tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14404262.post3565721102976641084..comments2024-03-28T04:42:54.715-07:00Comments on The Forty-Five: What If Winter Really Was ComingToirdhealbheach Beucailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14872794169534403463noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14404262.post-30956242320374356102018-01-17T15:37:16.340-08:002018-01-17T15:37:16.340-08:00It is a valid point Reverend - but the pundits als...It is a valid point Reverend - but the pundits also forget that 19th Century technology was built on the history of 2000 years of skills to make that technology. In reality, many people have lost most of the knowledge to make even 18th century technology possible: who among us can not only cast a stove (delightful point) but can make a pan to boil water on the wood stove or make tenon system for construction (after all, nails and screws will eventually disappear if you do not make those either) or even prepare food from scratch - and by scratch, I mean just after it was in its previous mode of life (using knives from the aforementioned foundry).<br /><br />No, I fear we would fall much, much farther - not in what we had available but in our ability to maintain and build new things. Even the Romans built concrete we still cannot replicate. Maybe Athens and Sparta will rise again, after all.Toirdhealbheach Beucailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14872794169534403463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14404262.post-84151072452980728742018-01-17T06:30:36.854-08:002018-01-17T06:30:36.854-08:00Pundits like to bandy terms like "we'd go...Pundits like to bandy terms like "we'd go back to 19th Century life" when referring to the effects of an EMP or other disaster. Not so: we don't have a 19th-century infrastructure, like our grandparents did. Very few have wood-burning stoves in the kitchen, or an outhouse. Kerosene lamps are a bit more common, but only just. <br /><br />We'd go back to 18th century life in short order, or possibly further. How many coal-fired foundries are available to make new woodstoves for us, after all?Rev. Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04588179227576383679noreply@blogger.com