Discussion for article #225503
We donāt really design for long term sustainability. Our mission critical infrastructure is vulnerable to cosmic events most decision makers donāt even realize are possible, much less mitigatable. Read āOrphans of the Skyā, by Heinlein. Our lives are too short, our transmission of knowledge across the generations too fragile to sustain truly long term policies. I think nature intended for us to live in grass huts next to rivers and eat clams and berries.
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Thanks Obama.
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Letās assume we can protect our infrastructure against such a catastrophe by spending several billion dollars. The odds of this happening are zero because conservatives would:
- deny the science and say this is a liberal hoax
- say the US is broke and we canāt afford this
- claim states should deal with it individually
Then, if an event does occur, the conservativeās response would be:
- if a Dem is in White House, it is all their fault for not protecting the infrastructure
- if a Republican is in White House, it is all the previous Dem Presidentās fault for not protecting the infrastructure.
So the only way we can truly safeguard against this is to have a Dem controlled House, Senate, and Presidency. See California as an example of what happens when responsible adults are allowed to govern. (Conversely, see Kansas for example of what happens when conservatives are given the keys.)
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Thereās only one thing to do about this: repeal Obamacare!
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Itās ok, I have a surge protector.
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JOHN BOEHNER: Iām fine. Iām wearing golf shoes so I am grounded.
But if it hits, Iām not sure what will happen to my balls.
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Why worry about what happens to things that donāt exist?
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The right-wingers would also say they are vindicated about the āend timesā, caused by Obama being president. And him being black, of course. 
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Who has an electric pump in their toilet?
No one does. He meant that the pumps that pump water into the water towers that you see around any bit of civilization would cease working. Those water towers distribute their stored water via gravity, but something (electric pumps) have to pump that water up there. Once the tanks empty, you would not be able to flush now would you have any other running water in your house. The sentence should have been written differently.
Actually, the toilet would be the least of our worries. Itās going to be awfully hard to chemically treat enough safe drinking water until all the electronics at your local water treatment plant are fixed. Oh, yippeee! Cholera!
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We miss a civilization threatening event in 2012 and no one mentions how close the Aztecās were in predicting doom in 2012?
Cāmon internet!
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I love youāre thinking about the base infrastructure no one pays attention to anymore. If the electricity is turned back on, think of all the complex electronics controling our water/sewage system that are now fried, even if they could get juice.
This is one of the main issues for long-term space exploration/travel, even on the Moon, much less Mars or the gas giant moons. Everyone on Earth would get pretty lights in the sky and no light out of their bulbs. Anyone not protected by an atmosphere would be a large beer can in a galactic scale microwave oven.
Donāt tell John McCain.
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Well, I have an electric pump in my well. If it goes out I canāt flush my toilet.
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Google āmacerating pumpā.
If you were going to describe this problem would you say, āmost people wouldnāt have been able to flush their toilets, as many rely on electric pumps.ā
Would you really say it so that itās all about toilet flushing? I wouldnāt.
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Is this something most people have?
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If you live below your water treatment plant, somewhere between you and the treatment plant is a big macerating pump. So, a lot of people rely on them.
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How will we survive??? without Sarah Palinās tweets?
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