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VK3API > FUEL 09.03.08 05:37l 75 Lines 3559 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 170458VK3API
Read: GUEST
Subj: Re:Optimists & Pessimists VK6BE
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Sent: 080309/0416Z @:VK3API.#MEL.VIC.AUS.OC #:8539 [Lilydale] FBB7.00g
From: VK3API@VK3API.#MEL.VIC.AUS.OC
To : FUEL@WW
Hi Barry and others,
Not to sure about localised vegetables. For the last 40 odd years I have
had a home grown vegetable garden. On my old farm it was about 80m by 150m
and even that wasn't sufficient to be fully self supporting. This was even
utilising home killed sheep for the meat component of our diet.
Since moving into town I have had only a few fruit trees and a little 5m
by 5m vegetable garden however for the last two years I haven't had any
home vegetable garden due to the water restrictions. Not much point in all
the hard work if you can't water them to reach an end product.
I have neaarly 200 olive trees about to fruit but man cannot live by
olives alone.
I simply can't see our current civilisations having the resources to live
on home grown produce. As someone who has been supplementing the larder
for all that time I believe we would be beaten by the seasonality of the
production. Also none of our current suburban home sites have enough land
available for that sort of production.
Assuming that electricity becomes dearer and less available with oil
availability dropping, then probably refrigeration will also be
unaffordable and then we are back to the unhealthy middle ages practices
of salting or pickling. Perhaps we will all end up on a diet of "hard
tack".
As far back as the early 1970's experts at Monash university (near
Melbourne) were proclaiming that if all the computers in Australia were
turned off then we would starve due to the problems that would then insue
with distribution and inventory. With no, or restricted elctricity,
computers may become uneconomic and the old Monash prediction could come
true. Much worse now than when it was made due to the increased dependance
upon computers for all phases of business
I would still like to see all of the otherwise unproductive land in Oz
covered in solar cells. Then we could become a hydrogen based "O.P.E.C."
of the Pacific, exporting hydrogen around the world for use by other
nations. In between the solar cells we could fit wind generators. If oil
is unavailable or priced horrendously high then hydrogen becomes cost
effective. Better still the waste product of its use could come back to
us via the ocean. Energy problem solved Q.E.D.
On a different note there is a significant change in water level in the
Pacific ocean just to the east of Oz. Perhaps we could fit a lots of
large turbines working across the water level change to utilise that, or
even put some anchored turbines in the major Pacific circulating ocean
current... Just a thought..
I noted your comments on redesigning cities to be greener. Well no
problems there except lack of a motor access will severly hinder
handicapped people. As someone who is still able to ride a bike, but due
to other problems can't walk more than about 100m maximum. I would be
basically locked at home. These cities "designed for pedestrian access"
are gouing to pile more difficulties on people like me. My nearest public
transport is 5km away over exceedingly hilly terrain. To steep for the
bike and can't walk.
More on this later. The discriminatory practices of designing towns and
cities only for healthy people under the age of thirty negates all the
equal opportunity work done over the last 20 years on improving access for
the handicapped.
Regards Tony VK3API
73 - Tony, VK3API @ VK3FBD.#MEL.VIC.AUS.OC
Message timed: 19:20 on 2008-Mar-08
This message originated in Lilydale Melbourne Victoria Australia
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