Survive- The Economic Collapse

by Piero San Giorgio

  Ibuprofen (as eye drops)

  Strep Throat (Streptococcal Pharyngitis)

  Penicillin V or Macrolide

  Pneumonia

  Cephalosporin / Cefuroxime Tetracycline / Doxycycline

  Sinus Infection (Sinusitis)

  Ibuprofen

  Ulcer

  Amoxicillin

  Urethra Infection

  Ceftriaxone / Cefixime / Macrolide / Azithromycin

  Chickenpox (Varicella infection)

  Valaciclovir

  Heart Failure

  Metoprolol / Lisinopril / Torsemide / Spironolactone / Carvedilol / Enalapril / Valsartan / Furosemide / Eplerenone

  Migraine Headache

  Paracetamol / Ibuprofen

  Venomous Snake Bite

  Antivenin Crotalidae polyvalent is an effective anti-venom for various poisonous snakes in North, Central, and South America, including rattlesnakes.

  Nausea and Vomiting

  Domperidone / Metoclopramide

  Parasitic Worms

  Anthelmintics:

  Mebendazole against roundworms (nematodes), whipworm, hookworm, etc.

  Triclabendazole against tapeworms (flatworms and flukes), Dipylidium, Echinococcus, etc.

  Note that for many medications, their effectiveness rarely lasts for more than two years. And be very careful about using medications after their expiry dates. Some expired medications will have no effect; others can put you at risk. Ask your doctor for advice.

  Take a first-aid course in order to learn the basic steps to be taken in treating a person in the case of accident or injury: secure, examine, alert, act, reassure. You will learn some useful techniques such as the Heimlich maneuver, compression for a hemorrhage, compress bandaging, positioning a patient safely on his side, cardiac massage, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and the half-seated position.

  You will need to be healthy and strong to survive in a collapsing world. Start now getting your teeth and eyes checked, getting an overall medical checkup, etc. If possible, immediately treat any illnesses you can treat in order to eliminate them quickly. The most important thing is prevention, which starts with a healthy way of life. Also, be open to so-called “alternative” medicine that uses medicinal plants that you can cultivate. Observe and research which of these treatments work, and which simply don’t. Finally, while assembling the team that can join you in your SAB, give a high priority to including a doctor.

  And always remember to wash your hands!

  *

  Bjorn and his family have installed an SAB high in the mountains.

  They have always liked mountain climbing, and buying a large chalet (a former vacation colony) in a rather remote corner of the mountains seemed like a good idea. Since then, they have stocked up a lot of food and have plenty of spring water available. There is a river nearby, whose water is pumped and heated with energy obtained through solar panels. Bjorn and his wife have managed their SAB for several years as a little hotel for hikers. They have been able to follow the news of the world on the Internet and, when the cities were becoming chaotic and unlivable, they welcomed a few friends who lost their mortgaged homes; these newcomers were slightly disoriented at first, but quickly adapted themselves to the simple, hard mountain life. For several months, everything has gone well. Winter and snow protected them from the large wave of refugees that devastated the plains. In the spring time, one of the children complained of stomach pains on the lower right side. They have read their medical guide and used a stethoscope on the child; it seems to be a case of appendicitis. They have to wait and hope the infection will pass on its own with the help of antibiotics. But if it degenerates into peritonitis, they will have to operate. No one knows how to do this. One of their friends proposes to go looking for a doctor immediately. Two others volunteer to transport the boy to the nearest village, where there will surely be a doctor. Fortunately, their 4x4 still has enough gas for the journey. A decision is made—administer antibiotics and make the expedition. Four healthy, armed men will take the car and transport the child to the village and look for a doctor from there. They’ll take with them a few bottles of alcohol to trade, a first-aid kit, and a jerrycan with 20 liters of gasoline.

  Point 4: Energy

  <
  william blake

  /1757-1827/

  <
  andré franquin

  _gaston lagaffe

  //1924-1997//

  Very good ! Your SAB is starting to take shape. You have identified water sources and made the water drinkable. You have created a garden with a few animals and stocked six-to-12 months’ worth of food for your family. Finally, you have filled your medicine chest and begun an exercise program to stay in shape. Bravo! Now you must make your SAB autonomous and sustainable for all your energy needs. Undertaking an energy project, however, can be like going off on a trip without any idea of the destination or cost. It may be fun for a little while, but very quickly reality catches up with you, and things can become expensive and problematic.

  First of all, what are we speaking of? Energy? Electricity? Heating? Or something else altogether? Before answering these questions, you must imagine the lifestyle and level of comfort you wish to maintain in your SAB. This will influence your energy needs and thus the solutions for meeting them. If you want to live exactly as you do now—e.g. with all the lights on, air conditioning going full blast all summer long and heating all winter long, music constantly playing and plenty of trips in your SUV—you are going to have greater difficulties than those who prefer a sober, monkish life by candlelight!

  So the fourth fundamental principle of an SAB is energy.

