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No. We deforested entire continents getting our industrial revolution going. There aren't enough left to do it a second time. And if what I read is correct, it

No. We deforested entire continents getting our industrial revolution going. There aren't enough left to do it a second time. And if what I read is correct, it will take between 750,000 and 2 million years for reforestation to occur naturally. > but there's definitely enough to get a pocket of civilization back on its feet. What's "back on its feet"? You've watched too many movies. The only metal such a people would ever use would be salvaged... no new iron works. No electricity, no internal combustion engines. If civilization stumbles, it dies.

jjoonathan 12y ago
No. > There aren't enough left to do it a second time. Why do you think it would take an amount of resources comparable to the first time? We know what we're doing now so there will be much less fumbling around AND we would have an abundance of high-grade feedstock left over from the pre-fall civilization. > What's "back on its feet"? "Back on its feet" = a level of sophistication in resource extraction capable of facilitating resource use beyond recycling, i.e. the ability to avoid the exact scenario you described. To make things more concrete, let's call it the level of sophistication required to build and fuel primitive fission reactors. I think that even you will agree that by that point fears of energy scarcity would be bunk. > You've watched too many movies. If you can't imagine "shortcuts" to take on the path to re-industrialization I would hazard a bet that you don't have training in the relevant industrial chemistry. Here's a fizz-buzz level self assessment to check if you're going all Dunning-Kruger: name one or more plausible post-apocalyptic alternatives that would be used in place of the WSGR and Haber processes. > The only metal such a people would ever use would be salvaged... no new iron works. Why do you think that salvaged metal could not suffice for bootstrap purposes? Hell, you don't even need to make your own mining / refining / manufacturing equipment, you just need to patch up the stuff that got broken in the commotion.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 12y ago
  > We know what we're doing now Yeh. We. Now. Post-collapse? No, they won't. If everything was intact (including unwritten, institutional knowledge), then there won't have been a collapse in the first place.

jjoonathan 12y ago

No. > There aren't enough left to do it a second time. Why do you think it would take an amount of resources comparable to the first time? We know what we're doing now so there will be much less fumbling around AND we would have an abundance of high-grade feedstock left over from the pre-fall civilization. > What's "back on its feet"? "Back on its feet" = a level of sophistication in resource extraction capable of facilitating resource use beyond recycling, i.e. the ability to avoid the exact scenario you described. To make things more concrete, let's call it the level of sophistication required to build and fuel primitive fission reactors. I think that even you will agree that by that point fears of energy scarcity would be bunk. > You've watched too many movies. If you can't imagine "shortcuts" to take on the path to re-industrialization I would hazard a bet that you don't have training in the relevant industrial chemistry. Here's a fizz-buzz level self assessment to check if you're going all Dunning-Kruger: name one or more plausible post-apocalyptic alternatives that would be used in place of the WSGR and Haber processes. > The only metal such a people would ever use would be salvaged... no new iron works. Why do you think that salvaged metal could not suffice for bootstrap purposes? Hell, you don't even need to make your own mining / refining / manufacturing equipment, you just need to patch up the stuff that got broken in the commotion.

NoMoreNicksLeft 12y ago
> We know what we're doing now Yeh. We. Now. Post-collapse? No, they won't. If everything was intact (including unwritten, institutional knowledge), then there won't have been a collapse in the first place.