I am now writing a book, here in my blog. This is Part Three, consisting of the Table of Contents, and Chapter One, The Two Phases of the Industrial Revolution. Here is the link to Part One: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/29/1424366/-Famine-in-America-by-2050-200-Million-Will-Die-Part-One Here is the link to Part Two: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/10/06/1428225/-Famine-in-America-by-2050-200-Million-Will-Die-Part-Two And here is Part Three, below the divider doodle.
Table of Contents Introduction: Hiding in Plain Sight Chapter One: The Two Phases of the Industrial Revolution Chapter Two: Feeding 100 Million Using Horses and Mules Chapter Three: The Agricultural Revolution Chapter Four: Overpopulation Chapter Five: Preppers and the Zombie Apocalypse Chapter Six: Community Gardens, Community Livestock, and Electric Tractors and Trains Summary: Too Little, Too Late
Chapter One: The Two Phases of the Industrial Revolution Before we even cover the two phases of the industrial revolution, we need to look at the three phases of civilization, and the two big changes that took place before the first industrial revolution. First phase of human living: 1. Hunting and foraging. The first big change was from the above, hunting and foraging, to: 2. Domesticated plants, planted, cultivated, and harvested by humans, so the humans can eat the grains, beans, fruits, nuts, and vegetables, along with domesticated animals, fed and cared for by humans, so the humans can eat the eggs, milk, and meat. The second big change, a change that has never been totally done in all countries, but has been truly completed in America, is the change from the above, farming and animal husbandry, to: 3. Cities. Only a very small percentage of Americans are farmers nowadays, and many of the farmers shop for all their wants and needs, even their food, in the cities, just like those who live in the cities. If anyone wants my advice on the matter, when humankind rebuilds civilization, after the apocalypse, my advice is: go great guns with number 2, farming and raising livestock, because gathering eggs, milking goats, and slaughtering hogs that are in my hog pen already, that seems like a much easier way to feed my family, much easier than hunting and foraging. But, you need to avoid number 3. Do not build cities. All the terrible disasters of humankind are caused by overpopulation in cities. As long as humankind is scattered around on various farms, there are never any large numbers collected in one place. With no large numbers gathered in any one place, there can never be any large numbers who might die from: famine, disease, or war. Famine. Disease. War. Cities, and overpopulation, set up large numbers of victims for those disasters. Cities, and overpopulation, allow famine to kill whole cities, allow diseases to spread quickly to large numbers of citizens, and allow any army to kill large numbers in any city. If, after the apocalypse, those who rebuild truly don't care if large numbers die, from famine, disease, and war, then they can go ahead and rebuild the cities. But wait a minute. Let me contradict myself, a little or a lot, on the topic of war. Even though I stand my ground on claiming that famine and disease can more easily kill more people in overpopulated cities, than on scattered farms, I may be half right, or mostly wrong, or just plain wrong, about war. Even though overpopulated cities make attractive targets in war, scattered farmers, on scattered farms, truly seem like sitting ducks, easy victims of any bandits or warlords. So, cities might be essential for defense in times of war. But the question is irrelevant to human history so far, from at least ten thousand years ago to the present. There is something in human nature that craves cities. And the industrial revolution was created to serve cities.
The beginning of the first industrial revolution:
If I understand correctly, for at least one thousand years, folks in England noticed coal on the ground, right there in front of them, coal they could dig up with shovels, and cart off to their homes, to cook with, and heat their homes, in the long, cold, damp English winter nights and winter days. Much more practical than cutting firewood. But, as the centuries wore on, they had big families, and needed more and more coal, and the holes in the ground got deeper, and they filled with water. If they had kept their average family size small, if they had kept their population down to very tiny numbers, they could have calmly decided, shall we just give up on this coal, and use firewood, since the trees are growing much faster than our little families are cutting them up for firewood? Or, shall we use horses and ropes and buckets, and pull the water out of the coal mines that way, since we don't need much coal, since there are so few of us? But no. They kept having large families, and kept themselves always on the edge, on the edge of famine, and on the edge of not having enough coal for everyone. http://www.allaboutscience.org/malthus-faq.htm
Malthus proposed that famine and disease were natural consequences of population increases. He believed that these occurrences were inevitable. Malthus decided that to prevent worldwide catastrophe, the poor should not be encouraged to have large families, but should instead be encouraged to have smaller families, through direct or indirect means. He generally discouraged the notion of social services that supported the poor.
Malthus tried to explain, in 1798, during the development of the industrial revolution, that contraception is simply necessary.
While his theories may seem morbid or cold-hearted, recall that Malthus lived during times of great overpopulation in a small, island nation. The threat of overcrowding to the British at this time was no small matter. By today's standards, his attitude may seem uncaring. Yet, at the time, his was the first serious study of the social conditions of the poor.
