The Blackout-Dristay Torres

Thursday, September 8, 2011 a power outage hit all of San Diego, all the way south to Mexico and all the way north to Orange County. News reporters from CW-6 news, reported that this memorable outage was due to a mistake by one man trying to fix an electrical problem in Arizona. However, due to his mistake of pressing one wrong button on a major power line, people in California were greatly affected. Stores were packed with customers who lacked vital neccesities such as water, flashlights, batteries, food, and candles that are all neccessary in emergency and unexpected situations, like the power outage. In addition, people were on the streets and in their backyards in what I consider the time that brought San Diego closer together. During the black out, students were rushing to finish homework before the sun went down, drivers who needed gas but couldnt get some were leaving their cars on the streets and parents were struggling to cook for their kids with out the use of microwaves, ovens and stoves. Personally however, I was finishing my homework for the next day and lighting candles throughout my house. When the sun went down, I had my radio on, my homework done, candles set up down stairs, balcony door wide open and my sleeping bag set up on the living room floor. That night, my family and I bonded in a way we hadnt done in a long time and was an extrememly fun night. Although, that same night made me realize America's enormous dependence on electricity. Everything from food, to technology and transactions are all heavuly dependent on electricity. In my opinion, I think America should be less dependent on electricity as I can relate my knowledge on evolution, population genetics and ecology from AP Biology. To explain, in Biology we discuss the dependency food chains have on the sun and producers-autotrophs, and the genetic diversity needed in a population to prevent the extinction of species that are affecte by pests and introduced predators. In relation to the blackout,, electricity would be the autotrophs and the pests and predators would be the mistake caused by the single man that led to the black out. Furthermore, without diversity, in other words bereft us dependent on other sources for power besides electricity, our lives would change as we would have to go back to older techniques and change our schedules and activities to correlate with day and night. Hence, I strongly beleive that America should discover other sources of power as bereft electricity our society would regress tremendously.