Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Sun, 15 Apr 2012 11:26:03 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Without power, the big cities will last a few weeks.

You give them that long? Pull the plug and I reckon there would be
open revolt, riots and looting well within 24hrs. If it wasn't such a
serious situation it would be interesting to see what people looted,
plasma tellies or nonperishable food, I know what I'd be after.


history suggests that law an order breaks down in hours yes, but people
do not die immediately. Stuff does keep working a bit longer than that,
and a small proportion of vicious feral cannibal hunter gatherers will
survive a long time.


Of course the plug won't just be pulled. The markets will force
prices up, more and more will end up in fuel poverty, rolling/rota'd
power cuts will start, some demonstrations, moving slowly
(weeks/months) into out and out civil unrest.


No one will pull any plugs: what happens though is a vicious cycle of
positive feedback where as more and more stuff works less and less, the
ability to keep the rest going is compromised.

In the end there is nothing to plug into.


The writing is on the wall for those that can read and care to look.

No one does. All in denial.


--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.