A unique, multi-agency exercise showed how ill-prepared we are for unfavorable space weather.
  • ouRKaoS@lemmy.todayEnglish
    261·
    17 days ago

    I’m not a doomsday prepper, but stuff like this makes me want to sequester some gear…

    • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      17 days ago

      I have an old safe where i keep some old tech and power banks - just junk really but the Faraday is enough for any solar flare and i think it looks cool. Not sure what good that would do if all cell towers and satellites are fried though. Even fiber is unlikely to operate as I imagine most switches are not secured.

      Last time I did research on this I came out entirely unconvinced of value of prepping here. Just the usual water, gas stove and bags of rice is really best bet and invest everything else back to local communities because economies of scale kicks ass.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        5·
        17 days ago

        During the recent Iberian Peninsula Blackout, which in practice meant a whole day without power and most of it without water, thanks to a past phase of mine as a bit of a prepper I:

        • Had a windup radio which I used to keep up with what was going on and some entertainment. It also works as a flashlight, so covered that side also.
        • Quickly concluded that the water supply of the city I live in was likely to get compromised because the pumps are powered from mains so the first thing I did when I got home was fill a bunch of containers with water, most of which I ended up using. Also I already had 10L of drinking water stored just in case.
        • Had some freeze dried food so wasn’t worried about running out of food (though 1 day is nowehere near enough to empty normal food reserves if you keep a few cans of food around, so I never got close to having to use it).
        • My habbit of having some cash with me meant I could buy a bit of extra food from a local grocer which was open at the start of the blackout. If you pay everything electronically, you’re not only screwed in situation were mains power goes down but you’re even vulnerable to the consequences of banks having problems with their systems (which happens once in a while)

        Anyway, my point is not to go full prepper, my point is that some elements of that minset and practices will cover the far more common kind of problems - which happen maybe once every few years - that leave you without power and water for a few days.

        One thing I did find out is that I probably need something like a solar powered powerbank for loading my tablet since that’s how I mostly read books nowadays (didn’t actually need one in this blackout as it was of just a day and as it was offline the charge was more than enough for it), so I’ve ordered one.

        Little things like that mean you don’t actually get unecessary stress in a situation like this.

        It’s not something that is going to save you from nuclear holocaust or in general the collapse of human civilization, but it will save you from spending days without food or water or the stress of not knowing what’s going on, such as in such a long and unsual blackout, a flood or other similar more frequent catastrophes.

    • Tire@lemmy.mlEnglish
      7·
      17 days ago

      I don’t think it will matter. We need modern logistics to produce and get food to people. Without that 90% of people will starve in the first few months.

      It’s good to have supplies for regional disasters and events that only last a few weeks or months. But if the national grid is going to be out for a year or more and things like fuel and food can’t be transported and stored at key locations then it’s all going to shit.

      • limer@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        31·
        17 days ago

        A hundred years ago most food was grown a days walk away from a person. With no Diesel production or distribution, which some flairs knock out, there is no warehouse refrigeration.

        Even with reserves, there are spare parts drying up. Trucks, ships and planes need constant work.

        Some areas would get by, grains and beans can be moved without all that. Probably a huge percentage would survive. Barely