General Chat

I know it's unlikely, but just supposing that we get hit by an asteroid and life reverts to some sort of Dystopian society. Money has no value, gold is no use, the only thing that matters for those that live through it is survival.

How would you manage? No electricity, no gas, no mains water or sewerage, no medical facilities, no cars, no fuel, no army or police, just people wanting to survive against the odds.

Would vegetarians turn into meat eaters? Would the devout continue to call for divine aid? Would honest people steal and murder? Would cannibalism be rife?

In 2014 we will have a near miss with an asteroid designated 2011 AG5. As of today, we know of 1801 objects classed as potentially hazardous. It's a real scenario. Not wanting to worry anyone, of course :D

Interesting thought...well all of the survivalists in America would be fine :-D

Just made me wonder how survivors in the western world would manage. Lots of places in the world where nothing much would change - their lives are already like that in many ways.

I think it would be a case of the tables being turned. It would certainly be a huge level playing field for mankind.

I've lived with no electricity, no gas, no sewerage, no instant hot water, no bathroom, no car, no washing machine. Once all at the same time, but usually just missing 4 or 5 of the above elements.
Had to walk over 5 (albeit small) fields to get to the road, in one of the above habitations grown, bred and killed my own food, also lived in a tent for 6 months - and went to work - so on those points, I can survive.

The only problem would be other people :-(

I am sure we vegetarians would have to eat what we could get. Have always felt myself to be privileged to have the choice.

As well as eating what we could get, we should have to consider what future there might be and how to conserve the stock of food and potential food available.

No doubt somebody would naturally evolve as some sort of leader and you can be sure that the scrapping and squabbling would not take long to begin.

How dystopian are we talking ? How big an asteroid ( and would we know in advance?) Would it wipe out the northern hemisphere only say or just be a total scorched earth affair? How many people are left and where? would a boat going to a remote island be an option or do I have to stay around Telford...if the latter I'd just chuck myself under said asteroid and have done with it :-)

It's other people I'd worry about.

Lets say something 15 miles across - big enough to send us into an ice age for a couple of hundred years, depending on where it impacted. So ice would be down as far as the med. Survivors would have to migrate nearer to the equator, Africa and South America, Asia. Australians would have to go north. 90% of the worlds wildlife would be wiped out, probably that number of people as well.

So pretty Dystopian!

Or you can have a smaller one that just wipes out 50 % of life but totally destroys all infrastructure. That's more likely, to be honest.

take your pick!

No I wouldn't bother sticking around :-) so as far as that goes one of the survivors can eat me.

None of the current near miss items exceed the 300 000 ton meteorite which hit Diablo canyon, Arizona 50 000 years ago. North America was not thought to be populated at that time tho plenty of animals. The Eurasian landmass was sparsely populated. Ancient humans must have coped or none of us would be around.

A metrorite of this size into the ocean would trigger a tsunami and drown a lot of people depending on location. A mega rockfall in the Azores c17 caused a tsunami which drowned a lot of people. Life went on in the same old way.

On land the damage would be greater but not enough to force survivalism. A hit on Washington would eliminate D Trump and everything else for a 50 to 100 mile radius. Nothing to lose sleep over .

Otoh anything the size of the two mile meteor which hit the Yucatan 66 ,M years ago and it's lights out.

Would our family survive? Well, we have some practical skills but no knowledge of hunting and little of gathering & cultivating from seeds. A couple of family members are reliant on daily medication. Their lives would be limited to months if not weeks without access to pharmaceuticals.

We had a heated 'discussion' with a family member about how information/ knowledge is increasingly stored on electonic devices. My argument was that in a doomsday scenario we wouldn't be able to access it, where as there's a greater chance that information/knowledge stored in physical books could. Copies may be hard to come by, but some would survive.

OK, I'll be more precise now you've googled it.

Lets say the impactor is 5000m x 5000m. Travelling at 17 kps, angle 45 degrees.

That gives a kinetic energy on impact of 2.5E^6 megatons of TNT, 166 million times greater that little boy at Hiroshima.

Lets say it lands in the middle of the English channel.

There you go. Remember, its a thought exercise about survival, not a physics lesson, but I can make it one if you want me to :)

I think that's a good point about information storage. No power = no information, once batteries run out and fuel for generators is used up.

It's scary in many ways to think how reliant we are now on things we take for granted. Even 100 years ago we only had a fraction of the daily devices and utilities we just accept as normal today.

I was going to say, a moot point would be whether there was fuel - but I suppose the destroyed buildings could provide that - though there's not much wood in a concrete building, and I presume furniture etc would be ash.
Not sure how MDF burns :-(

Would the peat in peaty areas be burnt, or would the dampness save it?

A possible event a whole lot more likely than sn asteroid hit is a major mega storm of solar flares from the sun. It could easily knock out satnav and the many systems which depend on it, much of the none hardened internet, data storage and power distribution systems.

This actually happened in 1859 and melted telegraphic systems. A repeat today and there would be utter chaos.

a repeat of the Carrington event would be cataclysmic as well. We are entering the solar minimum period so we've got a breather for about 5 years, but the next maximum will bring a chance. it will happen again sooner or later and there's no way of predicting it more than 3 days in advance.

I think MDF gives off a lot of poisonous fumes, Maggie - no good for cooking or BBQ's :(

You could get to peat outside the impact and devastation zone, but the latitudes you find it at would soon be frozen over.

You don't have to wait for an asteroid, North Korea will wipe us all out soon enough. :-(

And on that pleasant note I will say good night.

There are, surprisingly, peat bogs in the New Forest - I'd head there!! :-D
First rule of survival - fire!

Depending on the time of year there have been ferocious fires in the New Forest. In the 70s my sister nearly lost her house but got away with burnt paint.

Peat bogs can burn and when they do they are extremely difficult to extinguish.

NASA has put in place two or three satellites designed to improve warning of a Carrington event. As Eldrick says there is no protection for unhardened systems. This by far the most likely sudden world wide disaster scenario. Next up the oceans have lost 2% of oxygen in 50 years due to global warming. If the trend is not halted a threshhold will be crossed with mass suffocation of animals. The only fix is to drastically reduce the use of carbon enrergy sources inc log fires.

Really? Fires in the New Forest?
The 'ferocious' fire would be in 1976 - during the long drought.
The drought caused fires in other places -mainly due to the dryness of the whole country. They happen.
Note: There have been fires since the 1970's.

Yes, Rolo, I KNOW peat bogs can burn - therefore fuel.
Peat BOGS are however, less likely to burn than peat seams, as the name suggests, they're in watery places.
*sigh* Just so you don't start quoting a text book at me:
Peat seams can catch fire and travel underground, rather like a coal seam fire - Peat bogs much less likely to.

I thought this was a thread on survival, not a 'who can google the most' thesis on asteroids. :-(