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Applegater Winter 2011 23 THE POSTMAN Can you go grid-less for 30 days? BY RICHARD ALAN MILLER AND YVONNE-MARIE ZANCANARO The report mentioned in the following article may be read in its entirety or downloaded at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_ id=12507 masses in panic and fear? You have more resources than you may know. And, surviving a crisis safely requires an assessment of your means of survival now, when things appear fine. The Problem To add fuel to the 2012 controversy, the official NASA website is now stating a new potential for disaster: a large set of solar flares within the next two years. While the normal solar storm cycle is every eleven years, this new set begins early next year. And, they(it) are predicted to be some of the largest solar flares in recorded history. Mainstream scientific concern has grown since the release of a recent National Research Council report (funded by NASA), “Severe Space Weather Events: Un- derstanding Economic and Societal Impact,” issued by the National Academy of Sciences. The report details the potential devastation of the 2012 solar storms on our current planetary energy grid. An assortment of videos on this subject may be found at: http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=nasa+so lar+flares+2012&qpvt=nasa+solar+flares+2012&FOR M=VDRE Because of the inter-linkages of our current cyber- netic society, human civilization is at serious risk. The concern is a repetition of the 8-day 1859 “Carrington event,” when a large solar flare accompanied by a coro- nal mass ejection (CME), flung billions of tons of solar plasma onto the earth’s magnetosphere. This disrupted Victorian-era magnetometers and the worldwide tele- graph system. The report outlines the worst case scenario for the US. The “perfect storm” is most likely on a spring or autumn night in a year of heightened solar activity - something like 2012. Around the equinoxes, the orienta- tion of the Earth’s field to the sun makes us particularly vulnerable to a plasma strike. Sunspots are tangled knots of magnetism generated by the sun’s inner dynamo. A typical sunspot exists for just a few weeks. Then it decays, leaving behind a “corpse” of weak magnetic fields. The “conveyor belt” is a current phenomenon on the sun. It skims the surface of the sun, sweeping up the magnetic fields of old, dead sunspots. These magnetic knots (corpses) are dragged down at the poles to a depth of 200,000 km, where the sun’s magnetic dynamo can amplify them. Once the corpses are amplified, they become buoyant and float back to the surface, as new sunspots. When (not if ) this problem occurs, these flares will be like an ELF spike, where most devices using computer chips will cease to function – and, mostly need to be replaced. This would include telephones, your banking service, some automobiles, and certainly delivery systems (like food to local supermarkets). This disruption in our power grid will even extend to hos- pitals, and basics (like those people with pacemakers). The primary scientific concern is that the public is not prepared for these major inconveniences. For example, water from a well might need to be hand- pumped until power can be replaced. The report states to “expect delays in delivery systems” for up to two consecutive weeks. So, the BIG QUESTION is, “can you live off the energy grid for 30 days?” The categories for critical requirements include: Water http://www.survival-center.com/guide/water.htm Food http://www.survival-center.com/guide/food.htm Medicine http://www.survival-homestead.com/survival- medicine-2.html Fuel http://www.survivalblog.com/2007/05/fuel_stor- age_for_survival_retr.html Heat http://www.survivaltopics.com/survival/heat/ Entertainment/distraction http://survivalpreparedness911.com/Entertain- ment1.html The Solution When Angie was five, we moved to a small cabin in a 240-acre woodlot. For the next five years we lived without electricity, phones, television or computers. Our water came from an above-ground stream running into black plastic hosing. We chose to make this move so we would learn how to live well, if and when all other services failed. The experience was very educational. I recall driving into town one day and calling my Grandma, who was very upset because the electricity had gone out and she was unable to have breakfast. I remember my daughter laughing out loud. Will you be laughing and having a good time when all services stop? Or are you going to join the With solar storms, the power grid alone may be down for up to two weeks, and may even require new parts (computer chips) before being functional again. Water Facts: A person can live one month without food, but only three days without water. For optimum health, the amount of drinking water a person should consume is found by taking the weight of the person, dividing that by two, and drinking that number in ounces each day. For example, someone who weighed 150 pounds would need 75 ounces per day. There are 128 ounces in a gallon, so someone who weighs 150 pounds needs to drink ½ gallon a day. According to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), for emergencies, you should store at least one gallon of water per person per day. First the open water sources will most likely become polluted very quickly. For flushing a toilet this is not a problem. But if you want to wash clothes or do dishes, contaminants in the water can still cause diseases and skin rashes. The Center for Disease Control records over 4,000 cases each year of illness due to drinking contaminated water (dysentery, typhoid, and hepatitis). Every family should have water purification tablets in stock. Fifty (50) tablets cost about $4.99 and can be found on dozens of internet sites, or Wal-Mart and most sporting good stores. Although this may make water safe to drink, it is very advis- able to have a ceramic hand-operated water filter. Ceramic filters take 99.9% of all contaminates out of any water. Hand-pump type filters cost anywhere from $30 (upward). Keep in mind that larger filters are more efficient, processing larger amounts of water. Boiling water for the recommended ten minutes to kill organisms may not be an option, especially if fuel is not abundant. And, boiling water will not remove chemical contaminants. It’s time to begin a survival plan, particularly if you need to “go off the grid” for 30 days. At the very least you should have distilled water for your family in containers for seven days usage. For basic survival equipment for water, begin at http://www.equipped.com/toc.htm Richard Alan Miller, Physicist www.richardalanmiller.com/ram/ and Yvonne-Marie Zancanaro, Herbalist http://heritagemeadowsfarm.blogspot.com/ Contact for both: 541-476-5588 Do you have a question for the “Postman” regard- ing crops for profit on the homestead? If so, send them to rick@nwbotanicals.org. Richard will answer all of them.We will print some of the questions and answers in the next APPLEGATER. 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