Re: y2k/gary north delusions

[Michal Hohensee <mah248@nyu.edu>]

Igor Chudov @ home wrote:
> 
> Petro wrote: 
> >       Ok, so let's cut that back to what we _need_. First off, we don't
> > dump our dish water down the drain, it gets "recycled" to flush the
> > toilets.
> 
> get them to shit outside.
> 

Bad bad bad bad bad bad *bad* idea.  This might be ok in the Russian
countryside, or any other countryside, but it an *excessively* bad thing
in just about any modern city.  If running water fails to run in the
cities, and people do as you suggest, and take their business outside,
it will not be long before tremendous numbers of people get sick and
die.  What with the high concentrations that people live in in most
cities, I expect that this'd make the Black Death look like a mild case
of the flu.

You cannot sustain a modern city without a working sewer system. 
Remember what cities were like in the middle ages?  I believe some
historians refer to them as "population sinks" for the surrounding
countryside.  Not for a lack of wealth or commerce, but for a lack of
sanitation.

Michael Hohensee