When Resources are Scarce, Conservation is Critical During long term disruptions, whether the result of natural disasters or wars between nations, resources become scarce. The electrical grid could become compromised and supply chains could be obstructed. If we truly want to prepare ourselves for SHTF events, then it's important that we make the most of what little we have. Americans today tend to want bigger things and more of them. Houses are growing larger and the average number of household appliances is rising. This trend depletes the amount of our finite global resources at a faster rate than we've seen in the past. Moreover, by engaging in the practice of "bigger and mo...
SHTF Coffee Guide
From Addicted to Advantaged Coffee is one of the few constants in many of our lives. We need that jolt in the morning to take on the day and our afternoon cup helps us combat post-lunch drowsiness. Our routine caffeine fix may seem necessary now, but many will be forced to break this habit if SHTF. What would we do for our cup of joe then? Fortunately, we can take steps now to ensure that we won't need to face that reality. Not only will these steps enable us to continue enjoying our habitual practice, they can also make us better equipped for survival. Below is your SHTF Coffee Guide. Storage and Sourcing Many of us recognize unground coffee as fragr...
Adapting to a Warming World
Worse than Expected Recent headlines revealed that the impacts of climate change are even worse than initially expected. It comes as no surprise to me that researchers' climate change models were wrong. Anticipating weather events is difficult enough, but attempting to predict the speed, scale, and effects of such a dynamic and complex phenomenon as global warming is borderline arrogant. While I completely support researchers' efforts, I think it is impossible to truly understand the harm we are causing in continuing to warm the globe. It's imperative we change our behaviors if we want to improve the conditions in which we live. Countless papers, blog posts, articles...
One Year After Book Review
Adapting to Life after "The Day" William Forstchen continues his story about the people of Black Mountain after an EMP strike in One Year After. Readers learn that over 80% of Americans have died in the year following the EMP strike. Over half of the population of Japan, Eastern Europe, western Russia, and the Ukraine have also perished. The survivors find that much of America has devolved into chaos as tribal factions vie for power over the remaining states. China has deployed troops under the guise of "maintaining stability." The US government, in an effort to restore order, issued draft notices to hundreds of military aged men and women in Black Mountain. We rejoin the stor...
What to do WROL
Returning to Our Basest Instincts There are thousands of potential scenarios that could leave our society without rule of law (WROL). I've spent time covering Events that could do such a thing (EMP, tech), but I haven't yet explored what society WROL looks like. Without the many luxuries we've grown to take for granted, our primal natures begin to overtake our sense of community. If food stocks begin to deplete and available water runs short, paranoia will sweep through the population. Unfortunately, paranoia tends to breed chaos and fracture our societal structures. The police force, government, and firemen we're used to will no longer command the authority or respect they once ...