  Let us see what your needs are. In the first place, everything depends on your geographical region. If your SAB is in a warm region (the Mediterranean, the southern United States, etc.), your principle concern will be protecting yourself from the heat. But if your SAB is in a temperate or colder region (the mountains, the arctic zone, etc.), your principal care will be keeping yourself warm. Then we must ask if you want to be completely autonomous or still be connected to an electrical grid. Finally, you must not only calculate the energy you will need but also reflect on what you could save. In fact, by however much you can reduce your energy needs, you will also solve that much of your energy-production problem. The only free energy is what you do not need to generate!

  So as not to have to study all possible cases, we shall imagine an SAB situated in a temperate region of Europe or North America with warm summers and cold winters, and which is, for the moment, connected to the electrical grid. We shall also take into account the normal energy consumption of a well-off family of two adults with two children, but which could accommodate up to 10 adults in an emergency.

  Let us start by covering the notion of thermal comfort and heat exchanges. Calorific energy, i.e. heat, always circulates from warm toward cold (remember entropy!). So when two bodies or materials of different temperature are put near each other, the warmer gives up calories to the other, more or less rapidly according to the nature of the material. One warms up at the expense of the other, which cools off. These changes take place in four ways: by conduction, or contact (a hand warms itself against a bowl of hot soup, a foot is cooled by a cold stone floor); by radiation (warming oneself in front of a fire); by air convection (the warmth provided by a radiator or the coolness of a breeze); and by evaporation (you cool off from perspiring). A good understanding of these four kinds of heat exchange can help you save energy. So let us try to make the living areas of your SAB, which for simplicity’s sake we will call the “house,” as energy efficient as possible. A house that consumes little energy and manages it efficiently is called a passive house.

  If you build a house, try to take advantage of the best possible orientation: use sunlight and take into account that (in the Northern hemisphere) the south side is always the sunniest. If th
e sun is too warm in your latitude, avoid windows facing south and cool your house with natural air conditioning thanks to the circulation of fresh air. Also, arrange to have the roof cast as much shade as possible. Make shade with tents, awnings, shutters or even fabrics, as is traditionally done in warm climates. Watch out for verandas and winter gardens that remain open to the house and continue to heat it during the summer months. Make as much use as possible of the plant environment: shade from trees, climbing plants (which add to the isolation), grounds that reflect light more or less, etc. You can plant greenery or a lawn on a roof or terrace, which will help humidify the air and reduce temperature differences in winter and summer.

  If, on the other hand, you live in a cold climate, do the opposite: install windows facing south (consider the shade from any possible trees, buildings, mountains, etc.). Be sure to optimize the orientation of rooms, and make use of natural light, which will let you have better illumination all year round. In all cases, a judicious choice of construction materials according to their thermal, and not merely aesthetic properties, will be of great importance to your overall “thermal strategy.” The differences will be noted in your energy consumption. You will also have to eliminate any unhealthy moisture caused by humidity. This can be done by ventilation, preferably natural, but if the “water” rooms (toilets, bathrooms) are insulated and without a window on the exterior, you will have to install an electric ventilation system.

  You should also consider a “Canadian well,” which is a system allowing ventilation of a building with air from outside, but whose temperature has been modified by circulating underground, bringing about heat exchanges with the cool earth. Thanks to inertia, the earth suffers less temperature variation the deeper it is. Thus, in the summer, the air will be cooled 5 to 10 degrees Celsius, while in winter it will be warmed. This allows you to economize on heating in the winter and to have fresh air in the summer.

  Old buildings from before the industrial revolution, especially in the countryside, were often well planned from the point of view of energy efficiency. This was because the people living in them had to warm themselves, and every log they could avoid cutting and transporting would save them effort. I enjoy hearing old peasants make fun, quite justifiably, of the absurdity and ugliness of modern buildings. Those suburban apartment blocks and industrial quarters will be quickly abandoned when energy becomes too expensive!

  Once you have made use of the natural possibilities of your house, you must diagnose its energy performance in order to determine and locate problems and inefficiencies. You must be sure that the roof, walls, and floor are sufficiently insulated and that the windows are airtight. Also, identify any heat conduits that are not insulated, as they are a frequent source of energy loss. Verify that heating water (or any other water) is not lost through leaky joints. Also make sure that your hot-water heater and pipes are insulated. You might install a timer, which only heats the water when you need it, according to your habits: if you usually shower in the morning, heat the water an hour ahead of time and cut off the heating for the rest of the day. Finally, install the most efficient radiators you can find; there are many kinds: convection, radiation, inertial, etc., and their efficiency depends on the size and insulation of your rooms. It is usually easy and quick to acquire sufficient expertise in these matters.

  Now that the living spaces of your SAB are well-insulated and energy loss has been managed efficiently, you must try to diminish your consumption of electricity. First, we should understand that the watt (symbol W) is a unit of energetic and thermal flux—a rate of flow and not a quantity. For example, a toaster with a power of 1,200 watts that operates for six minutes (i.e., 1/10 of an hour) consumes 120 watts per hour (Wh). If it operates for an hour, it will consume 1,200 Wh or 1.2 kilowatt per hour (kWh).

  The watt is a small unit:

  A nuclear power station produces several billion watts (gigawatts per hour or gWh).

