No electricity - what would happen to the world?

What food ?

 

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Occasionally, there is a major earthquake on the Great Alpine Fault in New Zealand's South Island. The last one was ca. 1720 AD; the times before that were ca. 1630, ca. 1520, ca. 1450, ca. 1100 AD--so you see, they're unpredictable, and one could happen at any time. The problem is that in the event, there would be catastrophic damage done to the electrical grid, because most of the major power-supply dams and lakes are down in the high country of the South Island, and the supply lines to the North Island would be massively disrupted.

This would be enough of a problem in itself, but most of the population (ca 75%) live in the North Island, and the NI doesn't have enough generating capacity to look after its own population--so the instant the earthquake happens, three quarters of the population will be put back into the 19th Century overnight.

I'd have to emigrate to keep in touch with sciforums...

 

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either that or buy yourself a portable generator for emergency use...Might make afew quid selling excess electricity as well...ha

btw don't forget the fuel for the genny an da small army to protect yourselves...

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sexting...what else???any sugestions

 

There's a zillion different ways to harness or produce electricity.

Are you just removing the existing infrastructure that distributes it to everybody? In that case, numerous isolated entities will still have power for one reason or another. If you remove them, then the knowledge of how to produce electricity is still ubiquitous. At this point, then only thing you can do is temporarily disrupt production of electricity........but it would be like shaking an ant farm, - it will quickly come right back.

I'm certain in any scenario, the immediate effects (during the "recovery phase") would be the consumption and price of petrol skyrocketing. Huge numbers of people would no longer have jobs, and the ability to conduct commerce would be dodgy at best (no banks in many areas). I think all the particulars like refrigeration and whatnot would be small potatoes compared to trying to afford goods when they are available.