How to Survive the End of the World As We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times
by James Wesley Rawles. Plume. 2009. 153 pages. Paperback. $17.
Civilization is still standing now, but that does not mean it always will, cautions survival expert James Wesley Rawles in How to Survive the End of the World As We Know It.
We’d better know what to do in the event of a deadly viral pandemic, major asteroid strike, unprecedented hyperinflationary (or deflationary) economic depression, third World War, or any other global disaster, Rawles argues.
He spells out all the hazards that we might face in a post-disaster society: looting, armed violence, food shortages, etc. Then he lays out steps we can take now, such as survival-training courses, designing shelters, and stocking them with necessary supplies. He even offers a chapter on disaster-proof financial security: savvy investments to make now, earning income in the midst of a major recession, and bartering in the wake of a true disaster.
If all of these musings sound alarmist, he explains, consider that the world today is increasingly dangerous and fraught with uncertainty—worldwide terrorist movements since the early 1990s and the 2008 meltdown of markets across the globe are proof.
Rawles’s speculations are valuable exercises in forward-thinking that deserve to be taken seriously.
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