As the world’s population explodes beyond 7 BILLION people, India’s borders hold 10% of all humans on the planet, about 700 million. Yesterday, and again today, half of them lost power as the electricity went out and the grid went down… for 370 million people. That’s more people than who live in the entire Unites States!
Let that sink in for a minute… imagine if EVERYONE in the United States lost electricity, and the ensuing chaos that would erupt after awhile.
The massive power outage in India apparently lasted for about 9 hours in a country that is conditioned for undependable electricity and arguably is better able to handle life without power than other developed countries where people depend upon it in nearly every aspect of their lives.
NEW DELHI — The world’s largest blackout ever crippled roughly half of India for a second consecutive day on Tuesday, sending officials scrambling for an explanation. Hundreds of trains stopped across the region and, in Delhi, the subway system stalled, and massive traffic jams collected as traffic lights stopped functioning. The root cause of the vast power failure was not immediately clear.
Source: The New York Times
The world’s infrastructure is largely burdening under the load of 7 billion people. Businesses and Governments are not keeping up with a growing populace and burgeoning demands on the infrastructure systems including the electrical power grid, which itself is a patchwork of smaller systems built many decades ago, for the most part.
It may be folly to continue to depend upon these systems to reliably withstand population growth, urban sprawl, increased demands, and the aging of the equipment within the system itself.
WE ARE SO DEPENDENT UPON ELECTRICITY THAT MANY WOULD DIE WITHOUT IT.
10% of the population of the world lost power the other day for half a day! Have you heard about that? It happened again today! Although the systems in India are arguably inferior to other systems, the event should be a red flag for the masses who are sleeping at the wheel, so to speak.
Think about it for awhile. What is it that we depend upon that electricity makes possible?
Answer: EVERYTHING
How about an alternative energy source for our homes, or at least a backup plan?
Do this… Consider how you would live your life without electricity for awhile. Break it up into time periods… 24 hours (not much of a problem), 72 hours (many problems arising), 7 days (getting into deep doo-doo), 2 weeks (big time issues), 1 month (chaos), 3 months (complete breakdown and massive die-off).
Think it couldn’t happen? Think again. There ARE things that can bring the grid down. Natural, and man-made. But that’s another story…
Are you prepared?
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Three are 1.21 billion people in India (as of 2011 census), almost 700 million without power today. Numbers crossed?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_India
That’s what I get for listening to a main-stream-media news report statistic for population… It is amazing the apparent population density there.
Update: I’ve since discovered the error. The 700 million is the apparent population of the area of the transmission networks “serving areas inhabited by 680 million”.
Of that 1.21 billion population, 400 million don’t have connected electrical power. This makes the outage even more interesting.
Exactly. It basically means that EVERYONE who is connected in India has been affected by the last 2 days of blackouts – the biggest in world history.
The thing is….its been peaceful so far. Amazing.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/what-670-million-people-without-power-look-pictures-blacked-out-india
Buy a generator, and LOTS of gas.
Here in the US, and particularly crime and gang-infested areas, at first sign of power out, there would be looting and home raids everywhere.
The scum who arent afraid to do their crimes NOW in “civilized” society will have a field day on blackout day.
Tesla had the answer and the equipment–Wardenclyffe Towers, but JP Morgan–his investor was appalled at the idea of free energy for everyone.
Also, ancient Egypt had free energy in the Giza pyra-mid “tower”
I always disliked and tried avoiding things like taking subways, going thru long tunnels, elevators, going too high up in tall buildings, stopped under an overpass in traffic, crossing long bridges especially in traffic–basically anywhere where you could be trapped (and crushed) if something stopped working/flowing. Always wondering what could happen if the system failed…
I guess I had a “survivalist” mindset at a young age 🙂
It would be miserable here. It is so hot. It is supposed to be 105 degrees today. Our A/C went out for a few hours and even opening all windows, doors and using fans it was horrible. I cannot imagine without electricity. We are too reliant on it. Especially people whose houses are all electric. (stove, water heater, etc) Plumb your house for gas (propane or natural) and buy a gas hot water heater and gas stove. So if you electricity goes out, for a little while you can cook and have hot water. You will be thankful you did.
I was in NYC when the power went out for a day in ’03. It was surprisingly pleasant! A couple of friends were actually on the subway, it took a couple hours but they were evacuated from the train by Metro staff. I walked from Manhattan home to Queens and everyone was in good spirits-civilians manned the intersections to control traffic, people set up tables in front of their buildings with water for the throng of walkers. When I made it home the owner of the corner bodega had saved some supplies for me (this was before I knew about prepping) and neighbors grilled meats on the streets for us all to share before it rotted. At night we all saw the night sky for the first time in NYC! Bars stayed open, people partied.
Now if it had continued, I’m sure it would have turned vicious in a couple days. It was actually one of the first experiences to open my eyes to how dependant we all were. Not long after I discovered LATOC and things have never been the same since.
Keep in mind that this is occurring in a country that is used near daily rolling blackouts. Most newer office buildings, malls and hotels have their own generators and whole home UPS’s are also big business.
Traffic lights are out? No big deal as nobody pays any more attention to them than any other traffic rule.
I spoke to someone there today and he pretty much confirmed my suspicions that the biggest impact was the shutdown of the railways and subways, stranding the riders where they stopped. Other than that, it didn’t seem to be a big deal.
If this had happened in America, a country that is so much more dependent upon systems that are sourced from electricity, it would have been more of a problem than this event (these events) from India – especially if it had lasted longer. The way of life in India does not resemble that of the U.S. However the fact that so many people had lost their power, may serve as a reminder to those in the U.S. and other developed nations, who are aware of the dependencies and the risks, and that we live in a fragile modern world that needs this ‘life blood’ to survive.
