Introduction

Those of us who are fortunate to live in the developed world often take for granted the availability of abundant sources of energy, and we do not fully appreciate the difficult life faced by half the world’s population, who substitute their own labor or that of domestic animals for the machines and devices that are so common in the developed world. A brief taste of what life is like without access to abundant energy sources is provided at those times when the power goes out. But, while survival during such brief interludes may not be in question (except in special circumstances), try to imagine what life would be like if the power were to go out for a period of say 6 months. Not having cell phones, television, Internet, or radio might be the least of your problems, especially if the extended power failure occurred during a cold winter when food was not available, and your “taking up farming” was a complete joke, even if you had the knowledge, tools, and land to do so. As much as some of us might imagine the pleasures of a simple preindustrial lifestyle without all the trappings

of our high-technology society, the reality would likely be quite different if we were suddenly plunged into a world without electricity. It is likely that a large fraction of the population would not survive 6 months. The idea of a prolonged failure of the power grid in many nations simultaneously is not just some outlandish science fiction prospect, and could occur as a result of a large solar flare directed at the planet, as discussed in Chapter 14. The last one that was large enough to do the job apparently was the “Carrington Event,” which occurred in 1859 before our electrified civilization existed, but it did cause telegraph systems all over North America and Europe to fail.