Training for what if instead of Earth Hour
This evening, beginning at 8:30 p.m. in whatever time zone one happens to be, is Earth Hour, during which all lights are to be turned out, use of electricity is to be an absolute minimum, and so on. Those who, quite rightly, are angry at the Greens for trying to yank the world kicking and screaming into the 12th century, instead propose actions in honor of human achievement at that time, such as Force of Darkness “Earth Hour” Challenged by Power of Light “Human Achievement Hour” (courtesy of thormonger).
To be honest, both sides have a point. On the one hand, we in the West do tend to waste resources, and even glory in doing so, in one vast, endless Potlatch of the Gods ceremony. On the other, Luddism doesn't solve problems; in fact, with 7+ billion people alive on Earth now, attempting to force it on the world would ultimately trigger endless warfare -- which would, sooner rather than later, involve nukes. No, thank you.
I propose something a little different. I live very neary in the shadow of one of the world's most dangerous volcanoes, Mount Rainier in Washington State. Mt. Rainier is prone to lahars, enormous hot mud-slides that come about as a result of the slow, inevitable rotting of the rocky material of which it is made caused by chemical interactions between snowmelt or rain and the rocks themselves, which are acidic in nature. Every so often enough rot takes place that the rocks finally let go and slide down the mountain in a horrific flood of mud so huge that on at least one occasion, such a flood buried a good part of Western Washington with steaming-hot mud. Puget Sound used to be twice the size it is now, until just such a mud-flow buried its southern half. We may be overdue for another such lahar; when -- not "if," when it takes place, it could bury all of the Rainier Valley district of Seattle, and wipe out the city of Tacoma, Washington. There is monitoring machinery around the mountain to pick up signals of trouble coming, but if they picked up signs that the mountain was about to cut loose, and those monitoring that machinery started up the sirens signifying "Get the hell out NOW!!!", the people in the area under threat would have only 15 minutes to get out.
Once that mud-slide started, it would also set off an earthquake. This area is prone to 9.0+ earthquakes that come about every 500 years or so. Perhaps the lahar would set off a quake that bad; perhaps it would set off one "only" a 6.0+ in magnitude. but in either case the epicenter would be shallow and the damage far greater than if the epicenter lay deep in the crust. Between the lahar, which could cut a lot of the electrical feeders in the area, and the quake, which would cut more of them, not to mention the disruptions in transportation in and out of the region, the event would become a disaster of epic proportions. Many people in Western Washington would probably be on their own for several days before utilities were restored. Finding safe water, or distilling it from available sources, would become highly important. Those on medications necessary for maintaining life could die for lack of those medications if they didn't have them nearby at the time the lahar and quake hit. Hospitals would be hard-hit, and even with their own generators, they could have real problems carrying out all their life-saving functions. Patients in those hospitals could be badly hurt or killed if the quake weakened walls, ceilings, and floors within those buildings enough to cause ceilings and walls to collapse and floors to open up and spill anything on them onto whatever was below. Water mains could be ruptured, which could mean that firemen trying to fight fires in the aftermath of the lahar and the quake would lack the water they needed to win their battles.
Or consider what would happen if the national power-grid collapsed, leaving us all without electricity for an indefinite period of time. Nearly everything we do in our lives now requires electricity for its successful execution. Not everyone has a generator, and in any event, once available supplies of propane, gasoline, or kerosene fuels were used up, those generators would be useless. Transportation via anything but horseback, Shank's Mare, and buckboards drawn by draft animals might fail, especially if the collapse of the grid was due to massive EMPs of some sort, either natural, caused by an enormous coronal mass ejection from the Sun, or by deliberate action of an enemy of this country. Within days millions would have died of various causes as pump-driven water services failed, hospitals ran out of generator fuel and had perforce to shut down, toilets ceased to function properly, critically important medications such as insulin became useless due to lack of refrigeration, and so on.
The point is that strategic disasters like these, disasters impacting whole reigions and cutting them off from help from outside, could happen at any time anywhere in this country. So why not, at least on a small, very personal scale, start learning how to get by if the electricity fails? Use Earth Hour tonight to discover how, for just one hour, to function in the dark and how to do without the things that depend on electricity. Self-sufficiency and thrift used to be considered virtues by the people of this country. Perhaps a little practice at both, for just one hour, would be a good thing. And toss in "community" while you're at it, neighbors helping neighbors every day as well as when disaster strikes, something we could all use some practice at.
