EOTWAWKI scenarios and the survivability of mankind

Status
Not open for further replies.
L

leadcounsel

Moderator
I'm assuming that most people here have at least pondered the End of the world as we know it. Let's also not forget that many nations before us have collapsed unexpectedly. We are not immune.

The Egyptian pyramid era empire fell.
The great Babylonian empire fell.
The Assyrian empire fell.
The Greek empire fell.
The Roman empire fell.
The Spanish empire fell.
The French empire fell.
The British empire fell.
The German/Italian/Japanese world dominance plot failed.
The USSR world dominance plot failed.

In the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's the scare was communism and the very real threat of total nuclear war and annihilation.

1) Do you think there is any one thing, or multiple things, that concern you about ending our nation or the world as we know it?

2) If the answer to #1 is yes, what do you realistically think Could cause the nation or the world to spiral?

3) What, if anything, can one really do to prepare for your scenario? Remember the futility of the 50's and 60's etc. teaching schoolkids to hide under their desks if a nuke detonates nearby?

4) What would be the survivability of mankind?

5) What if anything our leaders can an should do about it?


Personally, I think there are few things that will be as CERTAIN and DEVESTATING as the world running out of cheap oil, which respected experts predict happening in the VERY near future. Effects of this will likely include:

1) Collapse of local, state, national, and international economies that rely on oil heavily (eg industrialized nations)
2) Immediate and devestating resources wars for oil, water, food, and necessities at local and also international levels. As two major oil players with large armies that don't get along well, the U.S. and China will butt heads for the remaining oil reserves
3) Deep recessions in the economy as people cannot afford oil and its derivatives (such as fertilizer, gasoline, vehicles, heating oil, food, water, etc.). Most of what Americans consume (food, water, consumer goods, etc.) are made directly from oil or transported using oil. Without oil, the luxuries, even the necessities we enjoy, will begin to dry up rapidly as people begin to hoarde.

Please check out these websites for more information:

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
www.peakoil.com
www.hubertspeak.com

I'm curious to know whether people agree, disagree, or what your own thoughts are on other EOTW scenarios.
 
Dude you dont really have a nice life...covered in head to toe with body armor and worrying about the end of the world? :D :D

Heres the bottom line...life as we know it on earth will end and THERE IS NOTHING ANYONE CAN DO ABOUT IT!!!! then maybe it wioll start back up, maybe....

Man isnt god, man cant change the forces of the universe or geologic time. The sun could flare out tomorrow and wipe us out....or the magnetic pole could shift, a tectonic plate shift or any other catastrophic event that scientists love to play with but cant do an anyhting about.

Me I prep for a small local catastrophe. I dont worry about it, or the earth crackin in half, or the oil running out or whatever becasue we are all doomed no matter what we do sooner or later. Its the nature of time and life.

Lighten up dude, life is waaaaaaaaaaay to short. When it hits, all the prep in the world aint gonna do a bit of good if your number is up.

WildphilosophicalAlaska
 
I"m a very jovial and "regular" guy but for the fact that I think about these things from time to time.

So, you don't really give any thought to how you might survive? Could you live off the land in Alaska? Would you try to survive or give up in a nationwide or worldwide catastrophy?
 
okay, listen up folks. i'm going to tell you how the world (as we know it) will come to an end. some of you doubting thomases will ignore me, but we'll just call that 'natural selection' when alls said and done:

eventually the whiny liberals will come up with a candidate worth voting for and will get elected president. civil war will be sparked when the government agents come to confiscate the boomsticks. to end the carnage the UN will step in and will assume worldwide control.
 
So, you don't really give any thought to how you might survive? Could you live off the land in Alaska? Would you try to survive or give up in a nationwide or worldwide catastrophy?
Click to expand...
heavens no! theres too much snow to be able to survive off the land. and if you tried you'd get eaten by either the bears or mosquitos.
tell all your friends that alaska is a barren wasteland not worth seeing. we'll thank you for it, i mean, they'll thank you for it later.
 
Aliens will pick us up and take us to a paradise like zoo where we can amuse them with our monkey antics and our enthusiastic breeding practices.

Remember this is all for naught as the next cycle of the Big Bang or the alternative heat death of the universe will take us out.

