Sunday, August 17, 2003
The power is back on (not that southstation.org was in the dark for even a second) and the finger-pointing begins. Was it New York, was it Ohio, was it Ontario? Some say, "who cares?" Ask the people who lost the food in their freezer, couldn't cash their paycheck, had to climb 20 stories to their apartment, lost their home because of candles lit and use inappropriately.
I am reminded of a series that ran on PBS some twenty years or so ago. Hosted by James Burke, Connections explored the links that we take for granted in our lives. I will never forget the first series, which chained a domino effect of stories surrounding a prolonged power failure. So, you lost power. You can't stay in your apartment or home, as the electricity ran your refrigerator, phone, TV, everything you use during the day to stay hydrated (the water, you found out, is pumped to your house by electrical pumps,) fed (the fridge,) informed (the TV and phone.) So, you set out in your car. And get far enough away that you are running out of gas. Surprise(!) the gas pumps are run by electricity, and you will get no further. You are hungry, and find an abandoned farm. Well, the farmers could grow food on a farm, lets see what we can do. But the machinery to plant and harvest the crops are run on gasoline, and the other farm machinery by electricity. Would you know how to hitch up a horse and plow? Would you be able to subsist your family while waiting for the crops to grow?
One domino falls after another when we discover our reliance on a given, electricity. You wouldn't be able to read this web site by turning a crank on a hand-driven computer, they don't exist, so you have electricity. And our dependence on cooling renders those air conditioners still when electricity fails. And people, who live in buildings where the windows don't open anymore, designed to function with an electrically driven climate control system, can perish in the heat.
What we need is some sort of authority, created by the power companies to design better fault-tolerant systems for our electical grid. I remember the Northeast blackout of 1965, where a single set of circuit breakers took the grid down in New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Since then, the New England states have developed a separate grid which has the proper controls to separate itself from the greater Northeast distribution system, which is why some commerce in Boston, Hartford and Providence functioned. I say "some" as it was impossible to conduct business or travel in the regions affected by the blackout. The domino effect on a large scale.
I feel for those affected in the regions that lost power, and hope that they can affect change to be sure that the "Connections" domino effect doesn't happen again.
-Larry
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I am reminded of a series that ran on PBS some twenty years or so ago. Hosted by James Burke, Connections explored the links that we take for granted in our lives. I will never forget the first series, which chained a domino effect of stories surrounding a prolonged power failure. So, you lost power. You can't stay in your apartment or home, as the electricity ran your refrigerator, phone, TV, everything you use during the day to stay hydrated (the water, you found out, is pumped to your house by electrical pumps,) fed (the fridge,) informed (the TV and phone.) So, you set out in your car. And get far enough away that you are running out of gas. Surprise(!) the gas pumps are run by electricity, and you will get no further. You are hungry, and find an abandoned farm. Well, the farmers could grow food on a farm, lets see what we can do. But the machinery to plant and harvest the crops are run on gasoline, and the other farm machinery by electricity. Would you know how to hitch up a horse and plow? Would you be able to subsist your family while waiting for the crops to grow?
One domino falls after another when we discover our reliance on a given, electricity. You wouldn't be able to read this web site by turning a crank on a hand-driven computer, they don't exist, so you have electricity. And our dependence on cooling renders those air conditioners still when electricity fails. And people, who live in buildings where the windows don't open anymore, designed to function with an electrically driven climate control system, can perish in the heat.
What we need is some sort of authority, created by the power companies to design better fault-tolerant systems for our electical grid. I remember the Northeast blackout of 1965, where a single set of circuit breakers took the grid down in New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Since then, the New England states have developed a separate grid which has the proper controls to separate itself from the greater Northeast distribution system, which is why some commerce in Boston, Hartford and Providence functioned. I say "some" as it was impossible to conduct business or travel in the regions affected by the blackout. The domino effect on a large scale.
I feel for those affected in the regions that lost power, and hope that they can affect change to be sure that the "Connections" domino effect doesn't happen again.
-Larry
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