Re: [FH] americas

On Fri, 31 May 2002 15:27:58 +1000, Derek Fulton
<derekfulton@bigpond.com>
wrote:

>The big answer in his opinion was heating oil, just look at all those 
>American cities with those large apartment blocks with central heating.
How 
>are they going to be heated in winter? Imagine all those people
freezing 
>and the resulting chaos as they tried to stay warm, it's not as if they
can 
>go out and chop wood.

Never heard of electric heaters? For that matter, folks here in the
south are
big on kerosene heaters (yes, I know, more oil). You would simply see
people
go get electric heaters.

But electricity has to come from somewhere, and in the US most
electricity is
fired from oil turbine generation stations. If need be, the US could
turn
around and switch over to coal fire or nuclear, but it would be a slow
process. Hydroelectric plants exist, but water power isn't as prevalent
here
as in Canada.

The electricity grid is a major point of failure that could be
exploited. Look
at the rolling brown outs in California. Heating only affects the
country for
less than half the year. In the summer you have heat as a problem, even
in the
north. During the worst heat waves people die in Chicago. I'd hate to
imagine
life down here as it was a century ago, what with day time temperatures
peaking past 40 C. 

So, add a failure of the power grid to my list of things that could
cause
internal upheaval.

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@hyperbear.com
http://www.hyperbear.com

"At long last, the earthy soil of the typical, 
unimaginable mortician was revealed!" 
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