The Trigger Effect

[DuckHunter]

Everyone needs to take 45 min. to sit back and watch the "The Trigger Effect" that Matt posted on Jun 22nd's LATOC Breaking News.  It's a marvelous piece of documentary, and delivered with such common sense that I only wish I could explain it to others as simply.  Thanks Matt, and thanks BBC!

http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=0zznaxd3tc

Cheers

Administrator's Update: the above link is dead but the film can (as of Feb 3rd, 2010) be accessed here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4186437927867084105#

Very much worth your time!

-Matt

[Myndlessconsumer]

Very good piece.

[Petey_Canuck]

James Burke rocks! You should read some of his books!

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

folks, it really is a doomer's dream. (well nightmare actually) At least the first half hour. By about minute 25 or so the cities have collapsed and we've fled to the rural hinterlands where we come across a farm at which point it's kill or be killed. Burke turns to the camera and asks "What in your comfortable urban existence has prepared you for this?"

A couple minutes later it looks like we've disposed of the farmers and eaten their provisions. But now we realized all their mechanized farm gear is useless without electricity. We find a plow are now trying to hook it up to some livestock . . .

[DuckHunter]

The Trigger Effect does ask all the tough questions, doesn't it?  I especially enjoyed when the narrator asked the audience to imagine themselves killing, bleeding and butchering a cow.  It's true of course - most people would squirm at the idea.  My wife can't stand to see me clean any wild game (although she'll eat it with gusto).  A couple years ago I was teaching some of my students (I'm a highschool teacher) how to tan deer hides, and again, the squirm factor was quite evident (but they loved it nonetheless).  Anyway, as the premise of The Trigger Effect goes, most folks would just wait for the lights to come back on, or in this case, wait for the grocery stores to reopen so that they wouldn't have to get their hands dirty killing anything, or plowing anything, or just about any kind of manual labor.  Only when TSHTF after PO, the lights won't come back on, and the grocery stores won't reopen.  But unlike The Trigger Effect, I WILL be barricaded inside my farmhouse thank-you very much, and beware any British documentary filmmakers in polyester bellbottoms who dare to trespass on my property...lol.

Cheers

[PONow]

http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=0zznaxd3tc

Cheers

Geez I'm half way through and I'm stunned into boredom.  So...we need electricity bunches? Blackouts are bad? Without electricity, bad things happen? Do people seriously not KNOW this already?

I think I'm just stupid....I don't get it. Sounds like a wonderful scenario for why we need batteries and solar panels on every roof in the country? V2G mandated by the government for decentralization of electrical energy?

Can someone tell me what happens, I don't have all evening to see what must be an exciting conclusion, particularly considering NY is still there and had a similar blackout what, a year or two back?

[Leaf]

Very nice Vid!! Thanks...This support R. Duncans, Oldovia Theory almost to the T. The trigger effect I see in a differnt way..I see first a trigger event caused by fuel shortages that will have disaterous effects for the Modern World.
This documentary supports my theory on how things will play out esp in Multi cultural- individualistic nations.Also why I feel isolated farms are death traps.
Small communities with local food production are the best hope...and with that said I have little hope for the modern Western World.

[DuckHunter]

Geez I'm half way through and I'm stunned into boredom.  So...we need electricity bunches? Blackouts are bad? Without electricity, bad things happen? Do people seriously not KNOW this already?

I think I'm just stupid....I don't get it. Sounds like a wonderful scenario for why we need batteries and solar panels on every roof in the country? V2G mandated by the government for decentralization of electrical energy?

Can someone tell me what happens, I don't have all evening to see what must be an exciting conclusion, particularly considering NY is still there and had a similar blackout what, a year or two back?

Are you kidding me? No, people do not know this already, and that's exactly the problem!  Yes, everyone at PO knows it, but the average stooge on the street has no clue.  That's what the documentary is warning us of.  It works on many levels.  First, it profiles the blackout of '65, a time when we were using LESS energy than now, and the cities were still fucked.  Second, that the electric companies never learned anything, because, as you pointed out yourself, there was another massive blackout in 2005 that took out power to, surprise!, the same huge area of Canada and the U.S.   Third, it's really kinda spooky that he's using the WTC as a backdrop to talking about the how fucked we all are when technology quits on us (especially when he's riding the WTC elevators).  Lastly, and I think it the most important point, that all of us need to wake up and smell the coffee - we MUST stop relying on technology.  Batteries and solar panels may not even be enough to save anyone, let alone yourself, because once again we use batteries and solar panels to power the very same lightbulbs, computers, coffee makers, TV's and every other piece of electronic wizardry we've surrounded ourselves with, so as to maintain our status quo and keep us fuzzy and warm inside our technological cocoons.  If one little relay switch could take out so much of the grid in '65, imagine what PO will do to the Western world.  So learn to plant a garden by hand, shoot a deer, cook your food on a fire or in a solar oven, make your own soap and candles from tallow, etc., because these are all skills we're going to need someday.  Unless that is you know how to build a solar panel from scratch or fix a cracked battery.  The Trigger Effect doesn't win any awards for stunning cinematography, but it brings up some important points nonetheless, and is infinitely more interesting than watching any other piece of crap films/TV to come out of the 70's (Bruce Lee films excluded).  Watch The Matrix if you want something more exciting 

Cheers

[SaraBeth]

Everyone needs to take 45 min. to sit back and watch the "The Trigger Effect" that Matt posted on Jun 22nd's LATOC Breaking News.  It's a marvelous piece of documentary, and delivered with such common sense that I only wish I could explain it to others as simply.  Thanks Matt, and thanks BBC!

http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=0zznaxd3tc

Cheers

Agreed, it is marvelous. I have passed it on to others elsewhere. I would love to see the whole series...

