Modern society affords us a lot of luxuries; running water, clean food, proper heating, are all at the touch of a button, and running constantly; food is plentiful, and right down the street, and clean water is something we literally bathe in. We not only tend to have these things widely available, but think little of them, as we try to entertain ourselves in our spare time.
But in a survival situation, these types of things are much more difficult to acquire. Whether a symptom of an overlying condition or a problem in and of itself, if electricity or water shut down, our society would be in a tough situation. Humans can only go about 3-6 days without water, and about 30 without food. When the grocery stores are raided and your personal supply is up, unless the water turns on in a week, and food starts coming in as emergency aid in a month, there will begin to be mass casualties. It's interesting to think that our society is but a few weeks away from a major collapse just if one single system; transportation, heating and cooling, water or electricity, shut down. Without transportation, there'd be no food from cargo trucks or ships, and thus nothing to eat in major cities or areas that don't have local food (even then, transporting tons of food or going to those farms even if just miles away would be incredibly difficult). Without running water, we couldn't practice proper hygiene or cleaning, let alone drink enough to survive. Without electricity, all forms of telecommunication, such as the internet or cellphones go down, and we are unable to, in the long term, pump water or deliver food supplies. Any major event, be it a solar flare, an EMP, a super volcanic eruption, a meteorite strike, or a hurricane could leave us, just long enough, which is no more than a few weeks, without these basic supplies, and kill most people. With over 50% of people in urbanized areas, modern "luxuries" are not only important to being comfortable, but essential to life in general. If we went back to the stone ages, the carrying capacity of our planet would drop back to a few million at best, and potentially billions could die. If the flu killed a large portion of society, by itself, it would leave hospitals and electric stations out of manpower, and thus inadvertently worsen the issue even if it was an indirect effect. Just one of these systems; transportation, electricity, water, sewage carrying or treatment, going wrong, could severely impact an area, or perhaps all of mankind depending on how widespread the situation is.
10,000 years ago, our population was 3 million; as a result of the development of new technology and agriculture, our population has exploded, to over 2000 times that level, at approximately 7 billion. It's safe to assume every natural source of water is contaminated; while rivers and some lakes contain largely potable water, these can hardly sustain our population, less than .9% of our fresh water supply come from the surface Our modern infrastructure not only provides commodities, but necessities; without food and water, we simply die. And the logistics of creating your own clean water and electricity supply, particularly in your own home, is virtually impossible for your average person to do without large amounts of land or in depth creative construction; it's increasingly more difficult for those in the city or living in densely populated areas. While humanity did survive without these forms of infrastructure thousands of years ago, our population was hundreds, if not thousands of times smaller. Just dropping down to the 1800's would drop our population by X amount. It would be horrific, and it may take a very long time to recover, as other countries, not stricken by the disaster, take advantage of the situation.
Thus, being able to survive through such a catastrophe is ideal. While we could not possibly hope to replicate current capabilities, we could get ourselves to a minimum standard of living to survive on each day and hopefully out last whatever catastrophe is present. A volcanic eruption would only blot out the sun for a few years, after an EMP the military could likely go around replacing much of the power lines and put power back in 1-2 years, and even after a hurricane (assuming it took out an area the size of say a state) would only take a few years to recover from. Surviving more than a few weeks without supplies, however, is nearly impossible. Everyone will be scavenging for supplies, and what doesn't go bad in a few days or months (apples, oranges, bananas, frozen foods) will already be stripped clean, even if it's from the land itself. With such a large urban population, trying to leave the city might become impossible if the roads are clogged, and thus even if you could make it out to the hill side, there's little chance of survival for so many people unless these primary institutions were put back on line.
Police and military rescue services would likely be overwhelmed, and life would become hectic, if not in some cases pure hell.
Water - Water storage, Long term water supply, finding water
Food - Food storage, Long Term Food supply, Finding Food
Heating, energy, and electricity
Hygiene and Sanitation- Sewage management
Medicine- Treating wounds, storing medicine, using alternative or holistic medicine
Security- Firearms, Strategy and tactics, alternative weapons
Training and practice- Growing food, Marksmanship, Medicine, General practice
Commodities- Spices, games, radio and communication, new clothes, candles and lighting, fuel
No comments:
Post a Comment