Surviving past 2012

I recently stayed at a high-end Hotel for business and was struck by how empty the place was. No matter where I went I was alone, wandering the halls of a seemingly empty facility. It was unsettling and strange, like a plot out of a B-grade movie where suddenly one person finds that he is all alone in the world.
One evening while eating dinner in the hotel’s restaurant, I mentioned my observation to the waitress. “Your right,” she said. “I think with one exception you are the only person staying here. In fact, we just had to lay off a lot of our employees. Some had been here for years.” I replied that I was sorry to hear that the economic crisis has hit them so hard.
“It’s more than just the economy,” she continued as she stared up at the ceiling; “Something just doesn’t seem right. It’s as if the world is off course or something. Just watch TV, its all doom and gloom. It reminds me of the months just after September 11, when the world went into a holding pattern while everybody waited anxiously for who-knows-what to happen. I’m nervous. All my friends are nervous.” She paused and looked back down at me as she finished her musings, “Anyway, one thing is certain: we live in interesting times…”
I think that short story is the perfect place to begin this article on family readiness and survival in an uncertain world. Why? Because my waitress was right, we do live in interesting times; times that will likely present significant challenges to all of us. Please understand, this is not mere opinion, nor is it gloom-mongering. Scholars from many diverse disciplines agree that we live in an epochal time, an age where trends and events appear to be taking on a life of their own, some good and many bad. Even President Obama in his recent inaugural address prophetically noted that there are ‘gathering clouds and raging storms’ on the horizon.
So what exactly is going on, and what should a reasonable person do about it? Those are the two central questions that I would like to explore in this article. First, I want to examine some significant trends that appear to be shaping our world and our future, and then I will offer some suggestions on what you and your family can do to meet the potential challenges that we may have to face individually and collectively as we live through these interesting times. Let’s start with five trends that will likely raise your eyebrows.
1. Global Population & Resource Scarcity
Are you aware that global population has doubled in the past 40 years, going from 3.3 billion to just under 7 billion today? Think about that for a minute. Forty years is an insignificant number in the global scale of time, and yet, in the past 40 years alone we have doubled the number of people living on this planet. And while much of this growth has occurred in rapidly developing countries such as China and India, it should still concern you. Why? Because, according to the Worldwatch Institute, in the very near future food demand from China and India alone will likely exceed the current global agricultural production capacity, driving global food prices higher as countries compete for ever-dwindling agricultural resources. In fact, you are likely seeing evidence of this trend in your grocery prices right now. What’s more, water tables on every continent are declining as we pump out water at greater rates than rainwater can replenish it, (and human waste continues to foul what water we have left). Right now, more than 400 million people suffer from water scarcity, and the Population Media Center predicts that number will hit the 2 billion mark soon – 25% of the entire planet’s population. Two commodities that we all take for granted, food and water, will within your lifetime very likely become as precious as gold. And finally, exponential growth in population is mirrored by increases in demand for oil – that precious and incredibly efficient source of energy that our society relies upon. It may surprise you to learn that the world’s supply of oil is diminishing, and according to most scholars on the subject, we have already ‘peaked’ in oil production at a time when demand is at an all-time high and expected to grow exponentially. Given that most of society relies upon oil for manufacturing, food production, supply and distribution, transportation, construction, etc., etc., what do you think our world will look like when oil prices skyrocket due to shortages. Think about it…
2. Global Warming & Climate Change
Perhaps more than any other trend in recent history, the issue of global warming has spawned tremendous and often contentious debate. This debate has left many observers confused and bewildered, and has regrettably muddied up what is an agreed upon fact. Here is the fact that has been lost: Global warming is real. What is being debated is the causative agent of this warming – is the current level of warming the result of human activity or a natural planetary cycle? And while this debate is interesting, it is a red herring because it distracts attention from what is really happening, which is that the world’s increasing temperatures are causing the weather to act in weird, and frequently hostile ways. So what can you expect from a warming planet? Most scholars agree that warming will generate severe amplifications of normal weather patterns, resulting in significant infrastructure disruptions and power outages, changes to agricultural production, outbreaks of heretofore contained diseases, and the dislocation of entire populations of people as they run from harm’s way. Thomas Friedman, in his seminal work Hot, Flat and Crowded, coined the term “Global Weirding” for the effects of our warming planet. Bottom line: expect to see weird and wild things from Mother Nature as our planet continues to warm up. (In fact, the Hazards Research Center in Boulder Colorado recently reported that 2008 disaster related deaths were three times the yearly average!)
3. Predictions, Prophecies, & Portents
Every generation has its doom’s day scenario. Human history is replete with end-of-the-world predictions; whether religious or secular in motivation, we humans seem to be fascinated with our doom, and this current age is no different. However, what does appear to be different is that today there exists a strange and sobering confluence of multiple and varied predictions about the end of the world as we know it, all converging on or around the year 2012, (in fact, even Hollywood is jumping on the band wagon with a Summer 2009 blockbuster release titled “2012!”). Apparently, the year 2012 is when the ancient Mayans predicted the end of their ‘Long Count’, a calendar period of 5200 years, each of which was supposed to have ended in cataclysm. Interestingly, the current Long Count is considered to be the 5th and final ‘Great Year’, as the Mayans called it. Five Great Years equal 26,000 years, almost exactly the amount of time it takes the earth to complete one precessional revolution, which in astronomy is referred to as the “Precession of the Equinoxes”. That numerical coincidence is just one of the many strange synchronicities that seem to link mythology with science as it relates to the year 2012, and why this date has so many people of various traditions alarmed and excited. But here is the real point of this short 2012 narrative: millions of people truly believe that 2012 will reveal some grand, global-scale event – either religious or worldly – that will change the world. In fact, many of them want it to. This should concern you because millions of people that want something to happen can actually make that thing happen if they want it badly enough.
4. Technology & Interdependence
Like population, technology grows exponentially, with each new generation building upon the one that came before it. Look around you right now; it is likely that you are looking at technologies that are fundamental to your current lifestyle (perhaps even your ability to make a living), that just 30 years ago didn’t even exist. Society’s technological advancements are truly mind-boggling, and they have made our lives easier and arguably more interesting. But there is a catch. As our technologies become more advanced and pervasive, so does our dependence upon them both individually and collectively. Now more than ever before we are dependent upon a webbed network of technologies, institutions and infrastructures that provide for us those things that just 100 years ago we had to provide for ourselves, such as heat, water, light, transportation, food and more. We have become an interdependent and dependent society, increasingly relying on outside technologies and institutions to survive. This is potentially dangerous because our technological dependence has created a form of collective complacency that has robbed us of vital coping and survival skills that used to be commonplace. Imagine a major urban center of 5 million people suddenly robbed of their technologies, having to live off the grid for 30 days or more; what do you think that picture would look like?
5. Economic Crisis
There is an old saying: anybody that tries to tell you what the financial markets are going to do is lying or trying to sell you something. Nobody knows for certain when the current financial crises will end, nor what our lives will look like just 12 months from now, much less five years from now. But one message does seem to thread throughout all of the predictions about the economy: it’s going to get much worse before it gets better. In fact, Gerald Celente, founder of the Trends Research Institute and a highly respected futurist with an impressive track record for forecasting global trends, predicts that unemployment will skyrocket between now and 2012, and even goes so far as to suggest that people will be living in tent cities all across America. He refers to our upcoming economic challenge as the Greatest Depression, and expects a near-total collapse of the banking industry and financial markets, with ripple effects felt around the world. This argument is strengthened by the incredibly sobering and informative research presented by Chris Martenson in ‘The Crash Course’ — an on-line documentary which explores some brutal facts about the clash between the Economy, the Environment, and Energy. You should watch it.
A Recipe for Disaster?
So, here is the question that I would like you to consider: What will be the synergistic effect of these five trends as they begin to collide? Imagine an overpopulated planet suffering from dramatic and unpredictable weather, fighting for scarce resources in what is likely to be the worst economic crisis in history, with millions of people looking around the corner expectantly for the apocalypse, all the while depending on outside technologies and institutions for personal survival… Sound like a crisis in the making?
Perhaps, or it could be an opportunity. Join me in Part 2 of this artile to discover three things you can do to prepare for the convergence of these trends: Readiness & Survival In An Uncertain World: 3 Things You Can Do To Prepare Right Now.
Stay Safe. Stay Informed. Stay Prepared.
KBaum SurvivalOutpost.com

