25 Skills For Survival, Climate Change & The Coming Nightmare

Many people nowadays are quite aware that the world they live in is
going to the toilet. Aside from the geophysical part that “seems” to be
going haywire and could be nothing other than the planet’s cycles, there
are plenty of manmade catastrophes that loom on the horizon. Never has
the planet had as many people as now and the more people there are the
more competition there is for resources. More countries seek nuclear
devices than ever before and with advancements in technology this is a
much easier process than anytime before. Biological and chemical weapons
are also much easier to manufacture because of leaps of technology in
regards to computers. Oil markets are much tighter because of the
countries of China and India and their increasing need of energy to fuel
their booming economies, and new finds of oil fields cannot keep up
with the demand. The debacle of the world economies needs no
introduction. In short, bad times, really bad times could and probably
be coming to a neighborhood near you. Unless you and your family take
quite seriously this possibility, if and when something extremely
horrible happens, you could very well end up one of the large number of
statistics.
Many survival sites have informative and excellent advice on survival
that can help you make it through a limited amount of time when
everyday life is totally disrupted. However, what exactly does a person
do IF the society that almost all of us have become way too dependent
on, fails to recover for an extended period of time, if ever again? What
IF civilization implodes and only begins to recuperate after centuries
have gone by? If you watch some of the ideas people have on survival
being interviewed on television, you have to wonder what exactly these
people are thinking. The people that have prepared for problems with the
world are woefully ready for any disaster lasting for more than a few
days at best. One lady thought having a flashlight was being prepared.
Even those that have invested in years worth of food and supplies, there
are some basic survival skills that need to be learned and understood
to better increase one’s chance of making it through a possible
long-term survival situation.

The following are 25 suggestions on those survival skills that will
likely be needed after a nightmare has hit human civilization with a
vengeance. Each of these 25 skills can fill an entire article on
learning and teaching of it. So only a brief overlay of each of these
will be discussed to avoid pages long descriptions. Further information
can be obtained through many survival books and the many articles on
each subject. Situations and personal handling of emergency situations will
differ widely, but the foundation will likely be there for almost
everyone. The main objective is to get people into learning and
practicing these survival skills so when something cataclysmic does
happen, they can better deal with and make it through intense human
tragedy.

1. Prepare for the worst. Individuals can still hope
for the best, but something lacking with many preppers is that they
still cannot even think about something really awful happening. Too many
of those that do ready themselves for disasters cannot find within
themselves to even discuss with their families and friends a calamity
that is horrid and what to do if it should manifest itself. This denial
leads to a failure of preparing enough beyond usually a couple of weeks
or so. To them, there is still that government or other safety net
waiting for them when their preparation runs out.

2. Learn and train your mind to expect the totally unexpected.
The bizarre oftens happens, and there are events that are going to
freak out even some the better prepared survivalists. A lot of people
will prepare and practice all sorts of drills for various horrors, which
is wonderful training. There still lurks the possibility of something
so strange and weird that it shocks practically everyone. By addressing
this possiblity in your thoughts before it actually happens, you have
conditioned your mind to at least accept this. Training for something
strange can be done through other individuals within your circle of
allies coming up with sudden scenarioes that only their imaginations can
fathom.

3. Learn to live meager. This is practicing for when
times become lean for everyone. If a person wants to avoid the shock of
living well to living under a rationed way of life, now is the time to
get used to it. We all take so much for granted – the modern
conveniences – it becomes an automated habit to turn on a light switch,
flip on the internet, TV, cell phone, without even considering this
could be wiped out within an instant. We open the refrigerator and there
is food, or put food already pre-cooked into the microwave to warm it.
We go to the supermarket and get what we need. We have entertainment at
our fingertips. If this is all gone, how will people handle it? Horribly
if they have not gotten used to going without it for at least part of
their lives. A “time out” each day from what we so rely on that could
disappear is quite helpful to being ready for if it does go away
suddenly.

4. Find personal motivators to continue on. When it
looks hopeless after a mega disaster episode, having some concrete reason to
fight and continue on is an absolute necessity to avoid giving up. Many
people will feel, “what’s the point?”, and just stop trying to survive.
Someone’s child sitting next to them, a parent, a sibling, a spouse, a
friend, someone that means something to you can be that inspiration to
continue on. It can be just someone’s desire for life that helps them
over the hump. Finding that personal reason to survive and fight on is
so important.

