Jim, that's quite an indictment of the status quo. In some ways your post reads like a list of opportunities for shorts. It reminded me of how perspectives on life, in general, can vary from day to day, sometimes based on events that are first-hand and up close, which are extrapolated to shape our global outlooks. That said, it's difficult to argue any of the points you made in isolation without taking the discussion to an existential level, or one that focuses on regionalism, in a tribal sort of way, comparing the aging infrastructure of one region to the newly-developed, opportunity-enabling infrastructure of another. In the latter regard, globalization doesn't really channel to a level playing field, when you think about it. At least not when you consider standing at the starter's gate with four hundred pounds of dead meat (aging infrastructure) on your back that is not easily removed. Individuals can certainly extricate themselves in a free and easy way and seize opportunities as they see them, no matter where they appear. This assumes they have the wherewithal to do so and their other dependencies and obligations permit. Others will often remain behind, or worse, they will find themselves regressing, when they are not merely picking up the slack that's been left to them by those who move forward. Leap-frogging always helps in these situations, as we're seeing taking place on a global scale, if the right set of history and economics are in place and it can be supported. Obviously, I'm personifying nations here, just as much as I am people.
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I happened across an interesting and somewhat unusually placed blog entry in my search of submarine cables in Canada today. I thought you and others here would appreciate reading it for its relevance to some of the issues we've been discussing in this subthread, particularly with respect to aging power grids. It's from a culinary blog titled: Notes from the Vegan Feast Kitchen:
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Saturday, November 18, 2006
STORMS, AND BAKED ORANGE FRENCH TOAST WITH BUMBLEBERRY SAUCE
Baked vegan French Toast with "Bumbleberry" Sauce and Soyatoo vegan whipped topping
veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.com
We actually had a whole day without power outages yesterday! But there is another big storm coming, so it's "batten down the hatches" time again!
(See a picture of a BC ferry fighting the storm on Weds. Click on the photo for a larger view: planetark.com )
Our little islands (Denman and Hornby) have an additional problem. Here is the explanation from BC Hydro:
"Service to Denman Island is provided as three-phase, at 25,000 volts using three relatively old submarine cables that are near their end of life. An extra cable (fourth) is used as a spare cable for back up and is relatively new in
comparison. Service is continued from Denman Island to Hornby Island.
BC Hydro initiated a planned outage on Sunday to test the condition
of the four undersea cables that serve Denman Island. Service was restored back to normal later that day after successfully completing the tests. On Monday, in the early morning, one of the undersea cables faulted and resulted in a power outage. We switched power to the fourth or spare undersea cable and re-energized the circuit. Later that same day, a second undersea cable faulted.
The service to both island's is now at single-phase, 14,400 volts.
For residential customers this means business as usual. However, for commercial customers such as the Co-op and schools, that use three-phase power, the current service is insufficient and requires a three-phase diesel generator. We are working with those customers for short-term solutions.
With the age and condition of these failed cables, they must be replaced. BC Hydro is now developing a plan to replace all three of the original aged submarine cables (approximately 6000 meters), as well as the two failed cables, with new cables with more capacity. This will improve reliability to the islands. BC Hydro will be removing the failed cables, lay the new cables, and tie in the new equipment to return Denman and Hornby to three-phase power. At this time we are unsure how long this process will take, but we hope to begin the seven days of work beginning Monday. There will be a few planned, short duration outages during this work. We will update you on Monday with more information, and the planned outages, as the plan comes together.
Thank you for your patience.
The outage on Wednesday and Thursday was due to extreme winds and trees contacting our lines. At one point on Wednesday we had just over 200,000 customers without power throughout the BC Hydro system."
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Oh, well-- what can you do? Just be prepared.
In the meantime, I'm getting this blog done!
We had a kind of fancy Saturday breakfast this morning-- baked (therefore lower in fat) vegan French toast with berries and whipped "cream", and soy cappuccinos!
[cont.]
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