It's wise to be prepared — just don't lose sight of today as you brace for a potential tomorrow.
Host Ian Punnett discusses the psychology of disaster response with Amanda Ripley, author of The Unthinkable: Who Survives when Disaster Strikes and Why
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2 hours, 12 minutes
http://www.amandaripley.com/
It's wise to be prepared — just don't lose sight of today as you brace for a potential tomorrow.
John D. McCann, a former Marine drill instructor, invokes the
unofficial Marine Corps motto "Improvise, adapt, overcome," in his
survival skill courses.
The contents include — but are not limited to — matches that Mr. McCann hand-dips in Thompson’s WaterSeal to waterproof them, a tiny magnesium fire starter, a small lens for igniting fires should the matches and magnesium fire starter fail, an L.E.D. flashlight, a button-size compass, a thin square of mirror to signal potential rescuers, 20 water purification tablets, a meticulously folded freezer bag to store potable water, a packet of antibiotic ointment, butterfly bandages, a sewing bobbin with 20 feet of fishing line, a dozen hooks, six weights, laminated instructions on tying knots and snare wire for capturing small animals. All in one Altoids tin.
Survival
Resources markets primitive-living provisions, and Mr. McCann, 55, also
teaches survival kit design, among other do-or-die subjects, to
students attending its Survival Skills Weekends in Verona, N.Y., near Syracuse. Consider it an Eagle Scout crash course for adults.
The WaterBOB™ is a fresh water
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man-made disasters. Water can be stored up to 2 weeks in a controlled
environment. Please note: the WaterBOB™ is intended for a one-time use
only.
The WaterBOB™ includes instruction for use, liner, two nozzles and
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WaterBob order page via RedCross.org Store
Posted: July 24, 2008 | 12:00 am Eastern | © 2008 WorldNetDaily
A Wall Street Journal columnist has advised people to "start stockpiling food" and an ABC News Report says "there are worrying signs appearing in the United States where some … locals are beginning to hoard supplies." Now there's concern that the U.S. government may be competing with consumers for stocks of storable food.
"We're told that the feds bought the entire container of canned butter when it hit the California docks. (Something's up!)," said officials at Best Prices Storable Foods in an advisory to customers.
Spokesman Bruce Hopkins told WND he also has had trouble obtaining No. 10 cans of various products from one of the world's larger suppliers of food stores, Oregon Freeze Dry.
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The decline of cheap oil is inspiring increasing numbers of North Americans to achieve some measure of backyard food self-sufficiency. In hard times, the family can be greatly helped by growing a highly productive food garden, requiring little cash outlay or watering.
Currently popular intensive vegetable gardening methods are largely inappropriate to this new circumstance. Crowded raised beds require high inputs of water, fertility and organic matter, and demand large amounts of human time and effort. But, except for labor, these inputs depend on the price of oil. Prior to the 1970s, North American home food growing used more land with less labor, with wider plant spacing, with less or no irrigation, and all done with sharp hand tools. But these sustainable systems have been largely forgotten. Gardening When It Counts helps readers rediscover traditional low-input gardening methods to produce healthy food.
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WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Last Friday’s power outage forced the White House to go to backup generators and left a 30-block section of downtown Washington darkened for nearly three hours. The blackout raises anew worries that the nation’s capital still isn’t prepared to respond to an unexpected crisis nearly seven years after 9/11. At the heart of the problem are sluggish responses from public officials and an alert system that can be all but paralyzed by indecision and inaction. This must be fixed now — before there’s a real emergency.
BUSKIRK, N.Y. (AP) — A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald's, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings.
That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world's oil supply. Now, she's preparing for the world as we know it to disappear.
Breault cut her driving time in half. She switched to a diet of locally grown foods near her upstate New York home and lost 70 pounds. She sliced up her credit cards, banished her television and swore off plane travel. She began relying on a wood-burning stove.
"I was panic-stricken," the 50-year-old recalled, her voice shaking. "Devastated. Depressed. Afraid. Vulnerable. Weak. Alone. Just terrible."
Convinced the planet's oil supply is dwindling and the world's economies are heading for a crash, some people around the country are moving onto homesteads, learning to live off their land, conserving fuel and, in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who didn't prepare.
The exact number of people taking such steps is impossible to determine, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the movement has been gaining momentum in the last few years.
These energy survivalists are not leading some sort of green revolution meant to save the planet. Many of them believe it is too late for that, seeing signs in soaring fuel and food prices and a faltering U.S. economy, and are largely focused on saving themselves.
From Cool Tools: These days there's a glut of first-person reportage centered on alternative lifestyles. Some narratives can come across as self-righteous and self-indulgent. This book is not one of those. When 30-something journalist Doug Fine buys a plot of land in New Mexico and vows to live as "green" as possible, his self-deprecating, humorous outlook kicks in. He never denies he's in over his head. Quite the opposite, which makes every misstep and subsequent triumph all the more gratifying. From rearing goats found on Craigslist to garnering rainwater harvesting tips via -- what else? -- http://harvestingrainwater.com, and Googling a VegOil auto mechanic, Fine's journey is exactly what it professes to be: "green, Digital Age living." No substitute for the rigorous how-to's penned by experts, this entertaining, heartfelt journey is a testament to what's possible with a Web connection and heaps of determination. Indeed, the path to alternative living truly begins at our fingertips. Even if you could care less about going green, living local or starting-up solar, there's inspiration to be had. Plus, delicious recipes highlighting some of Fine's homegrown stuffs.
-- Steven Leckart