[PONow]

I think I'm just stupid....I don't get it. Sounds like a wonderful scenario for why we need batteries and solar panels on every roof in the country? V2G mandated by the government for decentralization of electrical energy?

Can someone tell me what happens, I don't have all evening to see what must be an exciting conclusion, particularly considering NY is still there and had a similar blackout what, a year or two back?

Are you kidding me?

No. Thats why I said I must be stupid because I assume we are all watching the same video.

No, people do not know this already, and that's exactly the problem!  Yes, everyone at PO knows it, but the average stooge on the street has no clue.  That's what the documentary is warning us of.  It works on many levels.  Watch The Matrix if you want something more exciting 

I wasn't looking for exciting, I was looking for something which made sense. A documentary on how bad things get when you cut off the energy supply to a city, while interesting, is neither a surprise, nor particularly newsworthy...unless you can't restore power again EVER.

Just whining about the technology which made it possible in the first place doesn't strike me as a particularly useful or educational point to anyone who actually has thought about this stuff.

[Called_Bluff]

http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=0zznaxd3tc

Cheers

Geez I'm half way through and I'm stunned into boredom.  So...we need electricity bunches? Blackouts are bad? Without electricity, bad things happen? Do people seriously not KNOW this already?

I think I'm just stupid....I don't get it. Sounds like a wonderful scenario for why we need batteries and solar panels on every roof in the country? V2G mandated by the government for decentralization of electrical energy?

Can someone tell me what happens, I don't have all evening to see what must be an exciting conclusion, particularly considering NY is still there and had a similar blackout what, a year or two back?

Ny Blackout-
 47th floor 57th and 8th
 15 minutes for two inshape individuals to make it home
 within 12 hours , -0 water pressure
 within 16 hours, produce at all grocerise worthless
 
That was as bad as it got- power back on by 9am

   
 

[SaraBeth]

I think I'm just stupid....I don't get it. Sounds like a wonderful scenario for why we need batteries and solar panels on every roof in the country? V2G mandated by the government for decentralization of electrical energy?

Can someone tell me what happens, I don't have all evening to see what must be an exciting conclusion, particularly considering NY is still there and had a similar blackout what, a year or two back?

Are you kidding me?

No. Thats why I said I must be stupid because I assume we are all watching the same video.

No, people do not know this already, and that's exactly the problem!  Yes, everyone at PO knows it, but the average stooge on the street has no clue.  That's what the documentary is warning us of.  It works on many levels.  Watch The Matrix if you want something more exciting 

I wasn't looking for exciting, I was looking for something which made sense. A documentary on how bad things get when you cut off the energy supply to a city, while interesting, is neither a surprise, nor particularly newsworthy...unless you can't restore power again EVER.

Just whining about the technology which made it possible in the first place doesn't strike me as a particularly useful or educational point to anyone who actually has thought about this stuff.

Perhaps if you watched the whole thing instead of complaining about being bored.... ?

[thomasl]

While the information wasn't new to me, I found it interesting and entertaining.  If more people were actively aware of 'technology traps' (and in essence how a tremendous number of people are trapped) and took steps to prepare themselves then the crash would be not as bad.


 But who am I kidding, plastic pumpkins all around!

[DuckHunter]

I wasn't looking for exciting, I was looking for something which made sense. A documentary on how bad things get when you cut off the energy supply to a city, while interesting, is neither a surprise, nor particularly newsworthy...unless you can't restore power again EVER.

Just whining about the technology which made it possible in the first place doesn't strike me as a particularly useful or educational point to anyone who actually has thought about this stuff.

You're answering your own question, and again I repeat, millions of people HAVEN'T thought about this stuff.  And while The Trigger Effect focuses primarily on NYC, what's going to happen when the whole of North America is subjected to rolling blackouts?  And it won't just be the urban centres either, blackouts will hit the country too.  And again, here's where the documentary asks, "what will you be prepared to do?" or even more importantly, what's everyone else going to do.  Obviously you get it, that's why you're here on the LATOC Forum, but you're one of the converted, and it's always hard to preach to the converted.  What you should do is get someone who has NEVER thought about this stuff and get them to watch it.  Then hit them with A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash and really watch their eyes open to the clusterfuck that is waiting to happen. 

When the big icestorm of '98 took the power out to much of Eastern Ontario and Quebec (including Montreal), it was a real wake-up call for much of the folks.  The power was out for weeks - in the middle of January in below zero weather.  People froze to death in their homes.  Many others died of carbon monoxide poisoning when they tried to use BBQ's and various propane heaters inside their homes to keep warm.  Many farmers lost their dairy cows and pigs when milking machines and ventilation systems went down.  Those who were lucky enough to already have generators had to keep a watchful eye out for thieves.  The army was called in to help out.

Need another example?  New Orleans.  Multiply that fuckup by 300x and you get the sense of what will happen. 

Cheers

[PONow]

Perhaps if you watched the whole thing instead of complaining about being bored.... ?

My world is go-go-go, if you can't make a point without belaboring the obvious for nearly half of your presentation, then your presentation stinks, and any point you might be trying to make gets lost when people tune out.

Call me crazy, or just a typical miniscule attention span American, but if you can't get with the program then get outta the way and let the fast movers through already. The guy wasn't discussing ANYTHING of complexity, I would be willing to pay attention longer if there was anything of value in the first half of the video, or he was trying to make orbital ballistics palatable, but he wasn't.