Imagine a life without the conveniences we have all come to expect from today’s modern infrastructure. Every time you flush the toilet, turn on a light, run the air conditioner, open the refrigerator, brush your teeth, drink a glass of water, cook on your stove top, listen to your ipod, shop at the store, drive your car, take a shower, call your Mom, mow the lawn, or simply sit out back with a cool glass of iced tea, you are relying on an intricate and webbed structure of supply and distribution networks that make all these “small” conveniences possible. What many of us don’t consider – or even think about – is that this supply and distribution network is very interdependent, meaning that disturbances in one part of the network can send shock waves throughout the entire system, affecting hundreds of thousands of people and households in very unpredictable ways.
As an example, consider a “simple” 7-day power outage, (an increasingly common occurrence in today’s uncertain world). Once the power grid is gone, so is the power to pump water, waste-water, power street lights, store lights, house lights, refrigeration, heating systems, security systems, telecommunication systems, gasoline pumps, and more. You will not be able to go to the store to buy the food, water, medication and supplies you so desperately need because the stores will be closed; those stores that are somehow able to remain open will be sold out within hours. You will not be able to drive to an unaffected location because the gasoline pumps will not be operational – all you have is what is in your tank. Your refrigerated food will spoil within hours, your sewage will back up and you will have no fans to remove the smell and the heat, or heaters to warm you from the biting cold. Ice will disappear in the warmer latitudes. You will run out of food as soon as your pantry is empty, and the only water you will have to drink, or clean with, is what you had in bottles before the outage occurred. If you have an emergency, you will not be able to call 911 because telecommunications will likely be down.
What will the next 7 days look like for you and your family? Here is what it looked like for one of SurvivalOutpost.com’s customers:
“We had no idea how the power outage would affect us. We planned ahead, but there are so many things you don’t think of, and water runs out so quickly. We had to wait in lines for water. Who would have thought that a toilet takes almost three gallons to fill just to flush! People around here would have paid any amount of money for a battery operated fan – we were miserable!” – Renee Sutherland, Hurricane Gustav Survivor
If you are not adequately prepared, it is likely that you will spend your week nervously standing in a long line of grumpy and seemingly hostile strangers, as you all wait on government aide (which may take days to arrive). If that sounds bad, then you now know what millions of unprepared people have lived through (or in some cases — not), after a major disaster struck them.
Peace of mind in these uncertain times comes through reasonable readiness – a balance between personal responsibility to prepare for likely natural and man-made disasters, an acknowledgment that it could actually happen to you and your family, and an appreciation that there is a safety net out there prepared to help…but one that you will have to be prepared to wait on. It’s the wait that can hurt you:
“I live in north west Pennsylvania. Inland United States. Who would have ever thought that I should be prepared for a one-week power outage from a hurricane that made landfall in Texas! Ike shot right up the country, hit us with 80 mph winds and left us totally unprepared. There was a run on Wal-Mart, and I had to rely on my neighbors to help me through the disruption. One neighbor had a generator, and he went from home to home giving each of us one hour of power to cool our food and what limited water we had left.” Alita Gail – Hurricane Ike Survivor
The survival question in today’s complex and increasingly unpredictable and dangerous world is simple: Given the potential hazards that are likely to affect you (such as an economic collapse that severely disrupts our supply chain and support networks, or a natural disaster Katrina scale, or social unrest, etc.), do you have the necessary supplies on hand to make it through the waiting period…to remain at home with peace of mind in the comfort and company of your family and loved ones? Or will you be waiting anxiously in a long line of strangers, hoping to make it to the front before they run out of supplies?
The choice, and decision, is yours… Never forget that when the time for action is upon you, the time to prepare is gone.
Stay safe. Stay informed. Be prepared.

