It is safe, there is nothing to worry about. The civilisation we have built and live in will provide us with everything we need to live.
Living under illusions
Many of us think that we are living in a time of peace and relative prosperity. In Europe, there has not been another major war for several generations. The shelves in the shops are overflowing with goods. We travel all over the world, we can afford a car, a flat and as much food as we can eat.
We have become so used to all this that no one can even think of another scenario. A scenario in which we lack food, a roof over our heads, or even something as banal as a night light.
Such a bleak scenario can come about much more quickly and easily than we think.
Black scenario
Here is just one of many possibilities.
Imagine that somewhere on the other side of the world a large volcano erupts. So big that it spews hundreds of millions of tonnes of volcanic ash into the atmosphere. The ash enters the atmosphere, and because there is a lot of it, it stays there for one year, very slowly and gradually falling to the earth’s surface.
Such huge amounts of volcanic ash block the sun’s rays from reaching the earth’s surface, which in turn inevitably causes a sharp drop in the average temperature of our planet. We are dealing with a volcanic winter.
The first to suffer are plants, which need light and heat to grow. Their vegetation is halted. Across the planet, yields are poor, crops die, wither and languish. There are no apples, potatoes, rice or oil.
Due to lack of fodder, livestock are dying on a massive scale. People also begin to starve to death – first in poorer countries and soon in more developed ones. The world economy collapses. In several parts of the world, local armed conflicts break out. More and more countries join the fight.
Eventually, everyone is fighting everyone else.
World War III has just broken out, and not even a year has passed since the catastrophe that triggered it. Unlike the previous two wars called world wars, this time the fight is not for oil, land or wealth, but for bread and oil.
It is not a fairy tale
Scary? Unreal? Impossible? Well, such a volcanic winter, has already taken place in the – not so distant – past. In 1816, which was dubbed the “year without a summer”. It was caused by the eruption of the Tambora volcano a few months earlier.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the population density was much lower than today, so its effects were not as tragic as they might be today. Scientists say that a massive volcanic eruption that will obscure the sky for years could happen at any time. Yellowstone Park, for example, is home to a massive supervolcano whose potential explosive force is hundreds of times greater than the 1815 eruption.
The threat is closer than it seems
The supervolcano closest to us is located just 500 km from the Polish border, under Germany’s Lake Laacher See. In January 2012, large amounts of carbon dioxide were discovered seeping from the bottom of this lake. The water looked as if it was boiling. Scientists believe that the volcano, of which the lake is a caldera, is slowly awakening.
And this is just one of thousands of possible black scenarios.
Someone might consider that the chance of such a cataclysm is so small that it is not worth worrying about. I, however, argue that the opposite is true: a great catastrophe is coming and MUST happen sooner or later. Whether it will be a war or a global environmental catastrophe, a global financial meltdown or perhaps all of the above at once is uncertain. But I and many others have sensed that SOMETHING is coming.
For many years – from time to time – I have pondered such a black scenario: what would I do if civilisation as we know it collapsed? What would I need to survive? How do I prepare myself?
Am I ready?
This question kept nagging at me and eventually an internet search led me to an informal group of people who call themselves ‘preppers‘ or ‘survivalists‘. These are people who try to prepare themselves and their families to survive a black scenario. Here you can find out who a prepper is.
Drawing on their experience, I have decided to gather the available knowledge and create the survivalism.co.uk website, which I will regularly expand and add new and interesting material. I would like it to be a collection of information about survival in general, and a place to exchange views, ideas and knowledge.
It is surprising to me that, after searching the Polish Internet, I found so few quality sites dedicated to preppers. However, this was the motivation that drove me and I hope that survivalism.pl will fill this gap. I will systematically post materials here, thanks to which everyone interested in survival can broaden their knowledge of survival and preparation for various disasters and share this knowledge with others.
When creating survivalism.pl, I focused on simplicity and speed of the site, which should be appreciated by all users of mobile devices, older and slower computers and those who use a not very fast Internet connection.
If you have any comments, objections or suggestions, I am at your disposal – please contact me and I will try to respond as soon as I can.