But what did folks in England do? Their answer was to make a machine, for drawing the water out of the coal mines. Then a better machine. Then an even better machine. And so on and so on, up to the present times. That is the basic story of the industrial revolution. Click on these links, and read more about it. http://www.egr.msu.edu/~lira/supp/steam/
Watt and Boulton successfully applied their engine to pumping water from wells. Boulton was an industrialist of great vision, and took advantage of the opportunity to apply the engine to other industries. Moving the steam engine indoors, the device became useful for operating mills and textile factories, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_steam_engine
Watt never ceased improving his designs. This further improved the operating cycle speed, introduced governors, automatic valves, double-acting pistons, a variety of rotary power takeoffs and many other improvements. Watt's technology enabled the widespread commercial use of stationary steam engines.[25]
Now we turn to the second phase of the industrial revolution. The diesel engine. Between the heyday of the steam engines and the present, we switched, from just steam engines, to a combination of steam engines, electric motors, natural gas flames, and diesel engines. Industrial activities taking place at stationary plants, such as manufacturing plants, mostly use electric motors, and natural gas flames, and electricity applied in other ways, as well as some boilers for steam used in various ways, such as professional laundries, that use steam to get the laundry extra hot. Steam engines are still used, to produce most of our electricity, with the following fuels burned to boil the water: coal, natural gas, and uranium. By the way, even though the focus of this book is the short term time limit on the worldwide supply of oil, each of these water boiling, electricity producing fuels is limited in quantity, and will run out someday, just as the oil will run out. But we have way less than 100 years to go on oil, but we may have hundreds of years' supply of coal, natural gas, and uranium. Wish we were using those longer term fuels to produce and distribute food. That might buy us some time to use contraception, and reduce our population, before we run out of those fuels. But, no such luck. We are stuck on diesel, and diesel only, for producing and distributing food in America. You may look at your new phone, as you read this book, and you may say, "We have new technology! We will use new technology to produce food!" But we have no new technology for producing and distributing food in America today. You cannot eat your phone. I have alternate ideas in later chapters of this book. But we have nothing right now, as I write this, in the year 2015. http://www.dieselenginemotor.com/articles/view/Diesel%20Engine%20History
The diesel engine has a long history that is intertwined closely with economic and other issues of the time.
A third theory in the death of Diesel is based around the hope that his engine would provide power using alternative/cheaper/greener fuels. This revolutionary thinking may have scared some oil investors. Rudolf Diesel said, "The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may become in course of time as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time." After his death, the Diesel engine was engineered to run only on petroleum based products and his great ideas of a clean burning engine died with him.
Did he really say that? Biodiesel cannot prevent the coming famine, even if Mr. Diesel imagined that it might be important. To understand why biodiesel cannot be our only source of fuel, for producing and distributing all our food, imagine a plot of land needed to produce the biodiesel fuel to fuel the tractor to plant, for example, wheat seeds, and another plot for the fuel needed for the harvesting machine, and more land for the fuel for the truck to haul the wheat to the train station, and another for the train, to take the wheat to the flour mill, and another for the other truck, to take the flour to the bakery, and yet another plot of land to provide the biodiesel for the truck that takes the bread to the grocery store. With all that land used to produce biodiesel, there will not be enough land on America's farms to grow enough food crops to feed 300 million Americans. We currently have 320 million American mouths to feed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_engine https://www.dieselnet.com/tech/diesel_history.php
Development of Diesel’s invention needed more time and work to become a commercial success. Many engineers and developers joined in the work to improve the market viability of the idea created by Dr. Diesel. He, on the other hand, became somewhat threatened by this process and was not always able to find common language with other engine designers developing his invention. Diesel’s attempts of market promotion of the not-yet-ready engine eventually led into a nervous breakdown. In 1913, deeply troubled by criticisms of his role in developing the engine, he mysteriously vanished from a ship on a voyage to England, presumably committing suicide [Lienhard 2000]. After Diesel’s patents started to expire, a number of other companies took his invention and developed it further.
Which brings us to our present state of industrialization. When we want to build any kind of building, large or small, residential or commercial, we start with earth moving equipment, that have diesel engines. We bring building materials in on trucks that have diesel engines. For example, the concrete for the concrete foundation is brought in by cement mixers that have diesel engines. For many wide buildings using large roof trusses, and for taller buildings, that need beams brought up high, we use cranes that have diesel engines. To build our streets and roads, we use various road building machines that have diesel engines. For any kind of processing plant, or manufacturing plant, or assembly plant, we bring in the raw materials or the parts on trucks or trains that have diesel engines. All the retail stores and eateries receive the food and dry goods from trucks that have diesel engines. And, of course, our only method of commercial farming, to produce all that food, to ship into the cities, to feed the people in the cities, is to plant the crops, and harvest the crops, using farm equipment that has diesel engines. So, you see, everything essential to life in our cities, depends on equipment that has diesel engines. Keep in mind, the diesel engine is nearly twice as efficient as the gasoline engine. That's why those providing essential things for us use diesel engines. And buy diesel fuel. But look at what comes from a barrel of crude oil: http://www.energyalmanac.ca.gov/gasoline/whats_in_barrel_oil.html
Finished Motor Gasoline 51.4% Distillate Fuel Oil 15.3% Jet Fuel 12.3% Still Gas 5.4% Marketable Coke 5.0% Residual Fuel Oil 3.3% Liquefied Refinery Gas 2.8% Asphalt and Road Oil 1.7% Other Refined Products 1.5% Lubricants 0.9%
Way more gasoline than diesel fuel. (Distillate fuel oil means diesel fuel.) The only way the oil companies can make big profits is to sell all the fuel that comes from the oil refineries. So, many decades ago, the oil companies and the car makers somehow persuaded millions of suckers, that's us, American car owners, to buy gasoline engine vehicles. So that they, the oil companies, could sell us the gasoline, for our very inefficient vehicles. If we didn't buy the gasoline, the oil companies might be forced to just flare it, burn it at the refineries. They could never store it all. So, this is where we stand today, as I write this, in the year 2015. Our industrial revolution has not advanced past a combination of steam, diesel, electric motors, electricity used in other ways, such as heating things, natural gas flames, and that's about it. Our gasoline engine vehicles are not used for anything practical. Our most efficient means of commuting in cities would be, either electric trolley cars, or diesel engine buses. Our gasoline powered cars and light trucks are toys, used to make more money for the oil companies, not to do anything practical for the people of America. Yes, I am aware of biodiesel, which I already explained is not the answer. And I'm aware of compressed natural gas. Only for limited use in certain cities, where there are filling stations. Otherwise, since the filling stations are very limited, this is not a solution for widespread use. We will discuss other ideas in other chapters. Thanks for reading.