:eek:

Thus, live for the moment and do some nasty things while you can. Those who want to dress like Mad Max characters in leather pants with their butts hanging out - feel free.
 
World domination by UN imminent

eventually the whiny liberals will come up with a candidate worth voting for and will get elected president. civil war will be sparked when the government agents come to confiscate the boomsticks. to end the carnage the UN will step in and will assume worldwide control.
Click to expand...
Hmmm... it seems that Mr. Clinton held tenure not so long ago, from 1993-2001. Maybe there was a civil war and armies of government agents invading homes, mass carnage, and UN world domination... but I think I missed that - have any references?

The UN currently has combined military *and* police of about 67,000, and an annual budget for them of about $4 Billion, and little if any heavy weaponry. If the US Army, Marines, Air Force, Navy, National Guard, Police, FBI are incapable of keeping order, what makes you think the UN, of which the US is a member nation (and probably the most influential) is capable of "step in and will assume worldwide control"... with what??? You do realize that the UN is made up of reps from all countries right? So how would the UN dominate the world? :rolleyes: *Listens to sound of "The Twilight Zone" theme*

blkhelicoptersoveram.jpg


For figures, see: http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/bnote.htm
 
All the civilizations you mentioned ended because of their own selection from a short menu of a few common factors including overextension in empire building, deterioration of morals, loss of private initiative to work, overextension of food distribution system, reduction of fertility, pressure of settlement by poorer neighbors, loss of military efficiency, etc.

The US will fall due to some or all of these factors. If you want to reduce the rate of decline 1) reduce the complexity of our cities and resettle citizens in rural areas 2)reduce the complexity of food distribution networks and revert to more primary food growing by citizens 3) reduce complexity of government, treaty entanglement and foreign military obligations 4) reduce financial disincentives to reproduce 5) remove the 'entertainment industry' in its entirety 6) strengthen community social support in local churches, schools, "State Guards" and healthcare organizations as parallel distributive systems rather than the present centrally planned monolithic systems 7) allow incentives for private small industry and growth 8) reopen the Frontier in the form of deep space colonization efforts on Mars, NEAs and the asteroid belt itself.

Suggest you read Carroll Quigley. Start with The Evolution of Civilizations and then go on to Weapons Systems and Political Stability Then study the ways that citizens can privately implement a 'back to the land' community approach.

BTW, the Deep South is much like Alaska but a lot worse. We are a barren, drought and hurricane prone place with burning summers and freezing winters, inhabited by subhuman primates who will kill you and eat your bones. Our winters are not as cold as Alaska's, but we have horrible misshapen fungi which thrive on moist chilly weather and which will eat out your lungs from the inside. Our bears aren't much to brag about but our mosquitos are so big they normally have to drain the blood from two or three cows to find the strength to get airborne. They can bore right through the side of a Humvee and prefer the blood of children. Better to settle in the North or Midwest. :D
 
Wow, it sounds like you fellas in Alaska and the Deep South have it pretty easy. I'd point out how bad it is to move to the Southwest, but I'm afraid some folks may have nightmares. Suffice to say, stay away for your own good. :D

Denny
 
And when that hits, the Pacific plate will break in half, bird flu will kill us all, FIRE BRIMSTONE YEEEAHH REPENT YOU SINNERS FOR THE END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH!

Those who want to dress like Mad Max characters in leather pants with their butts hanging out - feel free.
Click to expand...

Glenn...dude...take that back...Spiffy is very suggestible..

The end of my world comes when the spiffster starts aparading through Anchorage in body armor and leather pants with his butt hanging out....I SEE THE RAPTURE CHILLUN, TAKE ME TO HEAVEN

wildonlyhassevendaysofrationsomygodwhatwillidoAlaska
 
In keeping with the plausability of the preceding posts, I posit that, following Armageddon, a mutant superrace will emerge from the conflagration, and dominate the world... :eek:
music.reciews.teletubbies.jpeg
 
I saw a show on PBS, "Footsteps of Mankind" or some such. It was about genetic research and the origins of man, and how they migrated out of Africa.

During the ice age (20,000 years ago), a group travelled across the Bering Straight into Alaska, then down a narrow corridor on the East side of the rocky mountains. By the time they got past the ice, there were only 10-12 left, only 2-3 of them men. Those 10-12 people then managed to populate all the Americas.

