Sunday, August 10, 2008

Electric/fields

I attended a bushcraft weekend in July, where we did a bit of ‘roughing it’ and learning how to live ‘at one with nature’. One of the people who were running it was a young-ish woman.

During one of the group conversations we were having about natural living, she made the claim that she “lives a life without electricity”. This seemed plausible at that point, given that she was quite handy with these outdoorsy techniques and apparently lodged in a building connected to the nearby farmhouse (an old barn?)

However, later on I spied her flipping open a clamshell mobile phone, and immediately wondered where she charges it up. Further, she also discussed in detail a bath that she had taken recently which warms itself back up so that you can bathe for extended periods.

Granted, these points don’t necessarily mean that she has an electricity supply in her principal dwelling, however I would forcefully argue that it does mean that she is not “living a life without electricity”.

What’s the point of all this? Well, ultimately I wondered if there are enough people out there who could genuinely live and survive if electricity were to suddenly be withdrawn on a global scale (e.g through some sort of Armageddon-type event)? Because whilst there are maybe a decent chunk of people who make the above claim, the reality of their lives may be somewhat different!

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