NATURAL NEWS
(NaturalNews) In the wake of violent storms, the power went out for
millions of Americans across several U.S. states. Governors of Virginia,
West Virginia and Ohio declared a state of emergency. Over twenty
people were confirmed dead, and millions sweltered in blistering
temperatures while having no air conditioning or refrigeration. As their
frozen foods melted into processed goo, some were waking up to a few
lessons that we would all be wise to remember.
Here are 10 hard lessons we're all learning (or re-learning, as the case may be) from this situation:
#1) The power grid is ridiculously vulnerable to disruptions and failure
All
it takes is Mother Nature unleashing a little wind storm, and entire
human cities are cut off from their power grid. Wind and trees, in other
words, can destroy in seconds what takes humans years to construct. As
Newt Gingrich even quipped about the situation, what we witnessed was
just a small taste of what a high-altitude EMP weapon attack could
unleash across all of North America. (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpuyPfAZRTU)
#2) Without electricity, acquiring food and water in a major U.S. city can become a difficult task
During
the outage, masses of people across the Eastern U.S. scrambled to get
squared away on food and water. Fortunately for them, malls and gas
stations were open, providing (processed) food, water and air
conditioning. That's because the power outages were fragmented,
affecting some neighborhoods but not others.
In a total grid down
scenario, food and water supplies in a given U.S. city will disappear
almost overnight. It's much the same for gasoline, batteries and even
ammunition. All these supplies (and many more) will simply be stripped
from the shelves.
#3) Most people are simply not prepared and therefore worsen any crisis
The
average American citizen practices zero preparedness. They are 100%
dependent on the power grid, the city water supply, 911 services for
protection and long-distance food deliveries to their grocery store.
They have no backup plans, no stored food, no emergency mindset and no
practical skills for surviving a real crisis.
As a result,
their lack of preparedness worsens any crisis. Instead of being part of the solution, they become a burden on all the emergency services and supplies available in the area.
Hilariously,
today's city goers actually consider malls and movie theaters to be
places of refuge. As FoxNews reported last weekend, "On Saturday, many
people flocked to places like malls and movie theaters in the hope the
lights would be on again when they returned home." (
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/01/millions-without-power-brace-for...)
#4) Cell phones are a fragile technology that can't be counted on in an emergency
One of the more interesting observations about the current crisis is that
many cell phone towers are out of service. That's because they have no electricity and / or they have been damaged by wind or debris.
As
a result, people who depend on cell phones for their lifeline to
friends, relatives and 911 emergency services were suddenly left with
non-functioning devices. Even in areas where the cell phone towers were
still operating, many people
had no place to charge their phones because their own homes were cut off from electricity.
When
the grid is up, and there are no storms, solar flares or disruptions,
cell phones are truly amazing devices, but they are vulnerable to even
small-scale natural events, and they therefore cannot be relied on when
you need them most.
#5) The internet is wildly vulnerable to natural disasters
According
to news reports, these storms took down a portion of the Amazon Cloud,
and this in turn shut down Netflix, Pinterest and Instagram. Those
services have now been restored, but they were offline for several hours
during which many of their users no doubt thought the world was coming
to an end.
#6) Many people have no clue what to do in an emergency
Consider this quote about the CDC telling people what to do:
"The
U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention was among many
government agencies trying to keep people informed -- from knowing when
the food in your suddenly inoperable freezer can't be eaten to taking a
cool bath if you don't have AC." (
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/30/us/extreme-heat/index.html)
Seriously?
Does the government have to tell people to take a cool bath in order to
avoid overheating? Do people not know when food has spoiled? And even
more strangely, is it now the role of the U.S. government to tell
everybody what to do in every emergency?
Whatever happened to common sense? I can tell you what:
It moved out to the country!Out
in the country of Texas, Georgia, Kentucky and just about everywhere
else, ranchers and farmers still have common sense. They know about
backup water supplies, and they can figure things out for themselves. It
seems to be
city people who need the most instructions from Washington D.C. because they've forgotten the fundamental skills of human survival.
