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Oct. 19, 2005 I guess all Americans know that we have become awfully dependent on a continuing supply of cheap gasoline, so that isn't "news." This supply could get disrupted by hurricanes (like it has in New Orleans), or by Muslim extremists (like it has in Iraq), or maybe by a fast spreading "bird flu" pandemic, or maybe even by a cluster of Pakistan-style earthquakes. But I don't know how many readers of this e-magazine realize how precarious the situation really is. Or have thought about what (if anything) might be done about it, at least on a personal level. Suppose, for example, that with all the fantastic international trade that we now have, the bird flu mutates a little bit and suddenly spreads wordwide. It probably won't happen, but it really could. (It seems to be spreading fast across national borders already --- we just don't know how far this trend will go.) Maybe the dormant virus crystals can hide in clothing that we buy from China, or in electronic gizmo parts, or in food, etc. There's a lot of important information that we don't know about how the flu virus particles actually disperse. They don't have to be living organisms in liquid media, like bacteria usually do. Now, to continue this science fiction scenario for a minute (and it's not so very fictional), suppose that a large percentage of the men who transport fuel all get extremely sick. Who among us grows their own food, and doesn't depend on an army of workers to bring the food to us, from far away (often in refrigerated trucks), and then workers to distribute it to us via various complex stores? Our food supply system (like lots of things in the U.S.) is amazingly efficient and cheap, which tends to raise our whole standard of living. Great. But it's also amazingly centralized, squeezing through various narrow nodes, that all require healthy workers to maintain. If fact, a lot of this depends on electricity, for refrigeration, for cash registers in stores, and even for traffic signals at crowded street corners. Without fuel, we don't have much electricity. Without that, we don't have much water for drinking, or even for sewage disposal in our crowded metropolitan areas. In winter (which is coming up soon!), we don't have much heat, even in hospitals. Well, enough crying --- what can anybody do about it, especially since we don't know which one of Dan's Delirious Disasters is really going to happen? Well, the main thing that I can think of doing is stocking up on food and water. I have cans of soybean powder, plastic bags of rice, vitamin/mineral pills, empty plastic bottles to quickly fill with clean water, purification pills for dirty water (meant for camping), some blankets and plastic tarpaulins, tools and silver dollars, and a few other such goodies, all in big plastic bags that can be quickly put in the car or on backpacks for my family. Or, if we have to seal up the house and stay inside until it all blows over, maybe these things would aid survival. Or maybe they won't help at all, or help for long enough. But we probably won't need any of them anyhow, and they didn't cost much. The main value is that they make me feel a little bit safer. ------------ About the author: Dan Shanefield is a retired engineering prof, who worked at Bell Labs and then at Rutgers University. He wrote the book "Industrial Electronics for Engineers, Chemists, and Technicians". Visit his website or email: shanefield@ieee.org Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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