5. Understand the world and potential disasters that await.
When you can better expect what could happen, you are less likely to be
caught off guard. Timing is everything. An individual that can bug out
before something hits is going to be way ahead of the pack. While
predicting the future is probably going to be unlikely, seeing a
situation developing and acting on it before it occurs can be a life
saver. By monitoring the news of the world with vigilance you can see
something others don’t. By becoming more informed about earth science if
you live in an area prone to geophysical disaster prone areas can help
much. The old adage about knowledge is power is very true, but knowledge
is also part of survival and the more you have the more likely it is
that you will survive.

6. Make plans and stick to them. After a disaster
your mind is going to be racing around like a car on a race track.
Pre-planning and having a written down set of measures to take will make
someone’s life go much smoother when disaster arrives. Your own personal plan is
ONLY what best fits what you are going to do during and after a
disaster. People should also have back-up plans, PLAN B and C and D at
least because nothing ever seems to go as planned. Haphazard approaches
to the aftermaths of catastrophes are kind of like a chicken running
around without a head.

7. Understand how you’ll react. Some people just
cannot handle stress, they freeze up and panic overwhelms them. Everyone
reacts to stress and fear in different ways, and even the most calm in
control person can become ballasitic or paralyzed with fright.
Addressing this issue before something happens and attempting to come to
grips with it is essential. People have remarkable levels of tolerance
for bad times and most can dig down and come up mentally with what is
necessary to survive. Any phobia or fear is usually better dealt with
before being put to the test. A first step is to admit to oneself that
these disasters can and do happen and then thinking over, even writing
down how one will handle it. Talking this over with another is
invaluable.

8. Understand the psychology of desperate people.
This is a difficult one. After a catastrophic event people are going to, simply
put, go crazy. That neighbor that was in control during many minor
emergencies may be the one pounding on your door with whacked out eyes
demanding what you have because they did not prepare for anything.
Someone in your own survival group may just blank out in a zombie-like
stare. Unexpected times brings out the worst in people and people should
prepare for this possiblility. You yourself could lose it. Again,
preparing for this will help should it occur. You always hope that
disasters will bring out the best in your fellow person, but often this
is not the case.

9. Be clever and inventive. When the world falls
apart around someone, there is likely not going to be anyone there to
repair what you have or somewhere to replace it. You will either have to
go without, repair it yourself, or jerry rig up some contraption that
will function for you. Much can be learned by practicing going without
your power tools and fixing things using only hand tools and what you
can find in spare parts laying around. Using junk to come up with unique
devices that work for you will become a necessary skill you will need
to master should society fail to come back.

10. Learn and condition yourself into a survival mentality.
Homeless people become experts at seeing what others consider pure
trash as survival tools. The fine art of scrounging around will become a
chore that people will have to do to find what they need. That bottle
on the ground after a disaster can be used for many purposes including
collecting something you can use. People must first try to see in their
minds what certain items can have use for them. Homeless people have
become quite good at this during stable times, everyone will have to
learn this skill after times become nightmare-like.

11. Know where you are going. Whether someone is
going to bug in or bug out to somewhere safer, they need to know where
they plan to take a stand and stay. Transportation is a very important
issue to consider and how much of what they have can be moved to where
they are planning to go. Fuel will be a huge consideration as the lack
of it prohibits how far someone can go. Something else everyone should
understand is how to read maps. You will likely not have any GPS system
to guide you and the good old fashioned paper map may be the only way to
show you where you are going. Understanding topographic maps is also
key here.

12. Learn how to maintain light at night. One of the
most depressing situations is to spend night in near to total darkness.
Besides this, not being able to see at night is dangerous. Learning how
to make candles and wicks should be a skill to consider learning. Fats
and other oils will burn and can be obtained throughout nature and the
outdoors. Long term solar battery rechargers for flashlights and LED
battery powered lanterns are another option.

13. Learn how to hide. There will almost certainly
come a time after a bad disaster that you will want to avoid being
noticed at all. Learning how to camouflage yourself is a good start.
Avoiding detection is concealing yourself from sight, sound, and smell
from others. Any activity that a person engages in can be magnified many
times when the normal sounds of a busy city or town are now quiet. Much
careful consideration must go into taking this into account if a person
wants to remain unbeknownst to others that mean them harm. Remaining
inconspicuous can be difficult in some cases, but it can be done.

