{"id":2952,"date":"2013-09-17T12:01:35","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T11:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=2952"},"modified":"2013-09-17T12:01:56","modified_gmt":"2013-09-17T11:01:56","slug":"blackout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=2952","title":{"rendered":"Blackout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Someone once said you are only three meals from anarchy.\u00a0 So it was with some trepidation I watched a docu drama on Channel 4 television (UK) called “Blackout”<\/a>.\u00a0 Trepidation because I thought the drama would be quite harrowing, and it was.\u00a0 As a drama I thought it semi worked.\u00a0 (Others have been quite critical).\u00a0 The idea was that the people involved in situation in the blackout filmed it on their mobiles (whose batteries lasted implausible amounts of time).\u00a0 This worked quite well (obviously a lot was shot as a third party view on normal digital cameras).\u00a0 The main problem was that the people who wrote it ensured we followed for the most part extreme and unsympathetic characters.\u00a0 However, as a concept the drama worked very well.\u00a0 Anyone watching Blackout could have been left in no doubt about our extreme dependency on very large amounts of ready high grade energy.\u00a0 There was of course things you would never of thought about.\u00a0 The blackout (apparently caused by a cyber attack) only affected the electricity grid, but traffic chaos soon descended cause traffic lights were down and no one could refuel since the pumps on filling stations have no back up power.\u00a0 This of course would paralyse the emergency services and food distribution.\u00a0 Being self sufficient is no solution since once those around you know they would attack you (there was a rapid breakdown in law and order with widespread looting).<\/p>\n

What we are wrote about in “No oil in the lamp”<\/a> was a gradual diminution of our current system, even in our worst case futurology scenario it takes years for the collapse of civilisation.\u00a0 Can we learn anything from this drama (since hopefully a cyber attack is unlikely) a sudden collapse of our energy system is remote*?<\/p>\n

Microgrids, covered on this blog in the past, are probably not much help as they would be linked to the national grid by internet or intranet control.\u00a0 Other things like making our food systems more localised or resilient would seem more useful.\u00a0 Local communities planning ahead about how to cope in such situations and how to to protect the vulnerable would seem a good idea and the transition movement has been involved in such discussions.\u00a0 Churches could be the focal point of all this of course.\u00a0 But ultimately there seems little we can do except pray such a\u00a0scenario never occurs. Working towards a post oil system would help to make us more able to cope.\u00a0 Finally I hope if threatened I would manage to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5v39).<\/p>\n

Neil<\/p>\n

* The exception to this is an electromagnetic pulse from sun activity.\u00a0 This could burn everything electrical and electronic out since all of these things act as an aerial.\u00a0 It would take years to get the grid up an running not a week as in “Blackout”.\u00a0 The crazy thing is protecting the grid against this is possible and the cost is very low.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Someone once said you are only three meals from anarchy.\u00a0 So it was with some trepidation I watched a docu drama on Channel 4 television (UK) called “Blackout”.\u00a0 Trepidation because I thought the drama would be quite harrowing, and it … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"yoast_head":"\nBlackout about a power cut-what leesons can we learn?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Someone once said you are only three meals from anarchy. 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