Trans-Taiga Road (2004)

Here's a summary of the themes from the Hacker News discussion:

Hydropower and Energy Transmission

The discussion begins with a focus on the James Bay Project's hydropower and its transmission to the US. Participants highlight the significant distances involved and the implications for energy policy and infrastructure.

• "Around 10% of the electricity in New York and Boston comes from the James Bay Project; the power is transferred over 1000 miles." - retrac
• "It looks like the road was constructed to serve the four hydro facilities that generate power for Montreal. https://openinframap.org/#7.12/53.8/-74.103/A,B,E,I,L,O,P,T shows the hydro facilities and power lines weaving their way down to Montreal." - imaginator

Population Density and Land Use Disparities

A recurring theme is the stark contrast in population density and land use between different regions, particularly between densely populated countries like Bangladesh and the vast, sparsely populated areas of Canada. This leads to discussions about the factors influencing settlement patterns.

• "Its funny when I saw this road, I realised the distance is probably more than the N-S or E-W distance of Bangladesh , a country with > 171 million people last checked. In fact barely equal to the diagonal length of the country. How much ever one talks about fertile plains, tropical weather being able to support more people, this no is still bonkers to me" - newyankee
• "The low population density of central Canada is not because it's not fertile. A few hundred kilometres south of the area in the article, is a vast clay belt of about half a million square kilometres. It's fertile. You can grow potatoes and oats and the usual garden vegetables up there." - retrac
• "Fascinating! The border between Quebec and Ontario looks like the Mexican border with the US, or the Israeli border with Egypt, but this is all in the same country, Canada. In the US you can see some traces of this between Nevada and California or Idaho and Oregon, due to different laws and tax structures. Obviously if it's a sharp difference in land use along an arbitrary imaginary line, it must be due to the governance. So why is the Quebec side so much more farmed and developed?" - noduerme
• "That's not specific to this road. You could probably pick any 50,000 sq km area on the planet besides Bangladesh, and the population density would be several orders of magnitude lower than that of Bangladesh, except for maybe the few largest metropolitan areas in the world. Bangladesh can't support half its population, and Canada could probably support 10x its population, so one has to conclude that the wild difference in fertility rate is not as simple to explain as a function of how much land there is or how much food can be produced there." - noduerme

Agricultural Potential and Climate Limitations

The agricultural potential of northern Canada is debated, with participants discussing the influence of climate, growing seasons, and day length on what can be cultivated.

• "Does it matter if it’s fertile though? Isn’t the climate there the limiting factor on ag?" - bix6
• "The short growing season is somewhat offset by the very long summer days." - rfrey
• "You can grow plenty of food there: wheat, potatoes, apples, cabbage, etc. It's roughly at the same latitude as Moscow." - cyberax

Navigating and Surviving in Remote Wilderness

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around strategies for finding roads and surviving in remote wilderness, including hypothetical scenarios and practical advice. This touches on navigation, environmental hazards, and the use of modern technology for safety.

• "I know that in the contiguous USA, you will never be more than 20 miles from a road no matter where you are, but have no idea how far one can drive from a town." - jedberg
• "So if you're ever lost, you just walk? (Assuming nothing kills you in nature) Edit: Wait, no. You could be extremely unlucky and be walking parallel to the closest road, lol." - moralestapia
• "Walking in a spiral pattern (where the layers of the spiral are close enough that if you look toward the center, you can always see the point where you were on the previous layer) will guarantee that you eventually see all points on any given radius." - umanwizard
• "Nerd snipe: given a compass and dropped in a random location what is the best strategy (based on direction assuming no clues from terrain) of finding a road. E.g. strategy might be 1000 steps south then 1000 east, repeat." - bravesoul2
• "Honestly I’d just walk downhill. Most human settlements are on rivers, most roads take the lowest passes. At night, I’d just walk in the direction of the sky that’s glowing the most." - labster
• "Melville (roughly) agrees -- from the first chapter of Moby-Dick: --- Once more. Say you are in the country; in some high land of lakes. Take almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries—stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region. Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a "metaphysical professor." Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever. ---" - jonah-archive
• "Weather is the only likely natural hazard outside polar bear country (and to a lesser extent grizzly country because grizzlies are less likely to see you as food). And if you are in polar bear country weather is extreme. But as the saying goes “there is no bad weather just poor clothing choices.”" - brudgers
• "Finding a road, even having a car and fuel is no guarantee of survival in remote areas." - defrost
• "Keep in mind that tragedy happened all the way back in 1986. Anyone doing the same kind of work today (bore maintenance in extremely remote Australian desert) likely has a Personal Locator Beacon-which can be used to transmit your location to the authorities in an emergency via satellite. Dramatically increases the odds of being rescued promptly if stranded." - skissane

Outdated Information and Unverified Settlements

The discussion highlights the potential for outdated information when discussing remote areas and questions the existence of some charted settlements, suggesting a need for verification.

• "Note that all this information is 20 years old and is badly outdated. Many of the facilities mentioned (eg the Nouchimi Outfitters gas station) no longer exist. https://www.facebook.com/TabascoADV/photos/a.696618650541057/1134749456727972/?type=3" - linehedonist
• "I find browsing around the map in remote Canada pretty interesting, especially the number of named settlements for which there appear to be absolutely no information or satellite evidence they exist. Take Roggan River: there’s a Wikipedia page claiming it’s a small village, and it’s on Google Maps, but there’s nothing identifiably there, and there’s no further information I can find online. The map is littered with these." - petesergeant
• "If I took the time to find one, very likely .. it was literally a daily task back in the day when I worked Canadian resource postings for the company that ran [1] before being picked up by Standard and Poor. [1] https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/campaigns/metals-mining" - defrost

Insect Hazards

One participant humorously points out the disincentive of insects in certain northern environments.

• "I'm itching all over from all the insect bites only reading that website." - ghssds