Thursday, April 22, 2010

Instapundit Blog Archive VOLCANO ASH CLOUD SETS OFF GLOBAL DOMINO EFFECT: While the volcanic ash cloud covering parts of E…

Instapundit � Blog Archive � VOLCANO ASH CLOUD SETS OFF GLOBAL DOMINO EFFECT:

While the volcanic ash cloud covering parts of E…
: "UPDATE: Reader Stephen Skaggs writes: “This shows not only tightly-coupled the global economy has become, but illustrates the impossibilities of centrally planned economies.” Well, yes, we’re back to the old Knowledge Problem again . . . ."

His post links to several articles well worth reading. The modern world seems to have been incentivized to be fragile; that is a bad thing. Was it on purpose? I don't know, and neither does it matter, we need to make ourselves less fragile.

The important thing to do is to build in resilience to our systems.
Unfortunately, I don't see government stepping up to the plate, and frankly we don't need them to.

We need to build resilience into our own lives. Food, Water, and Energy are the big ones in this case.

A few weeks of food and water will help you survive most natural disasters, and few months supplies will help you survive a temporary job loss.

Some flashlights and a UPS will help you get through a typical blackout which lasts only a few hours. A small solar electric installation will do for longer blackouts, it doesn't have to power everything all at once, but if it can run the frig in the summer or the furnace in the winter and occasionally the dishwasher or clothes washer one-at-a-time, it would be enough.