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Re: What is the most important engineering problem of our future?
Ive been through a couple ice storms in upstate NY over the last 12 years or so. Our power was out for a few days one time, about the week the other. Its really not a major problem, its easy to plan for and to ride out. If you have a kerosene heater you can keep your pipes from freezing (but your house wont be warm)
and if you have a few gas cans you can charge up a car battery in about 1/2 hour with your car (jumper cables) and it will power 12 volt lamps and portable TVs and stuff for a couple days
but the thing that boggles the mind is: its cheaper to run the power lines on poles, and replace thousands of miles of them every 7 to 10 years, than it is to run them all underground.
I think in general humans live in denial to some extent. We pretend things like hurricanes and earth quakes, tornados and floods and ice storms and blizzards dont happen, at least they wont happen to us, when we build our homes and plan out communities. Larger commercial buildings are designed to withstand most of these things, but our houses are not.
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