Will you survive?

The unthinkable but a time to really reconnect with nature and people...peace

To quote

"We’ll all be rooned," said Hanrahan
In accents most forlorn
Outside the church ere Mass began
One frosty Sunday morn.

By PJ Hatigan

" Could you find food? Water? Shelter? "

G/day SDG I am certainly having a go, I use the rule that you can not survive more than 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, and 30 days without food, these are of course under extreme circumstances and not typical.

Could I yes.

Phill

Someone's bored.

Maybe human beings will be destroyed by science and technology which they have been proud of some day, the world getting so crazy, just make the most of everyday.

Up until we went full time on the road 12 months ago we lived near a small coastal village in NQ. I used to reckon 50% of the population walked around saying "the world ends tomorrow" while the other 50% shuffled around saying "the world ended yesterday". Is it possible this forum has been infiltrated by some of these beings ? I don't care one little bit because tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life and I AM GOING TO LIVE IT.

Its interesting that in the US there is quite an industry supplying the quite large community of "preppers". That is people who think that the colapse of civilisation either on a wide or local scale is a very real posibility.

These people are constantly stashing away non perisable food, water and fire arms.

A hell of a lot of them are building bunkers.

Seriously.

But I do get the point that the basic skills of survival are just unknown to the newer generations.

They are consumed with their computers, game consoles and mobile phones.

HELL I know full grown men that own neither a hammer, a screwdriver or something to dig with.


In terms of vary basic household maintenance they are completly helpless...God help em if they ever had to kill, clean and cook a chook.

We are into the second & third generation of women that when presented with the realities of meat production decide that they want to be vegitarians....there are men with the same view...but less common.

The funny thing is that while they may have grasped the "realities of meat production", they will never grasp the realities of manual production of a vegitarian diet.

I recon if most of them even had a taste of the amount of digging and hard work required to grow enough vegitable food....they would find meat a whole lot more attractive.

cheers

I'm ok SDG , I was out picking Blackberries off the roadside saturday.

I well remember a guest speaker at our 4WD club some time back who was , among other things, a survival expert.

His comments in relation to your original posting was along the lines that those most reliant on modern technology (read Gen Y'ers ... with apologies to the delicate) would be, in his opinion, the first to succumb. According to his theory, this would all start to happen within 48 hours of water stopping to flow.

Of course all the madness and evil in man's nature would be well to the fore by that time. However I do believe those who grew up in the 50s and 60s would likely stand a better chance, plus those youngsters who were active Scouts or who undertook similar activities.

However, having said all that, it is a most unsettling scenario to contemplate.

Well for 6 months of the year I do not see anyone, or go to shops or need to talk to anyone on the phone. I am by myself look after myself and need no outside help. I use my own grown produce and kill my own beef, collect my own water from a spring and use a solar panel to be able to post this message. I hate it when I go back to the city. But send out the city people out here and they will stave, go made or start talking to themselves.
Cheers Andy

It is theorized by some that the complete collapse of technology is a regular occurrence throughout the universe. Fermi, one of the people who developed the A-bomb posed the question "where are they?" when a group talking suggested that statistically there must be many planets such as ours throughout the universe. If there have been billions of years for civilizations to develop, we should be able to at least pick up alien radio broadcasts of some kind. Technically, you would think there should be hoards of alien grey nomads checking out we Earth retards. Instead, there is nothing. Technology will kill us, either by blowing us up, or causing a super germ due to the widespread misuse of antibiotics or many other reasons. We might simply run out of fuel. Our trip back to the stone age rests on a knifes edge really. Civilization is a very complex machine with many linked parts when you think about it. If any of the links break, it all comes tumbling down. My wife reckons that if there were no hot showers, then life isn't worth living anyway and she would be happy to exit.:-)

I know I probably couldn't. But then again, imagine how pissed off I would be at myself if I spent a great deal of time and effort learning and practising how to survive un assisted in the bush, and then living until I was 100 and the world does noes not collapse on itself. What could I have done with that time and effort that could have been put to a better use than preparing for something that didn't happen?

I remember that aftermath of 9/11 when the media would proclaim that another terrorist attack was imminent. Rubbish bins were removed from train stations and many people stayed indoors. How many train stations (or other) in Australia have been blown up since then?

Back on topic. Do you think the weather has gotten worse, or do you think the ability to communicate the weather has vastly improved. So much so that when an event occurs on the other side of the world we are aware of the details almost instantly. If you start to worry about what MIGHT happen in your life, you are clearly not focussed on what you are doing right now.

Good Question SDG

I think the real problems will different to what you'd expect especially once natural selection starts to work again.

From my experience the least of the problems in the worst case scenario will be the lack of mod cons and technology.
Irrespective of failure of technology, fuel, supply chains and social order the downfall of most people today will be their lack of physical endurance and strength and mental toughness and lateral thinking/problem solving ability.


(...........re-reads what he just wrote....hmm sounds like an over reliance on technology when I put it like that...)

"IF" it came to hunting for now depleted fish stocks and almost extinct wildlife (kangaroos and rabbits excepted thanks to cane toads and deforestation) the pickings are pretty grim in the most populated areas of the country. Even back in the seventies there was little sustaining food for more than a few individuals to be found in the remaining bush and ocean on the populated coastal areas. (personal experience from Army survival courses around NSW south coast) Water supplies are inconsistent too.

The real issue will be people having the strength to actually physically work the ground to grow crops or chase up an animal , sure they would get fitter but many urban dwellers today will injure their backs or joints doing hard physical labour, as they have not developed strength in their tendons joints and heart muscle.

Once injured few would be able to get help or continue sustaining themselves.

Our societies reliance on medicines and sedatives would necessitate quite a torrent of withdrawal cases and a rise in deaths from infections.
Obviously those who keep fit by working in manual jobs and on the land would fare well and they would continue to supply the needy with meat and veggies - but the majority of our population does not want to/no longer able to? work hard. (which is why the fruit industry now employs foreign backpackers to harvest crops which up until the mid 70s were harvested by hardworking Aussies).
Most would get quite a shock to discover how uncomfortable and physically draining it is to be forced by necessity do heavy work outdoors on a hot sunny day!

The current nanny state has eliminated natural selection so a readjustment would occur.
A more resilient population would soon re-emerge I'm sure.

There is really no humane solution to the issues of overpopulation.
Having said all this humans ARE resourceful and determined ...so who really knows....

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