14. Maintain proper hygiene. This is one of the top
priorities within the armed forces because disease and sickness can and
do take down the toughest of soldiers. People must realize that after a
terrible disaster it is not like someone that goes camping, comes back
dirty, and takes a nice long shower or a hot bath. After disasters the water
to the faucets, as well the hot water heater, may not work. Bathing on
at least a semi-regular basis is necessary to avoid all sorts of
bacteria from building up on the skin and causing a variety of health
concerning ailments that will then have to be treated. People should
plan on just how they will keep themselves clean, even thinking about
sponge baths as an option.

15. How to dispose of waste and proper sanitation.
In third world countries and the pre-flush toilet era one of the leading
causes of illness and death was and is waste not properly discarded. If
the toilets won’t flush because there is no water to make them work,
human waste is going to be a huge whopping problem for people trying to
survive. Even improperly burying human excrement can lead to disease.
Portable toilets, toilet paper and disinfection (bleach for one) should
be one of the top items in any survival kit, lots of it. Also disposal
of other trash is an issue that can bring hungry dangerous animals
around drawn to the stench. Burning of trash can be choice of some,
while plastic trash bags and the means to find some place to dump them
is another alternative.

16. Learn to control pest and other vermin. This is a
problem that led to about half of Europe dying several hundred years
ago with the black death. Fleas and ticks carry some terrible diseases.
Even people that stay inside their own homes will have to deal with this
problem. People outside will have to contend with the fleas, ticks,
flies, mosquitoes, mice, rats, etc., etc., etc. There are many
repellents in nature that can help a lot such as citronella, even the
smell of garlic that most vermin do not like much at all. Stocking up on
insect and other commercial repellents is always an excellent idea. It
only takes one bite to make a person deathly sick.

17. Understand radiation and fallout and how to protect yourself.
This is one of the least understood of the survival precautions taken.
There are hundreds of nuclear power plants that could fail after the
world goes to the toilet. There are still tens of thousands of nuclear
weapons available for war should countries decide to use them. Fallout
is something that you might not even see and until you are sick might
not even know you have been contaminated. Purchase of a radiation
detector that is protected against EMP is a wise idea. Even building
what is called a Kearny radiation detector is something someone can do
that doesn’t have much money to work with. Understanding about radiation
accumulation dosage RAD’s and how to shield oneself against it is
paramount.

18. Learn how to forecast the weather. Without
knowledge of what to look at before a storm system comes in, someone
could be trapped and die when they are are buried under snow or a wall
of water from a flashflood. Even one of those pocket weather forecasters
that can be purchased at most sporting goods stores is a good start.
Other weather forecasting books are available to help someone get a
better idea on what the future weather holds for an area that they are
at. Weather is still one of the deadliest killers in the modern age. It
will become magnitudes worst when people cannot get weather warnings
over a radio or other source. People will have to forecast it
themselves.

19. Learn first aid. Treating yourself and or others
will probably be the only thing someone can do as medical professionals
are going to be few and far between. Many places offer free classes on
first aid because they want people in the community to be prepared. A
good first aid book along with a first aid kit is something every
household should have before, during, and after a disaster. Primitive
conditions should be expected when anyone is helping someone after a
catastrophe. A stockpile of antibiotics are always a good idea. Even
acquring the skill of making your own antibiotics can save lives as
infection is something that will become an epidemic, especially with
minor cuts and abrasives that are sure to be plenty.

20. Learn about nutrition. Vitamin and mineral
deficiencies are nothing to fool around with. Just look what scurvy, the
lack of Vitamin C, can do to someone. Many survivalists and preppers
make the critical mistake of only being concerned about calories to keep
them going. Vitamins; A, B1 through B12, C. D, E, K, Minerals; Calcium,
Copper, Iodine, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Phosphorus, Potassium,
Selenium, Zinc, and trace minerals are necessary to keep a body going.
Many survival foods have some of what your body needs, but sadly lack in
others. Each person needs different amounts and any survival food
supply should take this need as important as the food itself. Vitamin
and mineral supplements should be stocked with food if someone is unsure
about what they are getting. Trace mineral drops are a liquid that
offers much and are a good addition to any emergency supply someone has.

21. Learn to keep body temperature uniform. The
Goldilocks analogy here, not too hot, nor too cold, but just right. Your
physical body should remain as near to what your body has been use to
as possible. It is not only uncomfortable being freezing cold or
roasting to death, it puts a lot of stress on the body making someone
more susceptible to becoming sick. Trying to stay cool uses up a lot of
water, and trying to stay warm uses up more calories. Plan ahead with
good warm clothes and blankets for the cold. Find places that are cooler
during hot weather. Keeping out the elements where you are is essential
and should be given much thought. If living outside, having a good
shelter is beyond important. Insulation is something everyone should
become more familiar with.