We are talking here about killing devices to hunt and to protect yourself. When the electricity and all current technologies are gone, people will need to use some primitive techniques to survive.

KILLING DEVICESThere are several killing devices that you can construct to help you obtain small game to help you survive.The rabbit stick, the spear, the bow and arrow, and the sling are such devices.

RABBIT STICKOne of the simplest and most effective killing devices is a stout stick as long as your arm, from fingertip to shoulder, called a “rabbit stick.” You can throw it either overhand or sidearm and with considerable force. It is best thrown so that it flies sideways, increasing the chance of hitting the target. It is very effective against small game that stops and freezes as a defense.

SPEARYou can make a spear to kill small game and to fish. Jab with the spear; do not throw it.

BOW AND ARROWYou can construct a suitable short-term bow fairly easily. When it loses its spring or breaks, you can replace it.

1. Select a hardwood stick about 1 meter (3 feet) long that is free of knots or limbs. Carefully scrape the large end down until it has the same pull as the small end. Careful examination will show the natural curve of the stick. Always scrape from the side that faces you, or the bow will break the first time you pull it. Dead, dry wood is preferable to green wood.2. To increase the pull, lash a second bow to the first, front to front, forming an “X” when viewed from the side. Attach the tips of the bows with cordage and only use a bowstring on one bow.3. Select arrows from the straightest dry sticks available. The arrows should be about half as long as the bow. Scrape each shaft smooth all around. You will probably have to straighten the shaft.You can bend an arrow straight by heating the shaft over hot coals. Do not allow the shaft to scorch or burn. Hold the shaft straight until it cools. You can make arrowheads from bone, glass, metal, or pieces of rock. You can also sharpen and fire-harden the end of the shaft. Fire hardening is actually a misnomer. To fire-harden wood, hold it over hot coals or plunge it deep under the coals in the ashes, being careful not to burn or scorch the wood. The purpose of fire hardening is to harden the wood by drying the moisture out of it.4. You must notch the ends of the arrows for the bowstring.Cut or file the notch; do not split it. Fletching (adding feathers to the notched end of an arrow) improves the arrow’s flight characteristics. Fletching is recommended but not necessary on a field-expedient arrow.

SLINGYou can make a sling by tying two pieces of cordage, each about 60 centimeters (24 inches) long, at opposite ends of a palmsized piece of leather or cloth. Place a rock in the cloth and wrap one cord around your middle finger and hold in your palm. Hold the other cord between your forefinger and thumb. To throw the rock, spin the sling several times in a circle and release the cord between your thumb and forefinger. Practice to gain proficiency.The sling is very effective weapon to survive against small game.

In order to survive the real world after the 2012 events, it is clear that we need to make sure we have those tools to protect ourselves and to hunt for food. Surely this is quite an adaptation for the majority of us, yet not a luxury nor an option if we want to stand a chance. Pick your equipment well and learn the skills to use them and make new ones when necessary!

TAGS : 2012, how to survive 2012, survival tools, survival equipment