executive branch control of the internet.

Long story short, the declaration of a “National Emergency” has far-reaching ramifications for the citizens of the United States. These provisions can directly affect the constitution and its ability to protect the citizens of The Unites States of America. No matter whose side is in office, this is a significant concern. This type of power is precisely what our founding fathers didn’t want to be consolidated into one position.