  A train engine has an average power of 4 million watts (megawatts per hour or MWh).

  A washing machine requires power on the order of a thousand watts per hour (kWh).

  A professional cyclist can deliver, at his maximum effort, a power of about 430 Wh, which might raise questions about the potential of cycle-slavery, if only the drugs didn’t cost so much.

  A portable computer consumes about 15 Wh.

  A normal, incandescent lightbulb requires 60 Wh; a low- consumption electric lightbulb only requires 10 Wh; and an electroluminescent diode, or LED (“light emitting diode”) needs only about 2 Wh.

  So how do you reduce consumption, and thus watts used? Let’s begin with equipment: refrigerators and freezers are large consumers of electricity, often more than the lighting in a house of normal size. Avoid large refrigerators of the American type and choose a smaller model. A fridge that consumes 4 to 6 kWh, for example, could be replaced by a more economic model that consumes 0.6 or 1 kWh at its maximum. You should also ask yourself if you really need a freezer. If you have learned how to conserve food, the answer is “no.”

  Second place on the list of champion energy-gobblers goes to your dryer. Dry your clothes by air, preferably outdoors, and if you cannot do without this machine, choose one that doesn’t consume so much energy. Then ask the same question about your other domestic appliances. Keep those you consider indispensable; add a few that you will need (radio, etc.) and avoid phantom charges. This does not refer to a specter from beyond the grave, but to the invisible consumption of energy in your house: appliances such as dishwashers, televisions, CD players, microwave ovens, and cordless telephones, which use electricity even when not in operation. The products do not consume a lot of energy in waiting mode, but if you add them all up, you get an average of 25 appliances per household, which represents up to 10 percent of annual energy use per household: between two and three kWh. To reduce or eliminate these phantom charges, plug as many of these appliances as you can into a power switch you can turn off when you are not using it. You can also tinker with appliances so as to turn off certain clocks and light signals. Also, see if you can replace electrical heating, which is getting increasingly rare due to the cost. Your stove may also be electric, and if so, note the level of consumption, which can vary widely—from 1 to 12 kWh depending on type (induction oven, etc.), the number of burners, and the other equipment included (oven, etc.). You can also change your light bulbs, replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs or LEDs, which also last a very long time. Obviously, use common sense—turn out the light when you leave a room; avoid lighting a kitchen or a room with a dozen halogen lamps; and don’t leave your lights on all day; etc.

  Between the gradual replacement of your electrical appliances by more economical ones, the replacement of your light bulbs and elimination of what you don’t need, you ought to be able to lower considerably the daily electrical consumption in kWh of your SAB. A reasonable goal is not to surpass a daily consumption of 3 kWh per person. For 10 people, this would allow 30 kWh each day. But since this is a theoretical mean for the whole year, and you will need more in the winter (light, etc.) than in the summer, it would be prudent to figure a little higher and set a maximum of 35 kWh. Once these calculations have been carried out, you must figure out how to produce this electricity. Electricity is not a source of energy; it is energy that must be produced. Although there are many ways of generating electricity with renewable energy (solar, wind, hydroelectric, tides, sea currents, geothermal, etc.), few of these are accessible on a small, non-industrial scale. On the other hand, three of these methods are relatively accessible and easy to realize.

  Micro-Hydro-Electricity

  A hydro-electric micro-station is like an electrical plant that uses hydraulic energy (the force of water) to produce electricity, but on a small or very small (pico-station) scale. This energy can be used to supply isolated sites (one or two houses, a studio or barn...). The working principle of a small hydro-electric station consists in transforming the potential energy of
a waterfall into mechanical energy with a turbine, then into electrical energy by means of a generator. The capacity of the station once installed is a function of the water that passes into the turbine and the height from which it falls. Another important element is the regularity of flow. As a function of these three parameters, you can install either a micro-station (20-500 kWh) or a pico-station (less than 20 kWh). These solutions are not very onerous; they are easy to install; and they are clean and durable (they wear very slowly—but think about having a few turbines in reserve anyway). However, these are not solutions that can be made to work everywhere: you need a watercourse with a fairly even flow, which is not common since flow usually varies with the seasons. If the minimum flow is above zero (i.e., if the river does not run completely dry in the summer), you should take this measure into account in making your calculations. If you have no river, stream, or spring (which would have to be canalized in any case), it is still possible to create an autonomous system with two large basins, one higher than the other, and a wind- or solar-powered pump to carry the water back from the lower to the higher basin. The water will go back down and get pumped up again, and so on, allowing you to create a circuit to feed a micro-station.

  If you have the means to influence municipalities close to your SAB, try to get a little hydro-electric station with a capacity of between 0.5 and one megawatts established in rivers in your area. This electricity will be extremely useful in the century to come, and you must hasten to carry out such projects, for who knows if it will still be possible to set up a hydro-electric station a few years from now?

  Wind Energy

  A wind turbine is a device for converting wind energy into mechanical or electrical energy. For millennia, windmills have turned wind energy into mechanical energy, usually in order to mill grain, press oil, or beat iron, copper, felt or paper, or even to pump water in order to dry swampy land, irrigate crops, or water cattle.