Peak Oil Medicine

At the start of June 2007, the Australian city where I live (Newcastle NSW) was hit by a monster “1 in 30 year” storm that flooded hundreds of homes and ran up a damage bill of over $1 billion Australian dollars.

As a consequence, our house was left without electricity for around 5 days. It’s winter here, and although temperatures are relatively mild (no lower than 4-5 degrees Centigrade overnight), it was cold enough when one is accustomed to home heating.

So as I sat there in my small circle of candlelight, in my 4 layers of clothes, socks and beanie, I decided to make use of my situation by thinking about how it might provide some insight into some of the issues likely to confront us as peak oil and gas approach.

The first thing I did was to start two lists – they are titled “items I’m glad I had” and “items I wish I had”. I brainstormed a few initial points for each, and then added to them over the next few days as events dictated. I will present both lists below, and then discuss some of the issues that arise. I have linked some of the items to their Amazon counterparts in case you’re not sure what I’m talking about. The items in bold got an asterix from me as being the most important ones.

Items I’m glad I had
Candles
Matches
Head Light (Petzl Tikka Plus - 3AAA)
Trangia Stove + fuel (TRANGIA 25-3 ALC STOVE NON STK)
Warm Sleeping Bag (Columbia 0-Degree Elk Meadows Mummy Sleeping Bag)
Water Containers
Powerful Torch
Good Raincoat
Warm Hat
Warm Socks
Wind-up Torches (Dynamo Wind-Up Flashlight)
Skylights in house (for natural lighting)
BBQ and gas
Shovel (to clear blocked drains outside)
Tarpaulin

Items I wish I had
Gas Camp Cooker
Gas Lantern
Wind-up Radio (Emergency Weather Radio - Solar Crank Radio Flashlight with Weather Band)
Nightstar Torch (Nightstar Magnetic Force Flashlight Hi-Tech Clear)
Solar Mobile Phone Charger
Old-Fashioned Stove-Top Kettle
Spare Batteries for everything
Candle-Lantern (More efficient lighting and easy to walk around with candle)
Dried Food (easy to prepare in one pot)
Waterproof Safe (mainly for photos and important records)
Spare petrol (Hard to get due to power failure)
Pot-Belly Stove (for heat, cooking and light)
More Skylights (quite dark inside as days were overcast or raining)
Generator (perhaps  mainly to prevent food spoilage + light)
Lap-Top Computer (could recharge at friends house and stay online)
Solar Hot Water (hot water emerged as the main modern-day luxury that was hard to go without)

Comments and Observations
I was able to live in a lot less space (as I had rooms closed to conserve heat, and it was hard to see in the day to do finely-detailed work or read).

I used a lot less things (as all the high-tech stuff was deactivated), and they tended to be general purpose rather than specialised.

Battery-powered items will fail fairly quickly unless you are able to recharge them, or have a cache of copper-tops. Likewise, mobile phones are only of continued utility while the people that you want to talk to are able to charge them up, as well as yourself.

I was surprised to discover how quickly the survival instinct kicked in. For instance, I developed an increased sense of self-reliance, solving problems with low-tech fixes. I also became increasingly frugal with my use of “consumables’, as I didn’t want to exhaust my supply of batteries, stove fuel and candles.

I was amazed to see how important light (both natural and my limited artificial resource) was. I really was governed by the sun; I could only work outdoors in the daytime, and at night it was hard to do things by candle-light (and also why waste candles when you don’t need to). It really came down to a trade-off between the amount of candle-burn versus the need to get something done at night. I was amazed that I was thinking in these terms, given that the blackout was artificial and short-term (compared to the long emergency). Another thing – you need light to cook at night (preferably keeping one’s hands free – hence the value of my headlight).

Conclusion
I gained a lot more insight into these issues than I thought I would (given the short-term nature of the event). Newcastle really was a mess for a few days, and it was hard to get things done. Candles, gas stoves and lanterns disappeared immediately, so if you didn’t have it at home you missed out (hence my list) – get prepared now!

I would suggest that you try going for 24 or 48 hours without electricity twice a year (winter and summer) if possible and safe for you to do so. If you want a real challenge, do it right now to simulate a storm or unexpected blackout. The insights that you find might surprise you.