North America is well covered in the original Star's Reach. Three civil wars in Meriga, the desertification of the center of what was the USA, and so forth.
Australia, including Tasmania, has utterly collapsed both socially and environmentally. There are 100,000 to 200,000 mainly hunter gatherers on the main continent. Very limited subsistence agriculture in the formerly Snowy and Blue Mountains. 10,000 to 20,000 in Tasmania.
China, within it's current cultivated boundaries, is largely uninhabitable due to environmental toxins. Any long term population there develops such severe health problems and birth defects that they cannot sustain a viable population. Taiwan and the mountains of the Southwest are not so badly polluted. Tibet, with a mainly Han Chinese ethnic population, is broken into many small fiefdoms.
New China is the Chinese migration north into Siberia - bordering the Rus more than a thousand km east of the Ural Mountains. With few ruins to salvage, it is metal poor and communication is a major obstacle. A few mines provide speciality metals for trading, but there is no steel industry. Kingdoms line the various major river valleys, sometimes uniting the length of the river, and more often, fragmenting.
None-the-less, New China leads the world in plant breeding for the new environment in former boreal forests.
Taiwan is independent and resorts to piracy and raids with minimal industry.
Japan expanded in the last days of the Old World, and then fragmented. Today, Japanese is spoken around the Northern Pacific Rim, but they are not unified. This has limited an industrial revival.
South America has fragmented into a variety of new nations with a mixture of governments. Some military dictatorships, some kingdoms, some democracies for the elite and even one real democracy - Central Chile. The nations of South America now co-exist in relative peace - with some bandit areas - and this has allowed some modest industrial progress. A few steam locomotive rail lines still operate for example.
Africa is contentious, with ever changing power blocs, alliances and wars. Periodically a major power emerges, but rarely continues more than a generation or two. None-the-less, some technology has been recovered.
New Zealand - The North Island has several strong sheriffs that owe nominal fealty to their King. The South Island is split into two Republics and a Kingdom. The Union has helped all four keep their small hydroelectric plants going, a couple of rail lines and supplied semi-finished goods for domestic manufacturing.
more later
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Friday, February 15, 2013
First Settlement Tasmania
This is about a decade in the future from the rest.
First, let us review our strategic objectives so we can see how the first settlement fits into the larger goals.
Tasmania can serve as a much larger version of Ascension Island, serving as a staging point for trade into both the Indian and western Pacific Oceans as well as aiding trade with Zealand. Some have speculated that by adding a Hawaiian island, we can establish another North-South trade and radio link via the Pacific. An alternative and back-up to our critical link in the Atlantic today.
Alternatively, if Tasmania is settled by a hostile power, it could be an big a thorn as the Islamic Azores are today.
At the moment Tasmania is an attractive, fertile land with good energy resources and few toxins - waiting for the picking. We want to pick it first {chuckle}.
The mainland of Australia is not very attractive for settlement, but some spots along the coast could be settled later. Tasmania would be ideal to keep that option open.
Settling the interior of Tasmania could be an invaluable addition to Antarctica and the Union. It has a warmer and wetter climate that any part of Scandinavia, and dramatically different than Antarctica. Many crops could be grown there that we have to trade for otherwise. And it would provide food security for Antarctica if we have a bad series of volcanic eruptions.
In coming centuries, the world's climate may start cooling. Tasmania, and Australia itself, may become our new homes in a thousand years. But we have to claim them now !
The ecology of Tasmania is "rats & cats". The Ozies ate every animal larger than a cat or a rat. There are no larger mammals or reptiles and few birds of any type.
First, let us review our strategic objectives so we can see how the first settlement fits into the larger goals.
Tasmania can serve as a much larger version of Ascension Island, serving as a staging point for trade into both the Indian and western Pacific Oceans as well as aiding trade with Zealand. Some have speculated that by adding a Hawaiian island, we can establish another North-South trade and radio link via the Pacific. An alternative and back-up to our critical link in the Atlantic today.
Alternatively, if Tasmania is settled by a hostile power, it could be an big a thorn as the Islamic Azores are today.
At the moment Tasmania is an attractive, fertile land with good energy resources and few toxins - waiting for the picking. We want to pick it first {chuckle}.
The mainland of Australia is not very attractive for settlement, but some spots along the coast could be settled later. Tasmania would be ideal to keep that option open.
Settling the interior of Tasmania could be an invaluable addition to Antarctica and the Union. It has a warmer and wetter climate that any part of Scandinavia, and dramatically different than Antarctica. Many crops could be grown there that we have to trade for otherwise. And it would provide food security for Antarctica if we have a bad series of volcanic eruptions.
In coming centuries, the world's climate may start cooling. Tasmania, and Australia itself, may become our new homes in a thousand years. But we have to claim them now !
The ecology of Tasmania is "rats & cats". The Ozies ate every animal larger than a cat or a rat. There are no larger mammals or reptiles and few birds of any type.
This may present a challenge in farming - but we shall have to try and see what can be done. Some technical historians from the North have some ideas on how to improve the ecology. This degraded ecology may be our greatest challenge in settling Tasmania.
The aborigines are hunter gatherers. We plan to take what we want & need and let them adjust to a slowly shrinking range. Over time, we will develop more sophisticated strategies. Perhaps offering food with birth control of abortifacents in it to control their population. Perhaps educating their young and make them citizens. It is too early to say for sure.
Here is our proposed plan to start.
We establish a base camp, later to become a major port, about 3 km inland on the Pieman River. This will have a wharf, a warehouse, housing, two zeppelin masts, solar PV, three 225 kW wind turbines and silver zinc batteries. And a couple of 75 mm cannon and 40 mm Bofors guns. Two zeppelins, #1 and #5, Kristiana and Ingrid, will be flown there and based there. Kristiana for scouting and moving people & small amounts of freight. Ingrid for heavier lifting and a longer range survey of SouthEast Australia at some later date.
The next major base will be at the dam on Pieman River on the western coast. The rise in sea level has put the power plant far under water, but the dam still stands and fresh water flows both over the spillway and through the Old World powerplant.
We can sail, under power, from the sea up a narrow and twisting canyon 34 km to that dam. The steady release of fresh water has made the surface of that inlet fresh water with mildly brackish water underneath with apparently good fishing.
The first task at the dam will be installing a wharf and a funicular up the surface of the dam. Simply building a wharf and funicular from the base of the dam to a Settlement on top of a ridge will take some time. Fortunately, one can work year-round in Tasmania, another advantage in settling there.
The water over the spillway can be harnessed for hydroelectric power. Power will come from solar panels at the very beginning. Soon, some of the water flowing over the dam will be diverted into a new penstock to drive a 1.3 MW Pelton wheel. This will be enlarged to a full hydroelectric plant with about 90 MW of Francis turbines within 5 years.
There is not enough level ground near the dam for much more than a Settlement with gardens, but we can plant a wide variety of fruit and nut trees nearby.
Further up the lake are three 80 MW Old World hydropower plants that we can easily reach. Two of the three appear to be repairable - with considerable work. We plan to develop power intensive industries in Tasmania - aluminum smelting, electric arc steel furnaces, copper purification and more. Several other Old World hydroelectric plants are also nearby, but less accessible.
The lake behind the dam provides communication deeper into the interior. We hope to build a rail line and transmission line from the lake behind the dam to the port. In twenty years, we hope to have a self supporting community of 8,000 to 10,000 people clustered around the first two settlements. Exporting dried fruit and nuts, canned vegetables as well as refining metals. A solid base for trading ships going North or to Zealand. Then we will establish another settlement elsewhere in Tasmania.
The area is generally rugged and appears to have very few aborigines. We have not sited one in several surveys of the area, but twice we have found old campfires. None-the-less, precautions need to be made.
Unlike the mainland, the Tasmanian aborigines do not appear to have crossbows. Throwing sticks, sharpened wood spears, clubs and very primitive bows and arrows appear to be their most formidable weapons. We expect their allegiance to be towards their group, which will be fewer than 200 people and less than 75 adult men. This puts an upper limit on the likely local threat.
On the other side of the island, we have seen several dugout canoes, but nothing in the West. So our ships should be fairly secure.
Hopefully, we will have no contact, but we will attempt to trade with them if given the chance. We will not trade anything that will raise their level of technology or increase their numbers.
more later
The aborigines are hunter gatherers. We plan to take what we want & need and let them adjust to a slowly shrinking range. Over time, we will develop more sophisticated strategies. Perhaps offering food with birth control of abortifacents in it to control their population. Perhaps educating their young and make them citizens. It is too early to say for sure.
Here is our proposed plan to start.
We establish a base camp, later to become a major port, about 3 km inland on the Pieman River. This will have a wharf, a warehouse, housing, two zeppelin masts, solar PV, three 225 kW wind turbines and silver zinc batteries. And a couple of 75 mm cannon and 40 mm Bofors guns. Two zeppelins, #1 and #5, Kristiana and Ingrid, will be flown there and based there. Kristiana for scouting and moving people & small amounts of freight. Ingrid for heavier lifting and a longer range survey of SouthEast Australia at some later date.
The next major base will be at the dam on Pieman River on the western coast. The rise in sea level has put the power plant far under water, but the dam still stands and fresh water flows both over the spillway and through the Old World powerplant.
We can sail, under power, from the sea up a narrow and twisting canyon 34 km to that dam. The steady release of fresh water has made the surface of that inlet fresh water with mildly brackish water underneath with apparently good fishing.
The first task at the dam will be installing a wharf and a funicular up the surface of the dam. Simply building a wharf and funicular from the base of the dam to a Settlement on top of a ridge will take some time. Fortunately, one can work year-round in Tasmania, another advantage in settling there.
There is not enough level ground near the dam for much more than a Settlement with gardens, but we can plant a wide variety of fruit and nut trees nearby.
Further up the lake are three 80 MW Old World hydropower plants that we can easily reach. Two of the three appear to be repairable - with considerable work. We plan to develop power intensive industries in Tasmania - aluminum smelting, electric arc steel furnaces, copper purification and more. Several other Old World hydroelectric plants are also nearby, but less accessible.
The lake behind the dam provides communication deeper into the interior. We hope to build a rail line and transmission line from the lake behind the dam to the port. In twenty years, we hope to have a self supporting community of 8,000 to 10,000 people clustered around the first two settlements. Exporting dried fruit and nuts, canned vegetables as well as refining metals. A solid base for trading ships going North or to Zealand. Then we will establish another settlement elsewhere in Tasmania.
Unlike the mainland, the Tasmanian aborigines do not appear to have crossbows. Throwing sticks, sharpened wood spears, clubs and very primitive bows and arrows appear to be their most formidable weapons. We expect their allegiance to be towards their group, which will be fewer than 200 people and less than 75 adult men. This puts an upper limit on the likely local threat.
On the other side of the island, we have seen several dugout canoes, but nothing in the West. So our ships should be fairly secure.
Hopefully, we will have no contact, but we will attempt to trade with them if given the chance. We will not trade anything that will raise their level of technology or increase their numbers.
more later
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