Blackout - TV show Channel 4, UK

[braddy]

Anyone willing to sit and watch a dry, 97 minute long panel discussion on EMP, is probably already a dedicated prepper.

I am looking forward to watching it personally and appreciate the suggestion, but it isn't the kind of thing that I can recommend for my friends who ignore preparedness, for them, a show like American Blackout is useful. To reach the general public, it has to be watchable, and interesting.

 

[mcnair55]

Yes, I watched it, fairly accurate portrayal IMHO of what could happen in the event of any large scale prlonged blackout.
A fair proportion of the UK population do not seem to posses a single flashlight in good working order and readily to hand.
Very few indeed would have multiple lights and large stocks of batteries.

The programe contained a number of minor technical errors
The lights outside Buckingham Palace went out, most unlikely as these are gas lights.
It was stated that "most supermarkets only have backup power for 24 hours" in fact most have no backup at all beyond the legally required battery lighting on escape routes.
In some of the scenes of rioting, the shop windows were still lit. (riots are expensive to stage for filming purposes, I believe that they used library footage of previous non blackout related riots)

And i believe your technical errors are of no real value.

The gas lights maybe controlled by electric.
I think you will find many supermarkets do have back up for fridges at least
[h=2]Leading supermarket chain leads the field with second Bio Diesel Generator[/h]
Why are riots expensive to stage for filming purposes?,surely any filming is expensive.

 

[gravelmonkey]

Anyone willing to sit and watch a dry, 97 minute long panel discussion on EMP, is probably already a dedicated prepper.

I am looking forward to watching it personally and appreciate the suggestion, but it isn't the kind of thing that I can recommend for my friends who ignore preparedness, for them, a show like American Blackout is useful. To reach the general public, it has to be watchable, and interesting.

+1.

I got to about 30 mins in until that irritating woman was waffling about "WHY" do Iran etc need nuclear weapons (well, why does the USA need nuclear weapons?) before I completely gave up. Not being American, I'm not I'm 'qualified' to comment on the logic or presentation shown in the first 30mins I watched, but anything as scaremongering or as paranoid as they were coming across would be laughed right out the door over here (I'm talking general public, not the doomsday nuts who are prepared with bunkers and incandescent bulbs).

Re. Solar and intergalactic sources of disruption, it's interesting to see that the UK Government has added "severe space weather" to the National Risk Register within the last few years (Janurary 2011 update).

I'm not sure these two threads should have been merged, regardless, I'm interested in watching the USA version if I get a chance.

 

[braddy]

I don't think you should have introduced the radical politics to the thread.

 

[gravelmonkey]

I don't think you should have introduced the radical politics to the thread.

Not exactly radical, if SixCats! wants me to edit it, for fear of having the thread shut down, I will as we've been merged and I'd feel bad because he's had some good responses to his initial postings.

Just trying to illustrate the 'watchability' of UK Blackout VS what feels like a load of scaremongering in that video and the effect the style of presentation has.

Edit: LOL just noticed the line about N.Korea and Iran being allowed nukes if they want. Yeh, meant to delete that- proof read then proof read again!

 

[RetroTechie]

I was irritated as everyone dedicated as being in the dark was using their cells as their source of light.

Realistic IMHO. Us CPF'ers who carry flashlight(s) everywhere are the exception not the rule. And those button-cell keychain lights that many folks have, will be useless within hours. :hahaha:

I thought the American version was excellent. It wasn't a how to, it was a collection of worse case, real life situations, it did show a variety of situations that revealed to non-preppers, the consequences of not planning in advance.

Second that. Interesting was the more 'strategic' aspects, for example that neighbor asking a prepper for some food for his family. Give some food (and thus, attract other beggars)? (ab)Use the occasion and make a profitable sale/trade? Grab a weapon and tell 'm to go away, possibly leading to deadly violence over some food cans? No easy answers, other than that being better prepared gives more options (and possibly less stress!) to everyone involved.

