Tuesday, March 18, 2008

What We Gonna Do When Sh*t Hits The Fan

The last time I visited a supermarket I was thinking of our lost skills. How much we indeed lost in the course of civilization. We have lost touch with nature. Most of us are very good at tracking the lowest prices on the Internet, and perhaps frozen food in a supermarket. But would we be able to understand animal tracks in the wild.


No doubt we lost surviving skills, but what’s more frightening is most of us don’t think we still need them which is hopefully true but what if we do ………

We run out of food

The climate is getting warmer. Polar ice caps are melting, oceans are rising, coasts are eroding, and weather patterns may be shifting. Scientists are predicting increased droughts, floods (not a contradiction), wildfires, a massive disruption of agriculture and the food chain, and more severe storms—especially hurricanes. The sea level might rise by several feet in this century alone. The best-case scenarios look pretty awful.

The problem is that each tiny increase brings on a cascade of effects in weather, crops, migration, species interdependence, and so on. More rain here, less rain there. Hotter, drier earth means fewer microscopic worms fertilizing the soil, lower crop yields, and on and on and on. One quick glimpse at the minimum of devastation: The British government's chief scientist recently estimated that an increase of 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) was the minimum we could hope for, even if we managed to stabilize carbon dioxide emissions in the near future, and that this temperature increase would result in a decrease of 200 million to 400 million tons of grain production throughout the world—and subsequently threaten starvation of 400 million people.

In this scenario some of those 400 millions people could have an advantage if they knew how to survive, and used their survival skills that their ancestors knew about. And it’s not far from reality, is it?

We run of the water

Another thing is, how we treat the water. In the past many tribes treated water as a god. Since water means life, it was of utmost importance to them. And now what’s our relation to water?

We constantly waste it, either by over consumption or by polluting it. What about collecting rain water? How many of us do collect it? Perhaps you might if you knew what the future holds in available freshwater!

Further, global warming has already negatively impacted bio systems and conditions for several species. What's more, if the temperature rises further still we are looking art 400 million and 1.7 billion people won't be able to get enough water, allergic pollens will increase, and some amphibians will go extinct.

It doesn’t sound good, does it?

Get in touch with Nature
With all of the environmental changes we're experiencing, mass extinction - according to scientists - is a real possibility. It's important that as a society we begin to realize how everything in our world is connected, just like if I was to pull a hair on you leg your eyes will water.

So consider this as you make your daily decisions. It might be necessary for your survival. Learn how to collect water, save energy, grow vegetables and food, swim, and build a shelter. Learn from our friends the animals, as they don't go to supermarkets.

Learn how native tribes dealt with the world around them. You may consider them as primitive, but they had more wisdom how to treat the Nature. It also is a good fun and will get you prepared for any disaster.

Stay tuned to our next post for these survival tips.

AddThis Social Bookmark Button




4 comments:

Crafty Green Poet said...

You're so right, its scary how many skills we've lost and how little we know about living with nature.

Anonymous said...

I really do agree for the best part. I think that the biggest problem though is in the roots. Children need to learn these key skills, and environmental classes in school. We need a seperate Environment GCSE, at least on a par with maths, science, English etc.

Anonymous said...

Hmm,

I agree with the sentiment, but in reality, when the s**t does hit the fan and food supplies dry up, water becomes scarce, etc. we'll need more than environmental awareness and survival skills to survive.

For starters, society as we know it will completely break down. Those who do grow their own food and collect water will be looted by those who don't. The people who are going hungry will be desperate people!

Yes, we do need to be thinking about learning "old" skills, but I wouldn't rely on our schools to teach our children. It's something parents should be learning and passing on to their children.

Anonymous said...

What are we going to do? well I think the best answer is what are we doing... Great article to bad people just dont do what it takes to overcome the worlds eco dilema. My husband and I have desided to only give trees as gifts so we can do our part. We are using http://www.treesinstead.com but there are about 20 sites that sells similar tree dedications. I just like the certificates on this site plus I had a good service from them; nevertheless, the idea is to do something..