Wednesday 11 January 2012

If the worst happens. . .



Now I have returned this blog to the Sefuty Chronicles let me start the New Year with the rather gloomy idea for the back story of the Chronicles.  The end of the world!! Well no, not the end exactly but the discussions on climate change raging across nations over tha last couple of decades inspired and fed the novels.  

 
All my life, we have been preparing for the worst. In the post World War Two years it was the atomic bomb. That fear could almost be tasted. The Government had public information leaflets  prepared on what to do if the worst happened.  These instructions were to be sent to everyone if a threat of a nuclear strike was imminent – sorry, how much time did that give us to prepare? 

We had the Cold War with all its danger of communist take over – my parents' generation seamlessly moved from fear of German invasion to Russian. My generation had to learn, having just missed the German threat.

Then there were terrorists from within our own borders and from across the seas.  Has it always been thus? I should think so life, is dangerous and, depending on our perception, we chew our fingers to the quick or largely ignore it.  Maybe it will all vanish. Look at the Berlin Wall!

Now we have a new possible threat.  Not nations threatening war but, we are told, climate change is going to kill us all - well a great many of us.  Maybe. Probably. 

Our coastal towns will be abandoned to the sea, our land poisoned by the saline waters seeping in.  Fossil fuel our very heart’s blood will dry up, agriculture land turn to deserts. Civilization, as we know it, crumble to dust.

'Too much' we say.   ‘We’ll muddle through, we always have, maybe we will again.’ we say.  Or ‘They’ll think of something, they’ll have to wont they?’

But I’d like to pose a question or two for your thought and/or amusement

If the worst does happen this time around how would you cope?

I’ll start with an easy couple

1) If  fuel runs short permanently what would you miss most?
2) If food becomes scarce can you grow your own?

7 comments:

  1. Yes, I can grow my own food - kill it and clean it too; but I don't want to! I think I'd miss the freedom of being able to jump in my car and just go.

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  2. I was never very tame. We'd manage, with growing and/or hunting.

    I would miss travel. On the other hand - I love walking, and horses, and boats......

    Living pretty simply, to begin with, helps, maybe.

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  3. I hate to admit it, but I'd miss my car. Not the car itself, that's an old banger, but the freedom a car provides - plus the shelter from the elements it affords me.

    Oh, and I'd miss cooking with gas...

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  4. a decade back I think I would have agreed on losing the freedom to travel - I don't drive as much now so now it would be losing the computer as I travel through that. Be interesting to see what else people would miss - so far I think 2 americans and one Brit will there be a difference in life styles?

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  5. I grew up on a farm, so I could grow my own food, but I wouldn't want to (do not want to do any butchering). But I love windowbox gardening and gleaning.

    I'd miss my computer. I like my car, but I really would miss my computer.

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  6. Too funny - my sister loves to talk about this sort of thing. What would you do if there was a zombieapocalypse and so on. We'd have to run away to a deserted island and start learning how to grow our own food!

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  7. I once grew some scrawny cucumbers and had more jalapenos than I could eat. I'm not much of a farmer, but out of necessity I could probably grow something if I had the seeds.

    Without fuel I'd miss traveling. I love road trips.

    It seems like the end of the world has been imminent throughout my 60 years.


    Lee
    Have you heard about the A to Z Video Challenge?
    Blogging from A to Z
    #atozchallenge

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