Granted, it took 20,000 years, but the point is a small band of survivors can pull humanity back from extinction.
 
should be more afraid when i announce i am replacing the Horseman of the Apocalypse War since he caught a nasty virus from Pestilence.

come! reap! charyou tree!
 
Another place not to go, and not to move to unless you already live here, is Colorado!

The whole place is uninhabitable mountains with deep snows and vicious, man eating mountain lions. Only 1 out of 100 children live long enough to even attend high school.

The women are UGLY too! Especially at the univeristy of colorado Boulder!

But seriously ... since the US pretty much morphs into diffrent countries and societies over the years, from a group of confederated states who wanted only a minimal national governemnt to deal with other nations, to a powerful central government that enforces whatever laws they want, I doubt it will ever go away. We're economically powerful enough to survive about any catastrophe (Katrina will probably grow our economy at the expense of National Debt) and our governmnet changes as the people change.

And we're too big/too many people to be invaded by a foreign power.

Unless we allow some kind of tyranny to seize power, the constant changes in leadership and outlook of government should be sufficient to avoid anything serious.

The collapse of the oil economy will be gradual (though perhaps painful) but in the end we'll find something to fill in the gaps. When the SHTF we always come through. And when oil hits $100 a barrel suddenly many other ways of generating power will seem worthwhile.

So ... kick back and enjoy living in Colorado.

But keep bottled water, canned food and ammo on hand just in case.
 
Garand,
I think you'd benefit to taking a few minutes to look at the posts above. The reason that "alternate" energy sources won't work is because they all derive from oil, either through developing, transporting, or building.

The same is true of fertilizer (it's oil based) which enables us to harvest unbelievable yields. And how about irrigation? And those big farm machines that eat fuel. And what about getting food from point A to point B? Think about the food you eat and how LITTLE of it is from local origin. How about the water you drink. It's pumped from wells deep beneath the earth or from rivers and lakes far away, all using gas/oil/electricity driven motors, which are built and derive from oil.

Bottom line is that the return on investment with oil is the best return on any investment in the history of the world. For the price of a single gallon of gas, you can move a 1 ton vehicle 20-30 miles in about 20 minutes. Now, think about replacing that $3 investment with human labor. It would take hundreds of man hours of labor (say labor is $10 per hour) to do that same work. The return is unbelievable! And, it's what has allowed us to build and live such affluent lives. Imagine your house. It was built using timbers cut with big gas run saws, moved to the lumber mill in giant diesel trucks, cut using gas/electric mills, moved to lumber stores nationwide on diesel trucks, and moved to your foundation on trucks. Workers came via gas powered vehicles. Gravel for your cement foundation was extracted from the earth using earthmovers running on diesel. Your cement foundation was poured using gas powered cement mixers and on and on.... all to build you an affordable luxurious home, for which you took out a loan from the banking world, which relies heavily on the investment world, which relies heavily on the price of oil because stable oil = a stable world. Now, imagine that each step of building a house was replaced by human and pack animal labor. The mansions of today would become an unaffordable thing of the past. Buildings requiring elevators would be unusable. Extrapolate that into every aspect of life and I think there is going to be major ripples in the world and local economies.
 
During the ice age (20,000 years ago), a group travelled across the Bering Straight into Alaska, then down a narrow corridor on the East side of the rocky mountains. By the time they got past the ice, there were only 10-12 left, only 2-3 of them men. Those 10-12 people then managed to populate all the Americas.
Click to expand...

Guess we need to hoard some women then.....

Spifffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff, pray for the end of the world!

WildheyswmboimnotcheatringitsformankindAlaska
 
The reason that "alternate" energy sources won't work is because they all derive from oil, either through developing, transporting, or building.
Click to expand...
Nothing wrong with oil while it lasts... but it's not true that energy sources are all traceable to oil. How about?
  1. Nuclear fission
  2. Nuclear fusion (maybe)
  3. Wind
  4. Solar
  5. Waves
  6. Tides
  7. Crop based fuels (e.g., ethanol)... virtually all plants produced carbon based fuels from carbon dioxide and water, through reactions driven by photosynthesis (essentially, bioharvesting of solar energy)

I am not sure if when you said "oil" you mean fossil fuels, but there is an awful lot of coal out there as well.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top