I hafta say I still get a chuckle at those who proclaim an area as the most suitable survival location by looking at population as the most important aspect. Never mind water, annual temperatures/rainfall, growing season or any of that unimportant stuff.
Hello McFly those areas are probably sparsely populated for a reason. Did ya ever think of that?
It's almost as silly as living in a man made climate area but that's a different post all together.
Now before anyone get's all mad and foaming at the mouth let me say I am sure that every region in this great continent of North America has spot(s) that are perfect for survival. I am in no way implying they suck and your gonna die if you live there. But keep in mind those spots are already more than likely taken and if you have to carve your own little niche out I would assume it's best to go where the good land is the most abundant.
So today I wanna talk resources once again. Yep Resources have been on my mind a lot of late more so than usual and by looking around at other blogs they been on other minds as well. As they should be. Today I want to talk about specific resources otherwise known as fuel.
With bitter cold keeping most of the US in it's icy grip, propane and other fuel prices have skyrocketed. I can attest that another excuse given by the fuel companies is at least somewhat true. It was indeed a wet harvest, at least around here, and my neighbors did run their grain dryers non-stop this Fall and early Winter.
Of course firewood has been on many people's minds as well as propane and that lead me to think about the availability of wood across the country. In doing a bit of digging I found the map above.
Oh my. That paints a little bit different picture than a simple satellite shot of lights at night doesn't it?
By looking at that map I would say that 10, 20, 30 years after a lights out/grid down situation one of those old satellites will take a picture that still shows more lights in some areas and little to none in others.
Because there won't be any friggin trees to burn to make light...
Now I don't know about you. Maybe you found the perfect spot that has a naturally self pumping, endless natural gas outlet or maybe you have adapted a geyser into a power set up. I wish I was that smart. Personally I am counting on wood as my go to fuel of choice in a grid down situation so I am thinking one of those dark green spots on the map above is looking pretty good right now.
Just brainstorming here though your mileage may vary.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
My little slice of heaven is sitting smack dab in one of those dark green spots!
ReplyDeleteSD - Ayep. I wonder though it does say bio-mass so are they including things like corn stalks and such?
DeleteI wonder if it is possible to make methane gas from composting for fuel. Look at all the land fills around the country. Could they tap that to heat buildings & homes, on a large scale?? I understand they are burning off natural gas in N.D. as they have no storage for it. If you can pump oil and ship, way can't you do the same with gas??
ReplyDeleteRob - I saw a video recently where a mining engineer is predicting the mines of the future will actually be on landfills.
Deleteso hmmmmm maybe.
I believe that was the heating source they used for their hospital in Lucifer's Hammer. However, compost is a secondary solar source. It has its limits.
DeleteI am thinking that along the lines of burning wood there is a need to rethink our 20th century acquired view of heating the whole house. We may have to have winterized rooms to live in during cold periods without breaking our budgets and backs to heat the whole living space.
ReplyDeleteSF - I agree I believe we are going to go back to the old ways of only heating a certain room whether it is done with wood or not. It's will be a shocker for a few people.
DeleteI do so agree. I notice our areas are deep in the olive to green. We have wood out the wazoo.
ReplyDeleteStephen - Ya quite a bit of Florida is very green. Green is good!!!
DeleteI think there's a bit of confusion here regarding the "map".
ReplyDeleteIt's about biomass "production". Not biomass existence. The entire Oregon coast range is covered in trees, unless it's a fresh clear cut. The map shows nothing in some places, which simply isn't true. The second problem with the map, is that it goes by county, and Lane county in Oregon for example has tons of agricultural activity, hence the darker green. Most of the "Production" in Lane county is not wood, it's grass seed, corn, and other Ag crops. Most of the western part of Lane county is on Federal timber lands that have been shut down to logging due to "environmental" concerns, otherwise known as Bullshit. Another example is Josephine and Curry counties, that are huge timberlands locked by the Enviro's illegal and unconstitutional law suits. Rant done.
Sarthurk - You maybe right. I did question it a bit above but I do know there are several areas that show white on the map that have the same grass and the like production you mention.
DeleteI am not familiar with Oregon but the states around that I am familiar with the White/Green areas seemed to correspond with forested areas more than anything else.
I am not confident enough about that claim to dispute your observations however so you may be right.
Also I might add the map says "total potential biomass availability...." Not production. So who knows?
DeleteI think Sarthuk is correct. Idaho has the largest stand of white pine in the lower 48 and it almost completly white.
DeleteIdaho's big weekness is no petroleum products or refineries. I think when people think of the Redout they don't look hard enough at some of the basic logistics of the area.
MASR - I don't know. All I know is it says potential. Maybe they aren;t even counting trees?
DeleteIf you replace the BTUs of fuel oil and natural gas used in heating homes, you will chop down every tree in the forest in no time. Almost all the ancient agricultural civilizations had major problems with deforestation and their populations are tiny in comparison to ours.
ReplyDeleteThe scary lose would be an inability to make fertilizer out of natural gas.
Russ - No argument there it would take all the trees on earth to replace even a few months worth of fossil fuels.
DeleteGonna be a big surprise for some people I bet.
Many are saying the fertilizer issue is on us now too.