OTOH, going overboard with prepping is just a big money sink. I'd be more interested in the kind of prepping that's also useful in daily life. A few months food store that consists of mostly ordinary groceries, for example. Practicing survival skills just because it's fun. Growing some of your own food because gardening is a fun/rewarding activity that also puts healthy, tasty, organic-grown food on your plate. Small toolkits that you already use regularly. Etc, etc.

Amazing how quickly people go crazy when ordinary life is disrupted. For example there's a 120 ltr. vat sitting at the back of our house, filled with crystal clear, perfectly drinkable rainwater. Normally used for watering the garden. But in an emergency (when reserved for drinking water only), that's like >= 3 weeks worth of drinking water right there (for my gf & me). And we have a small gardening plot with groundwater pump as well...

At least a few weeks worth of pasta, rice, potatoes, canned food, and a filled freezer in the house (which would be emptied first in a long-lasting blackout, of course). And means to cook stuff even if gas were out. Enough flashlights and batteries to see what we're doing for weeks or more, too. More than enough handtools and materials to DIY / rig something up where needed. That's not even serious prepping, but would turn any outage into a discomfort / stay at home / keep neighbors at bay situation for me. Flooding / tornadoes / earthquakes aren't an issue where I live. So nothing we can't handle until we get into "The Walking Dead" types of scenario. :sick2:

Btw that's in regular 1-family house where half the dutch population lives in. So why go crazy so quick, when it's so easy to prepare for a few weeks or months? In rural areas you'd have even more options (+ space!) to prepare for disaster.

 

[DIΩDΣ]

OTOH, going overboard with prepping is just a big money sink. I'd be more interested in the kind of prepping that's also useful in daily life. A few months food store that consists of mostly ordinary groceries, for example. Practicing survival skills just because it's fun. Growing some of your own food because gardening is a fun/rewarding activity that also puts healthy, tasty, organic-grown food on your plate. Small toolkits that you already use regularly. Etc, etc.

Amazing how quickly people go crazy when ordinary life is disrupted. For example there's a 120 ltr. vat sitting at the back of our house, filled with crystal clear, perfectly drinkable rainwater. Normally used for watering the garden. But in an emergency (when reserved for drinking water only), that's like >= 3 weeks worth of drinking water right there (for my gf & me). And we have a small gardening plot with groundwater pump as well...

At least a few weeks worth of pasta, rice, potatoes, canned food, and a filled freezer in the house (which would be emptied first in a long-lasting blackout, of course). And means to cook stuff even if gas were out. Enough flashlights and batteries to see what we're doing for weeks or more, too. More than enough handtools and materials to DIY / rig something up where needed. That's not even serious prepping, but would turn any outage into a discomfort / stay at home / keep neighbors at bay situation for me. Flooding / tornadoes / earthquakes aren't an issue where I live. So nothing we can't handle until we get into "The Walking Dead" types of scenario. :sick2:

Btw that's in regular 1-family house where half the dutch population lives in. So why go crazy so quick, when it's so easy to prepare for a few weeks or months? In rural areas you'd have even more options (+ space!) to prepare for disaster.

Agreed completely. I like living a more self sufficient lifestyle because I like to, and I think its better and more healthy, rather than for some doomsday preparedness. I hunt and I garden. I love making my own healthy, natural, and minimally processed foods. I freeze, can, and smoke or dehydrate stuff too. I heat with wood too, collected from the familys farm all by myself. Always have a source of heat without needing any power (as well as a way to easily cook too). Call it living a little old fashioned. Since back then, well they didnt have power anyways. Think about the Amish. A power outage wouldnt even phase em. You mentioned rainwater collection... I have not implemented it yet but when I built my pole barn I put gutters on it and planned to plumb them into two 330 gallon tanks, one for each side. I have the tanks just not hooked up yet. Was going to raise them off the ground by about 4 feet so they could be run to the garden by gravity, or also fill my 'tanker' wagon I built for the garden tractor (55 gallon plastic drum on a small cart with pump and some various attachments for watering etc). Need to finish up that project.