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grufty jim
grufty jim
1978 posts

Ireland, Brazil and moving house
Oct 18, 2002, 10:32
When i first started studying energy depletion, i cast my eye around for places that would best weather the storm of spiralling oil costs. There's a few areas that i feel will cope best (though of course, none of that applies if the oil wars go nuclear, of course). Of them all, Northern Brazil is probably the best - sadly, however, my Portugese ain't great, and i'd want to be part of a community whose language i could speak.

Northern Australia and New Zealand, therefore, are the prime spots; but running close behind is Ireland. Indeed, Ireland may turn out to be better than Australia, as more and more i'm coming to the conclusion that wind power is better than solar as a local-generation solution.

Ireland had a population of 8 million pre-famine. The island can support that many people (and probably a few more) on small-holdings. I'm not saying it was a great life, but it was survival - and it could be made far more pleasant using the know-how of the past coupla hundred years. There are now a shade over 4.5 million on the island, and they have far more fresh water per head (as FW mentioned) than almost anywhere else (Canada, i think, comes out way ahead in that league - but that's got a land border with gun-happy USA, and who needs that?).

As well as being more than capable of sustaining its population without outside assistance or industrialisation (note: something the UK is no longer able to do), it's also relatively secluded and very fertile. The people are nice too.

So i applaud your forward-thinking FW. If a person speaks Portugese; a secluded spot on the Northern coastline of Brazil would probably provide the easiest and safest life 'outside the system' (i knew a guy who lived for two months on a beach there... he spent about an hour gathering enough food (fruit, fish, herbs, seaweed) each day. The rest of the time he spent arsing about and smoking cannabis apparently. But if you don't speak Portugese, then Ireland is a good bet for the future.

Good luck with the house move, by the way. It's always a chore - but the feeling of sublime relief when it's all over will cancel out all the hassle.
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Re: An analogy (FourWinds)
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