DailyDirt: After The End
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
We’re well into the new year now, and we’re optimistic about the future with cheap fuel prices and a somewhat rosy outlook on various economic indicators. Just a few years ago, some folks were seriously concerned about The End Of The World As We Know It (TEOTWAWKI) with the world teetering on the edge of economic ruin. If you’re still one of these pessimists, here are a few links on the end of the world. For the rest of you, it may be amusing to check out some Malthusian scenarios.
- Decades ago, CNN apparently made a video to broadcast in the event of an apocalyptic event. Maybe there should be an updated version in high definition? And it’s only a bit less ominous than the Terminus broadcast. [url]
- If a global disaster devastated our ability to grow crops, there are a few scenarios for how people would feed themselves. Eating bugs, mushrooms or bacterial slime might not sound too appetizing, but it could be the only stuff to survive on. [url]
- There could be thousands (or more!) “preppers” already trained and prepared for the collapse of civilization as we know it — but they’re keeping their skills and stockpiles a secret, so they won’t attract undesirables when the end comes. Survivalists might be on to something, but maybe we shouldn’t need to stock up on a variety of different kinds of ammunition to barter with. [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: apocalypse, civilization, economic disaster, malthusian, preppers, survivalists, teotwawki
Comments on “DailyDirt: After The End”
Survivalists might be on to something, but maybe we shouldn’t need to stock up on a variety of different kinds of ammunition to barter with.
Ammunition? Please, any real post-apocalyptic survivalist knows the main thing to stock up on for bartering is bottlecaps.
This is the end...
The world ended in 2012.
Re: This is the end...
If your referring to that silly Mayan prediction. That actually ended mid 2011. taking into mind all the calendar changes after the Mayans died out, adding days subtracting days.
Re: Re: This is the end...
If you’re referring to that silly Mayan calendar thing, there was no prediction by the Mayans about the end of the world, their calendar simply ran out just ours does every year.
Re: Re: Re: This is the end...
Wait wait wait… are you telling me that when the calender doesn’t show any more months beyond December(maybe January if it’s a ‘fancy’ one), that doesn’t mean it’s because the people who put it together have predicted that the world will end that year?
Man, that is really going to put a dampener on the yearly ‘End of the world’ parties, though I suppose after four or five of them I should have figured something else was going on…
Re: This is the end...
According to the Firesign Theater, the world actually ended in the ’70s, but most of us didn’t really notice.
Based on history and the lack of knowledge of it ...
we are about to repeat the mistakes of the past and most don’t even know it.
It is amazing how the various areas are flowing towards an economic breakdown and we the people will be the ones to suffer. The rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer and the middle class will disintegrate.
Hail to times of the Great Depression, which will like times of plenty to what is coming, when all that you have is stolen from you by them that rule….
I’m not worried about civilization or the food supply collapsing. But a hurricane or ice storm or whatnot that shuts down utilities for a full week seems like a reasonable worry.
And so I put together a bin full of supplies. Bottled water. (2-year shelf life.) Sterno tins (for cooking without creating carbon monoxide) and other camping supplies. Survivalist cooking rations for a week to ten days from the local camping store. Matches. A medical kit. A hand-cranked emergency radio / light / USB charger. Etc. A tiny investment that would make a week to ten days without utilities pass more easily.
If a Tambora-style volcanic explosion looks like it will cause a repeat of 1816’s Year Without A Summer, I figure I’ll have plenty of time to stock up on longer term food supplies.
Re: Re:
“Bottled water. (2-year shelf life.)”
Is this the shelf life of the plastic bottle? I doubt that water goes bad if kept in a sterile environment.
Re: Re: Re:
If it was glass. Plastic does exchange molecules with the exterior. Maybe the useful life is greater than 2 years (I’ve eaten yogurts that were past over 1 month the expiration date with no issue) but it will spoil at some point.
If a global disaster devastated our ability to grow crops...
You mean like pesticide companies killing bees in extinction-level numbers?
Re: If a global disaster devastated our ability to grow crops...
Or maybe the inevitable collapse of mono culture food supply?
At some point there will be a great collapse if the current model runs unchecked. We are already seeing the great increase of extreme climate events.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, my area had no power for about 10 days, the gas stations had no power so could not pump gas.
The rest of the country mobilized, sending help and work crews to our area to restore power.
If conditions were the same all across the country and help could not come from elsewhere, if our whole country were in this boat, hope becomes the key. I think it would take about two weeks for civilization to break down. If people didn’t have hope that things would be fixed, those folks that stockpiled supplies and not guns would be in trouble. Some of those “preppers” don’t bother with hoarding supplies, just guns so they can take the supplies from the gunless preppers.
Re: Re:
My “prepper” supplies consist of a few guns and a map of the local zoo.
Re: Re:
Electrical crews from all over Canada were sent to clean up after Hurricane Sandy. More than 200 workers from Ontario’s Hydro One alone, and from as far away as British Columbia.
There would be help from the outside world in a country-wide disaster. And people like civilization. It would adapt.
Re: Re: Re:
Set Hurricane Sandy aside for the moment.
What other countries sent aid to the US after 9/11? or Hurricane Katrina? Not just money or supplies, but personnel as well?
This is a sore spot with some people: the US sends help to other countries in time of need (Ebola, Thailand tsunami, etc.) including personnel, military and civilian, but have other countries sent likewise when the US was in need?
Re: Re: Re: Re:
“What other countries sent aid to the US after 9/11?”
The US was not in need of aid following 9/11.
Many countries supplied aid to the US following Katrina. Even Afghanistan sent us $100,000: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina
“This is a sore spot with some people”
Probably so, but only amongst people who don’t know what they’re talking about. The US has received copious international aid every time we’ve needed it, as near as I can tell.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
“What other countries sent aid to the US after 9/11?”
No doubt more than a few. My own province of Manitoba gifted a brand new fire truck to New York for example. Canada also hosted 224 planes with over 33,000 passengers and crew, diverted to Canadian airports when America closed its airspace.
“or Hurricane Katrina?”
Look up “Operation UNISON” – the Canadian response to hurricane Katrina.
The Canadian military sent four ships, a bunch of helicopters and over a thousand personnel. In some places Canadian rescue teams were the first to arrive after the storm.
They relocated people and delivered things like tents, cots, water containers, men’s and women’s toiletries, sun screen and insect repellent. 35 military divers cleared navigational hazards like sunken vessels and debris, inspected flood-damaged levees, and repaired weather buoys.
There were also plenty of non-military personnel – Red Cross folks, repair crews for the electrical services, etc.
Over 1200 American evacuees were hosted in Canada, with room and board and in some cases full tuition scholarships for university students.
That wasn’t unique: Canadian Troops helped in the cleanup after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. They were sent to evacuate hospitals ahead of Hurricane Gustav in 2008.
After the 2010 BP oil spill, 2400 Canadian Soldiers and the 1 Combat Engineer Regiment based in Edmonton Alberta were on a 72 Hour notice for deployment to the U.S. Gulf Coast. However they were not called upon.
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
True on all counts, although I don’t think that allowing the 224 planes to land in Canada counts as giving the US aid. It’s really more trying like an act to mitigate some of the damage the US caused the rest of the world through its overreaction.
Re: Re: Re:3 Re:
Fair enough.
Plus the order to close US airspace came from a Canadian general (at NORAD), so there’s a bit of a “you broke it, you bought it” element there.