#7) 911 and other emergency services are quickly overwhelmed or completely offline
According to MSNBC:
In
Washington's northern Virginia suburbs, emergency 911 call centers were
out of service; residents were told to call local police and fire
departments. Huge trees toppled across streets in the nation's capital,
crumpling cars. Cellphone and Internet service was spotty, gas stations
shut down and residents were urged to conserve water.(
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48032427/ns/weather/)
#8) A national grid-down situation would be far more complex to repair
The
recent storms that caused this "grid down" situation for millions of
Americans was a local event, and its repair and restoration was aided by
workers arriving from outside the affected regions. In a national grid
down scenario, however, there will be no excess human capital to lend to
the situation. Every worker will be busy trying to restore the power
grid in their own home regions.
This means repairs will take
significantly longer, and according to some experts like David Chalk and
James Wesley Rawles, a national grid down scenario has the potential of
being unable to be repaired at all, resulting in
years of no power grid which would obviously cause a mass die-off across the U.S. population.
#9) Modern cities are built on systems that have little redundancy
When
the power goes out to a local hospital, there might be a temporary
backup generator, but even that generator relies on the delivery of
fuel. The delivery of generator fuel, in turn, relies on the
availability of diesel truck fuel, which depends on petroleum refineries
functioning, which in turn depends on the power grid staying up and
highways remaining navigable. This is a complex chain of dependencies
which can suffer disruptions or even total failure without warning.
There
are surprisingly few redundancies in modern cities: Power, water, 911
services, natural gas and even sewage systems are all vulnerable to
single points of failure. Even the
evacuation infrastructure
of modern cities is ripe for total failure. The city of Los Angeles,
for example, simply cannot -- under any circumstances -- be evacuated.
The highways simply do not have the capacity to handle the mass of
vehicles attempting to leave, and in less than 72 hours, the whole thing
would turn into a giant parking lot of stranded vehicles and desperate
people, ripe for the picking off by armed gangs riding motorcycles.
When
911 fails, most people have no backup plan. Most people have no skills
to defend themselves against acts of violence. They have no mindset for
dealing with difficulty, so they call others to solve their problems for
them: the police, the plumber, the fireman, the ambulance and so on. In
a collapse scenario, individuals whose specialty skills are currently
shared across a broad population will suddenly be difficult or
impossible to locate. Why? Because they'll be at home protecting
their families!
#10) Mother Nature will humble humanity
Any
time human beings get too arrogant and too big-headed about all their
amazing cell phone technology, hi-rise cities and nuclear power plants,
Mother Nature just shrugs and sends forth a tsunami of water or wind.
All of humanity's greatest constructs are but fragile toys compared to
the truly awesome power of Mother Nature and the resilience of planet
Earth.
If the power grid goes down across planet Earth for just
one year, 90% of human civilization will perish, and along with it all
the DVDs, Nike shoes and designer bling as well. Even the entire
fictional construct of society's laws and banking system will cease to
exist.
Mother Nature is real. Consciousness is real. Seeds are
real. But much of what humanity has so far created is paper-thin and
temporary. It can all cease to exist in the blink of a cosmic eye.
We
are fragile beings exploring a sea of such greatness and scale that our
own lives seem silly by comparison. What humans think of as a natural
"disaster" is but a tiny expression of natural patterns to Mother
Nature. If we truly hope to survive as a species, we would be wise to
remember how insignificant we really are in the greater scope of
things... and why we must learn to respect nature and the universe
rather than arrogantly thinking we have conquered it with GMOs, nuclear
power and a supercollider.
A resource for preparedness
For those looking for trusted preparedness gear, Supply Source is available now (
www.SupplySource.com).
We've just added the "Surthrival Seed Can" (
http://www.supplysource.com/surthrival-seed-can)
to the inventory there, featuring what is unquestionably the most
complete collection of open-pollinated seeds available anywhere. It
includes:
• Seeds for growing food
• Seeds for cover crops and forage
• Seeds for culinary herbs
• Seeds that produce edible oils
• Seeds to grow a wide variety of medicine
• Seeds for growing grains
• A six-chapter booklet on growing plants, saving seeds, harvesting food and medicine, and much more.
Find it at:
http://www.supplysource.com/surthrival-seed-can
 |
Stay informed! FREE subscription to the Health Ranger's email newsletter
|
Sunday, July 08, 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment