A sunny survival...

The basic human needs are air, water, food, shelter and clothing. Over the recent month I have become increasingly interested in how to provide those things in case of a disaster or a collapse in the economic system, as we know it. I have long been interested in what we take for granted around us, the water that runs from our taps, the electricity that comes from the plugs in our walls and the food that comes from the store.
If these things that we depend on where to one day be gone and the local population, including your family and loved ones, where without basic necessity how might you construct a water treatment facility to help your community to keep drinking clean water? Waiting for the rescue may not be an option as we have recently scene by the grizzly crisis in Haiti and the sad response to the disaster in New Orleans. It is important, and I think often overlooked in our society, the critical role that civil engineering plays in providing the basic necessities for surviving in the world. I have come to the realization that through all my education I know very little about how to create the basic machines and systems to maintain and sustain a high quality life.
The basic knowledge to develop this type of infrastructure, on a small scale, can be found on the Internet and in the local library. Another basic thing that I have found is my ability to work on my own vehicle. Armed with the knowledge that I gained from the Internet I replaced gaskets on my truck motor and installed the sensors that needed to be replaced to turn the check engine light off. I saved myself $350 by doing it myself. The by-product: understanding far more about how my vehicle works and with this knowledge I can continue to repair it indefinitely. I must also point out that my brother taught me a great deal about how to work on vehicles in just six hours by replacing the entire suspension system on my truck.
This change is not just about saving money it is about being able to keep equipment running after it’s engineered life span is over. As the mantra goes: reduce, reuse, and recycle. There has been a systematic aging process created in a product design by the designers called planned obsolesces. This degrading that happens over a certain period of time has been planned so that the consumer has to replace the product and is under pressure to do so or be without. This is a huge inefficiency built into the system specifically to increase profits. It is also responsible for large amounts of environmental waste. With this in mind it is difficult for me to think about buying a new vehicle that I cannot work on or find parts for.
Beyond the desire to keep things running efficiently around me I found myself wanting to install renewable energy in the new location where I plan to move. I found several DIY (DO-IT-YOURSELF) pages for both wind turbines and solar panels. Those resources where very easy to follow and I will take that knowledge and start to stack up the equipment and tools that I need to build and maintain the systems. Some of those links can be found below.
My goal is not only to educate myself to maintain the status quo but to expand my knowledge so that I maybe able to apply these systems abroad and add some of my own invention to the puzzle. This information should be taught to our students and there ought to be some basic engineering classes. If we continue to cut education and reduce our population to videogame playing junk food eating, uneducated people we will continue to suffer.

Water DIY:
http://www.aqsolutions.org/resources/DIY.pdf

Wind Power:
http://www.mdpub.com/Wind_Turbine/

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9ndgg_how-to-build-a-wind-turbine-with-pv_tech

Solar Power:
http://www.mdpub.com/SolarPanel/index.html