I was just reading a discussion over at The Archdruid Report blog on the direction modern civilisation is going, which of course had as many different views as there were posters. I didn't read all the posts, as it took me over an hour just to get through reading the posts for the past couple of weeks plus the comments on the May 10 post.

One person's comments slightly disgruntled me, although his follow-up comments made more sense. He was claiming that if there were a major disaster and everyone lost power for weeks, that this would be the end of civilisation. Of course it's highly unlikely that the whole country would lose power for weeks (short of an EMP, and then there would be other things to worry about...). And I have noted how long it's been taking to restore things in the states affected by Katrina and Rita (parts of New Orleans still don't have power or water), but that's another story.

His reason for claiming this was that nobody had survival skills anymore (fire, hunting, building, etc.). He did modify his comments later to state that this was primarily in reference to city people, and in that I suspect he's probably correct. But I do wonder how many city people do have survival skills of any sort. Now, asking here may not get me much of a feel for the number, since most of the people reading this LJ are in the SCA and/or are druids or other types of pagans, all of whom tend to acquire pre-computer age skills, but I am curious....

Just for fun -- How many people reading this could survive without power and water for a week? I know of a few - gwynt_y_storm and fitzw of course, and alphasarah, who had to deal with no heat just this past winter. Yes, I'll allow camp stoves (altho' what would you do if you ran out of fuel and couldn't get more?), hibachis, and fireplaces. Working with just what you have in your house and maybe any neighbors/friends within walking/biking distance, do you have all the basics of food, water, and shelter covered for a week?

Me and L
I realized that for myself, I'd have a hard time starting a fire without a match or a lighter - both of which have finite fuel. I do have magnifying glasses and a crystal ball, so I could always focus the sun with that and then keep a little fire going for when I needed it. We have a hibachi and plenty of charcoal. And wood if needed for a fire, with bricks and stones for building a place to hold a fire. And cardboard boxes and foil, so I could build a solar cooker or two. fitzw has a flint/firestarter thingy, and we have plenty of fabric, so tinder could be found.

Water's a little more difficult. We have a few gallons in the basement, plus the water filter on the pitcher. I could boil the water in the rain barrel. Or add a drop or three of iodine to a pitcher of water (yucky, but kills bacteria).

Food, no problem. Might be a little boring after a while, but we have stuff. Food from the freezer would be cooked first, of course, then the fridge. I might be inclined to move perishables to the camp cooler as that's a smaller thing and I could put it in the basement under layers of blankets/wool to keep it cool for at least a week, probably two or three weeks. We've kept food in a cooler at Pennsic with no ice for a week, just making sure the cooler's in the shade and with a heavy, lined wool cloak over it. If we lived in Ashfield, we'd have the brook to keep things cool in :) Ah, wouldn't that be nice!

Shelter, also no problem. Heck, between the house and the 4 tents, we could even shelter some other folks, and they could put their coolers in the basement too.

Of course, mere survival isn't enough. When not checking to see what's up with getting power back, or seeing if there were something we could do to help out, there would be singing, weaving, gardening, games to play and people to chat with... not the end of the world after all. Just the world as we know it, for a little while :)