To be honest, both sides have a point. On the one hand, we in the West do tend to waste resources, and even glory in doing so, in one vast, endless Potlatch of the Gods ceremony. On the other, Luddism doesn't solve problems; in fact, with 7+ billion people alive on Earth now, attempting to force it on the world would ultimately trigger endless warfare -- which would, sooner rather than later, involve nukes. No, thank you.
I propose something a little different. I live very neary in the shadow of one of the world's most dangerous volcanoes, Mount Rainier in Washington State. Mt. Rainier is prone to lahars, enormous hot mud-slides that come about as a result of the slow, inevitable rotting of the rocky material of which it is made caused by chemical interactions between snowmelt or rain and the rocks themselves, which are acidic in nature. Every so often enough rot takes place that the rocks finally let go and slide down the mountain in a horrific flood of mud so huge that on at least one occasion, such a flood buried a good part of Western Washington with steaming-hot mud. Puget Sound used to be twice the size it is now, until just such a mud-flow buried its southern half. We may be overdue for another such lahar; when -- not "if," when it takes place, it could bury all of the Rainier Valley district of Seattle, and wipe out the city of Tacoma, Washington. There is monitoring machinery around the mountain to pick up signals of trouble coming, but if they picked up signs that the mountain was about to cut loose, and those monitoring that machinery started up the sirens signifying "Get the hell out NOW!!!", the people in the area under threat would have only 15 minutes to get out.
Once that mud-slide started, it would also set off an earthquake. This area is prone to 9.0+ earthquakes that come about every 500 years or so. Perhaps the lahar would set off a quake that bad; perhaps it would set off one "only" a 6.0+ in magnitude. but in either case the epicenter would be shallow and the damage far greater than if the epicenter lay deep in the crust. Between the lahar, which could cut a lot of the electrical feeders in the area, and the quake, which would cut more of them, not to mention the disruptions in transportation in and out of the region, the event would become a disaster of epic proportions. Many people in Western Washington would probably be on their own for several days before utilities were restored. Finding safe water, or distilling it from available sources, would become highly important. Those on medications necessary for maintaining life could die for lack of those medications if they didn't have them nearby at the time the lahar and quake hit. Hospitals would be hard-hit, and even with their own generators, they could have real problems carrying out all their life-saving functions. Patients in those hospitals could be badly hurt or killed if the quake weakened walls, ceilings, and floors within those buildings enough to cause ceilings and walls to collapse and floors to open up and spill anything on them onto whatever was below. Water mains could be ruptured, which could mean that firemen trying to fight fires in the aftermath of the lahar and the quake would lack the water they needed to win their battles.
Or consider what would happen if the national power-grid collapsed, leaving us all without electricity for an indefinite period of time. Nearly everything we do in our lives now requires electricity for its successful execution. Not everyone has a generator, and in any event, once available supplies of propane, gasoline, or kerosene fuels were used up, those generators would be useless. Transportation via anything but horseback, Shank's Mare, and buckboards drawn by draft animals might fail, especially if the collapse of the grid was due to massive EMPs of some sort, either natural, caused by an enormous coronal mass ejection from the Sun, or by deliberate action of an enemy of this country. Within days millions would have died of various causes as pump-driven water services failed, hospitals ran out of generator fuel and had perforce to shut down, toilets ceased to function properly, critically important medications such as insulin became useless due to lack of refrigeration, and so on.
The point is that strategic disasters like these, disasters impacting whole reigions and cutting them off from help from outside, could happen at any time anywhere in this country. So why not, at least on a small, very personal scale, start learning how to get by if the electricity fails? Use Earth Hour tonight to discover how, for just one hour, to function in the dark and how to do without the things that depend on electricity. Self-sufficiency and thrift used to be considered virtues by the people of this country. Perhaps a little practice at both, for just one hour, would be a good thing. And toss in "community" while you're at it, neighbors helping neighbors every day as well as when disaster strikes, something we could all use some practice at.