@Mortimer; Was that humor? If so arrgh arrgh. If not, that was my point. LOL
A few years back, we moved into a home that still had electricity in it.
I never “started” the service so we had use of electricity & gas for 2 months 🙂
Then, a family member felt I should be responsible and reported me to the electric company. Boom! They turned off the electricity.
Happily, the water & stove AND fireplace were gas–which they never turned off. So for 2 more months we had use of gas.
And during those times of no electricity, we went to sleep when it got dark. I had the best sleep I’ve had in years because no TV, no electricity buzzing thru the walls (maybe it does something to my nerves??)
Anyhows, I bought some outdoor solar LED lighting, set them out in the day, brought them in when it started to get dark, and stuck them in jars in the bathrooms. They stayed lit for about 4 hours, which by then we were all asleep.
Fireplace kept us warm–I had a leftover ceramic log from my other place. Stayed warm nicely, and lit the room .
The Energizer LED lantern was the best (the one in the Red casing)–I tried the other ones and they went out too quickly on the batteries.
Washed our laundry in the shower–and often while taking the shower.
Hung them up with our plastic hangers, and hooked them over doorways on the molding frame, curtain rod, anywhere we could hook it. Pants got hung on the shower spout and shower curtains to catch the bigger drip.
We went to local cafes to use the internet & recharge my laptop (& cellphone when I had one).
Sometimes, all you have to do is park your car right next to the building, and free wifi.
Then, later down the road, I bought a washer & dryer because it was kind of a pain washing clothes for everyone. Thus, electricity had to go back on.
I later got a small Xantrex solar generator/battery charger, for emergencies, but if I had that when I didnt have electricity, I probably
would still forego the electric company. This was from October-March.
I had lived out in the country where there was a lot of power outage (due to cars hitting a power pole while speeding around a tight curve–1 year it happened 5 FIVE TIMES!!!!!) So I was used to not having power intermittently.
I guess it was the laundry that made me go back to electricity.
Those were the days…
…And then, we moved to the islands for 1 year, living in hotels (right by the beach) and we moved into a place where I had to pay for electricity.
Well, I never knew there was a $300 DEPOSIT for new users, which the locals didnt seem to know either???
So again, we had to forego the electricity. Now, our building was made of cement cinder blocks, and we were on the bottom floor, so we were fairly comfortable (I prefer warm weather anyways).
We had to quickly eat the food in the fridge, but the root veggies held up nicely for a few weeks. We took cold showers for 2 days before I went to Walmart and picked up a $14 butane stove and a granite ware tall pot to mainly heat up our shower water.
We used borax mixed with water in a container, and mixed it with warm water from the pot, and scrubbed with that. Then, I poured warm water on each kid to rinse, so it was like a 10 second shower. Then, back to heating the water for me because I like HOT showers.
Again, doing laundry in the shower, hanging them on plastic hangers over doorways.
The nice thing about being in our neighborhoods were people were always throwing away nice things–we picked up 5 FIVE ironing boards to use as tables–we found a deluxe ironing board that was heavier and wider, and that made a great table. We also found chairs, small tables.
There was also that govt program to get ride of all your analog TVs, so people were dumping their huge BIG SCREEN tvs all over the sidewalks!!!! UNBELIEVABLE WASTE! Also found a small frig, but didnt feel like cleaning it out so I put it back out on the sidewalk.
People were also throwing away so many strollers! I think those are the perfect carriers for all the homeless living out there.
I could have gone homeless, but for the kids and safety factor of having an enclosed place to sleep–and not attract attention–especially if you have kids.
In this situation, I didnt have a car, very little money as most of it went to rent, so we strolled all over. We found many cafes with free wifi, and AIR CONDITIONING.
In many ways, I actually prefer not having electricity.
I prefer to sleep when the sun goes down, wake up with the sun.
I dont watch much TV–mostly DVDS on the laptop. And I have NEVER subscribed to cable. Don’t believe in it–especially when most of the time all you see are commercials, infomercials, and all that satanic programming nowadays.
I prefer to spend my free time reading & gardening & walking to explore new places anyways.
Those were the days…
Never did start the garbage service either.
We tossed kitchen scraps to the hungry plants in back,
Took recyclables to the centers and got some money back,
And bagged small other trash and dropped them off at receptacles when we went shopping, to the park, or at the school, park, store bins.
Public libraries were also another source of free wifi & computers & printers.
At some point I also took our small Dell printer to the cafes to print some docs, shipping labels.
BUT DONT FORGET to also bring in an outlet expander–outlets were in short supply, and plus I had to plug in my laptop, my printer, and my cellphone charger, sometimes my kid’s laptop too to recharge the batteries on that one.
‘Twas also the first time I went on a 3-day fast–eased into it by eating raw fruits & veggies (which we had to anyways to keep from spoiling now that there was no electricity), and then drank water for 3 days.
Then started feeling a bit dizzy on the afternoon of the 3rd day, so I started eating fruit to ease back in. I was trying to go for 1 week of fasting, but my body wasnt ready for it.
My tummy shrank near flat, and I felt pretty good.
I’ll have to do that again, and build up to 1 week.
A good read is the Essence Gospel of Peace on keeping your body healthy.
…And there is a way to make a little money ANYWHERE YOU GO WHERE THERES PLANTS–(the legal ones, btw, I know what some of yous are thinking out there, lol).
The wonderful thing about plants is, they appreciate over time–and all on their own for the most part. All you do is give them a little water now andn then….or not….
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