22. How to start and maintain a fire. This is for
everyone. Having a fire and keeping it going when you need to has been
the essence to the very first people on the planet surviving. Fire
cooks, heats water, keeps you warm, sterilizes items, and gives light.
Having a lighter, matches, any starter is one thing, but actually
keeping the fire going is another. Making sure the fire does not cause
damage to your home or shelter is something not everyone thinks about.
Burning of toxic wood or other material is something to remember never
to do. Keeping a fire not too noticable to others is something everyone
should remember because normally a fire means FOOD to a hungry person.
While most everyone thinks that using a fire is rudimentry, there is
much more to it.

23. Obtain water and purify it. This is one of the
most rehashed subjects of survival but probably the most important one.
Most people just assume the taps will continue to flow and water will be
there. Preppers that take water as extremely urgent often forget just
how heavy water is and the hauling of water back and forth from a source
such as a stream can be difficult as well as hazardous if it is wiser
to stay inside for whatever reason. People need to know that unless
water is from a spring it will likely need to be purified and this means
some reliable filters or boiling it which requires heat from a fire,
along with pots to boil it in. Aside from drinking, water is also needed
to rehydrate food, make milk from powder, and of course cleaning
yourself with. We all have to have a certain amount of liquid a day, and
juice and other sources will suffice, but water is something that
everyone still needs in order to keep their bodies healthy and
functioning, as well as to remove toxins in the body. Water need and how
much water will be used is something that is often vastly
underestimated by many.

24. Learn how to grow food and or find it. People’s
supplies will only last so long, and eventually self sufficiency with
acquiring food will become necessary. Many people are into seed storing,
and in many cases growing your own food will feed the family. However
growing food has many drawbacks that people need to look at. Water is an
issue in dry areas as irrigation is very manpower or animal power
dependent. Growing season is a huge consideration as most of the U.S. is
under 300 days of rain a year. Pest problems are enormous as pest
control, pesticides both natural herbicides and chemical, are not going
to be readily available. One of the gravest things to contemplate about
is actually guarding your yield, as two legged problems could be a
bigger issue to your crops than some beetle infestation. Hungry people
will see food growing and take it, 24 hours a day. No one can grow
enough food to feed all those seeking food. From a practical sense, it
might be a better idea for some to go the hunter and gathering approach.

25. Learn how to defend yourself and be willing to do it.
This almost certainly means owning a firearm and knowing how to use it
and be willing to use it to protect yourself or others. Many TV survival
documentaries shows have people that feel they can defend themselves
with knives, clubs, whatever, but in reality against someone else with a
firearm they are going to lose 95%+ of the time. A firearm is an
extension of a weapon that has speed and force behind it. Even the
humble .22 caliber can stop any person. Many people think that they
cannot use a firearm against another person, but this feeling changes
abruptly when they see one of their family members at risk. Some people
still cannot use a firearm, and in this case should consider some form
of self defense such as the non-lethal devices including stun batons,
pepper sprays, TASERS, even ball bats. NO ONE should ever consider
themselves to be safe after a catastrophic event, NEVER. People can feel that
everyone will come together and rebuild society, many good people will,
but there are plenty of bad people in this world. It may come down to
you or them. Everyone needs to practice and practice with any self
defense armament they have, so there is no hestiation when it comes to
saving one’s life from someone that is willing to take yours. A gun is no more dangerous than an automobile in TRAINED hands. Get training and get a gun!


These are 25 suggestions that people need to address now, before
trying to survive the aftermath of a horrible event that sends the
normalcy that everyone has become accustomed to down the drain for
extended periods of time. People that prepare have to realize that when
civilization stops functioning so does everything that most of us depend
on. There may never be that safety net there for us to fall into WHEN
our stocked up survival supplies run dry. Much of survival is having
supplies, as well as backups for when food, water, and other necessities
cannot be found. The other part is being ready for everything our new
life could throw in our way. For this we all need to learn survival
skills. At least think about it and then hopefully act upon it. When
someone thinks about their personal needs, an individual can probably
add many more survival skills to these 25. They should become quite
proficient with the skills they presonally need and can use NOW before disaster so they have a better chance of surviving some nightmare series of
events that “seem” like an inevitability in the not too near distant
future.

Keywords: Survival, economic collapse, sustainability, environment, climate change, global warming

Repost courtesy of: http://www.shtfplan.com/