Morris Dovey (in ) said:

| Tom Veatch (in ) said:
|
|| I suspect that anyone with an ounce of reasoning power can complete
|| this sentence:
||
|| "If technology is necessary to support the population at it's
|| current number, and that technology fails, then ..."
|
| ...at that point it becomes imperative to shift to alternative
| technology (or technologies) as rapidly as possible to minimize the
| damage.

I'd like to expand on my response. About two years ago, I went through
a contingency planning exercise for my business (manufacturing passive
solar heating panels) and detailed the steps that'd need to be taken
to provide enough panels to solar heat every dwelling in the state of
Iowa. I used the assumption that raw materials would be available and
that the time to procure materials would not be degraded by more than
25%. I also made the assumption that there would be sufficient power
available to run shop machinery (either from the grid, local
generators, or alternative sources). I did /not/ assume that I would
be able to procure additional CNC machines.

I was a bit surprised to discover that it would be possible, with
those assumptions, to meet that objective within seven months. It'd
mean long hours of exhausting work; but it could be done, if needed.

I'm not sure how "real world" that is; and I'm very aware that Iowa
has a small population (around 3 million) - but I have a high degree
of confidence in our ability to weather even major disasters provided
that we don't sit on our hands and wait for the government to solve
our problems.

I'm rather hoping that other businesses have put together their own
contingency plans...

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto