Tag Archives: disaster
The World Is About to End? Are You Ready?
By Skip Coryell | From ClashDaily.com | On Sept. 7th, 2013
Some days I feel like Noah. For the past five years I’ve been preparing for something that’s never happened before. The world is about to end. In the beginning people looked at me and laughed, then they went back to the important questions in life such as:
Who has the hottest bikini bod in Hollywood?
How did Carrie Underwood fall on stage and hurt her foot?
What did Khloe Kardashian eat for breakfast?
Is it fair for me to say we live in a shallow country? I dare say if America knew for sure the world was ending at 5PM Eastern Standard Time tomorrow, most people would be saying things like:
“But the world can’t end tomorrow! I have nothing to wear!
“Where is it happening? I need to film this and get it on YouTube.”
And, of course, our fearless and clueless leaders would all join hands in a circle around the Washington Monument and sing all known verses of Kumbaya while Barack Obama fiddled in their midst as America burned.
Okay, so that’s a worst-case scenario. Or is it? Syria and the Middle East is about to burst into flames. Russia and China are reconsidering the US dollar as the world reserve currency. The planet’s climate is warming to apocalyptic levels. No, I mean cooling. Wait, it’s warming again – or something like that. (Let’s just agree that it’s changing.)
And then there’s global pandemic, jihadi’s trying to bring down western civilization, seventeen trillion dollars of debt, power-grid failure, rampant immorality of Sodom-like proportions, global famine, super volcanoes, asteroid impact, giant solar flares, nuclear annihilation, reversal of the earth’s magnetic field, alien invasion, plants self-actualizing en masse and taking over the world, the Stay-Puft marshmallow man cloning himself three times and riding into town as the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Hey, don’t make fun of me. It could happen! Or not.
Perhaps I’m getting carried away now, but it is fun to speculate as we await global disaster. Truth be told, fewer people make fun of me now than ever before. In fact, more and more people are asking me how to get started in preparing for the coming of doomsday. I always refer them to James Wesley Rawles classic book How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It. There’s just no sense re-inventing the wheel.
This is harvest time for me, so I’m exhausted by definition as I stay up to all hours of the early morning canning, drying and freezing food. Just last week someone gave me apples and grapes, so I pulled out my trusty Power Juicer Ten Thousand (who says you can’t put a Corvette engine in a juice machine?) and went to work. I had those bad boys juiced and canned in no time flat. Okay, so the dog got too close and was sucked into the vortex. Around my house we call that protein. Besides, she shouldn’t have been standing so close to the blades. I’ll buy a new dog down at the Korean market next week.
Next week we’ll slice and dry turnips and can beets. In a few weeks it’ll be the early doe season, so I’ll go out and play whack-a-deer with my shotgun. The freezer is almost full so I’ll pressure cook Bambi into a fall-off-the-bones mixture and pack him in quart jars with some salt, pepper and garlic. In short, if it’s not nailed down it gets juiced. If it doesn’t move, I can it in quart jars. I pressure-cook the vertebrates and dehydrate all plant life. (I just love it when a “plant” comes together.)
Now, where was I? Oh yes, the world is about to end and you need to prepare for it. Over the next few weeks I’ll be writing about prepping. In particular I’ll be answering the question: What are the mistakes and weaknesses in your prepping plan and how do you fix them? Let’s face it, it’s impossible to be completely prepared for global disaster because there are just way too many apocalyptic scenarios out there. Never before in the history of the world have there been this many ways to destroy civilization as we know it.
I have to be honest with you. I find preparing for the end of the world as we know it to be a very exciting exercise. I love it! The way I see it we’re all going to die anyway, so we might as well go out with a bang, or a whimper (TS Elliot).
Perhaps that’s why I write apocalyptic novels. It gives me a way to experience and prepare for the pending disasters. It’s just good, clean fun for the whole family! While you’re waiting for next week’s first installment on how to find the mistakes and weaknesses in your prepping plan, do your homework. Go to Amazon and check out the apocalyptic novel The God Virus. I don’t recall the author’s name right now. Who was it? Oh! That’s right. His name is Skip Coryell. (Insert shameless act of self-promotion here.) In this novel I chose total power grid failure as my apocalypse. I’m sorry, but it’s just fun to destroy the world on paper, I mean eBook. Some people prefer to write the world the way it is. I choose to write the world the way it should be.
See you next week. (Unless the world ends.)
White House: US Can Defend Against North Korea Attack
Why am I not convinced?…
From Reuters.com | On Wednesday, March 7th, 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is fully capable of defending itself against a North Korean ballistic missile attack, the White House said Thursday, after Pyongyang threatened a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the United States.
The threat from the North Koreans came ahead of a unanimous vote in the U.N. Security Council approving its toughest sanctions yet on the North in response to an atomic test last month.
North Korea has escalated its bellicose statements this week as the tightening of U.N. sanctions loomed. It has also threatened to scrap the cease-fire that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
“I can tell you that the United States is fully capable of defending against any North Korean ballistic missile attack,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
North Korea has now conducted three nuclear tests. In the past year, it has made strides toward its goal of having a nuclear weapon that could threaten the U.S. although experts doubt it yet has the capability to hit the U.S. with a ballistic missile or miniaturize a nuclear device to mount on such a missile.
However, the North possesses hundreds of shorter-range missiles that could hit U.S. bases in Japan and South Korea, said Victor Cha, Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.
It is difficult to know how capable U.S. missile defense is, should it be required.
Carney alluded to the development of U.S. system designed to defend against long-range missiles. He said the U.S. is on a “good trajectory” after success in its return to testing of the Ground-Based Interceptor.
David Wright at the Union of Concerned Scientists said that system, deployed in the U.S., was initiated by the George W. Bush administration because of concern about the North Korean threat. Some of its previous tests of the system failed, and Wright said it is still in development.
In East Asia, the U.S. has deployed the land-based Patriot system and the sea-based Aegis systems, which are designed to intercept shorter-range missiles.
The top U.S. envoy on North Korea, Glyn Davies, cautioned Pyongyang not to miscalculate, saying the U.S. will take necessary steps to defend itself and its allies, including South Korea, where it bases nearly 30,000 U.S. forces.
“We take all North Korean threats seriously enough to ensure that we have the correct defense posture to deal with any contingencies that might arise,” Davies told reporters after testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Thursday’s statement out of Pyongyang appeared to be the most specific open threat of a nuclear strike by any country against another, but the Senate panel’s chairman, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said the threat was “absurd” and one that if carried out would be suicide for North Korea.
Davies reiterated that the U.S. will not accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state – although after conducting three nuclear tests it is already assumed to be capable of making at least a crude atomic bomb.
Davies, however, faced Republican skepticism about the effectiveness of Obama administration policy toward North Korea. In December, the North conducted its first successful launch of a three-stage, long-range rocket. Its Feb. 12 nuclear test could help it miniaturize a warhead.
The Foreign Relations Committee’s top Republican, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, drew a comparison to U.S. policy on Iran, where the U.S. has warned it could resort to military action to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
North Korea is “equally nutty” and with a worse human rights record, and “way past any red line we would accept in Iran,” he said.
Corker concluded that Davies’ hope that the dual-track U.S. policy of pressure and engagement would eventually work in getting Pyongyang to change its ways was a “highly aspirational statement that does not seem to be based on reality.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., also drew a comparison with Iran and said he did not believe North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, could be persuaded to disarm. The best the U.S. could hope for was to delay the development of the North’s weapons and its ability to strike the West, he said.
“They’re convinced the only way they are ever going to accomplish what they want is by having a nuclear program and being able to hold the world hostage with it,” Rubio told the hearing.
He also foresaw a danger of nuclear proliferation in Asia – to date alleviated through the “nuclear umbrella” security guarantee the U.S. provides to both South Korea and Japan, which do not have atomic weapons.
The new U.N. sanctions, which were drafted by the U.S. and the North’s chief ally and benefactor, China, should make it more difficult for Pyongyang to finance and obtain material for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and for the reclusive nation’s ruling elite to acquire luxury goods.
Davies said the growing international condemnation of North Korea’s actions and the new U.N. sanctions showed “the world is beginning to wake up” to the problem the North poses. But he said for diplomacy to work, China has to “step up and play its full role in bringing home to Pyongyang the choices it faces.”
U.S. lawmakers remain skeptical of Beijing’s commitment to implementing the sanctions, which will be critical for their effectiveness since most of the companies and banks that North Korea is believed to work with are based in China.
Three individuals who were added Thursday to the U.N. sanctions list – including top officials at a company that is North Korea’s primary arms dealer and main exporter of ballistic missile-related equipment – were also quickly added to a U.S. Treasury blacklist. Two other new entities on the U.N. list are already sanctioned by Washington.
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If all methods to ensure the safety of the country that were mentioned are “still under development” how can the U.S. currently defend against an attack from North Korea? -Ed.
Bugging In vs Bugging Out: Have You Planned For Both Options?
By Off Grid Survival | From OffGridSurvival.com | On Wednesday, February 20th, 2013
One of the most commonly asked questions that I receive has to do with the topic of Bugging Out. While some of our readers have managed to escape the trappings of the big city, most of our readers still live in highly populated urban areas. These are often the people who want to know how to Bug Out into the Wilderness once the SHTF.
Hold the crazy train, you want to do what?
While bugging out is a real possibility that you may some day face, I would never advice anyone just bug out into the wilderness. For even the most diehard outdoorsman, living in the wilderness full-time is something that most of us would never advise doing. In my opinion, you’re setting yourself up for disaster, and it’s not a realistic survival plan that anyone should have in mind.
Bugging Out without a Place to go is Not a Plan, It’s a Death Sentence!
In the event you ever have to get the hell out of dodge, you must have a plan of action. I hear way too many people saying they are going to “head out into the wilderness” once the SHTF; sadly most of these people haven’t spent a single night outdoors, and likely won’t last longer than 24 hours in a wilderness survival situation.
Are you saying there’s never a good reason to Bug Out?
Not at all; in fact, I think the people who swear they will “shelter in place no matter what”, are just as foolish as those who think they are going to live out some sort of extended episode of Survivorman.
The Pros & Cons of Bugging In vs Bugging Out
All too often I see people get hung up on the notion of bugging out. Many people foolishly put themselves into one of two categories, those that believe bugging out is the only answer, and those that say sheltering in place is the only way to go.
In my opinion, you must be prepared for, and thoroughly understand the pros and cons of both options.
Bugging out considerations: When Getting Out of Dodge is your only option.
The moment you decide to bug out, you must realize that you put yourself at immediate risk. Your safety and security, your ability to sustain yourself, and your ability to protect yourself from the elements are immediately compromised.
In my opinion, bugging out is almost always a worst case scenario situation. In order to do it right you must have:
- A detailed evacuation plan and you must know it like the back of your hand. This means constantly reviewing your route, practicing your get away, and knowing what things need to happen before you make the decision to bug out.
- A bug out location: Leaving without a place to go is not a plan. If you plan on bugging out, you need to have a predetermined bug out location or emergency shelter already in place. Planning on living in the wild, unless you are an extremely experienced outdoorsman, is a recipe for disaster. Wilderness living should only be considered if you have an adequate shelter already in place.
- A bug out bag filled with everything you need to make it to your Bug Out Location.
- You must know your routes, and you need to have a plan B, C, D, etc.. What if you’re route s blocked or impassable? Do you know how to find food and water along your route? These are all thing you need to consider and plan for now.
Bugging in considerations: Staying safe by sheltering in place:
If at all possible, sheltering in place is usually the safest option. First, most of your supplies are probably going to be at your primary residence. Second, in most cases you will have a higher level of security inside your home than you will traveling out on the street.
While sheltering in place is often the safest bet, there are some considerations that you need to keep in mind.
- You must always be prepared to leave. No matter how bad you want to stay, there will be times and situations that make it impossible to stay. If a category 5 hurricane is barreling towards your location, the last thing you want to do is shelter in place.
- Home security needs to be a top priority. The ability to defend your home, from those that wish to do you harm, is one of the most important considerations that you need to prepare for. From Realistic Self Defense Training, to fortifying your home, you must make home security a top priority.
- Neighbors may come knocking. During a SHTF situation, your not so prepared neighbors are going to be in panic mode. While most of these people might not pose an immediate threat, if things get bad enough those once nice neighbors will quickly become unpredictable. You must have a plan to deal with those that failed to prepare.
- If you live in a high density population center, you immediately put yourself in danger and make your chances of survival lower than if you lived in a rural area. While I’m not saying bugging in won’t work in an urban setting, it will become increasingly harder as the severity of the disaster increases. If you live in one of these urban areas, you need to seriously access your situation and understand the dangers associated with urban survival.
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Source: http://offgridsurvival.com/bugging-in-vs-bugging-out-have-you-planned-for-both-options/
How Horrific Will It Be For The Non-Prepper?
By Be Informed | From SHTFPlan.com | On May 12th, 2012
Editor’s Note: You have no doubt had your own set of issues dealing with friends and family members that simply don’t see the writing on the wall. The following article may serve to assist you in convincing those who simply don’t know, don’t want to know, don’t care, or have never even thought to contemplate. Some of the scenarios outlined below may be frightening, as they should be, because when it hits the fan millions of people will be thrown into desperation with no hope of a solution. Be Informed provides a variety of point-by-point details that may (and hopefully will) convince the non-prepared individual to at least insulate themselves with the basic necessities. The consequences for not doing so, as you’ll see, are severe and often deadly.
I have become personally so disenchanted with the way people fail to prep. People still don’t understand how important it is to put away. I have gotten into arguments over this and had cretins call me a fool because I put away food, water, and supplies. I thought about this and the frustration that other preppers have with this laid back idiotic attitude that there is no need for preparation. There are good people that just can’t/won’t start preparing. They have the money to do so, but just don’t want to. Many have only seen what happens to non-preppers on TV, but it still doesn’t make an impact.
In this article I detail some hard core realities to show just how awful it will be for those that don’t prep. Every one of these scenarios is something that has occurred to the non-prepper throughout history. While strong images come to mind, the purpose is to jar some people out of their inaction and into action before it is too late.
Preppers are good people and care much about those around them, and unless something does jar those around them that choose not to prep, their own survival chances could be reduced. For every bit of food, water, ammunition, or supplies you sacrifice to the non-prepper, the fewer irreplaceable supplies are left for you and your family in a crisis situation. It is hoped that the following can help certain people put into TRUE perspective just how horrific it will be for those that don’t prepare.
Here are the awful consequences for those refusing to prep.
As the world continues to decay at multiple facets, the common person has and continues to be lulled into a sense that everything is improving and will continue to for the distant future. After all, to them unemployment has peaked out and will drop until everyone that wants to work will easily be able to find good paying work, North Korea is no threat because all their long range “bottle rockets” fizz out, sanctions will eventually make Iran give up their nuclear program, oil prices will start going down after June or so, Europe will bail out Greece and Spain and everyone else, and U.S. debt will eventually come under control.
After 2012 everyone that has prepared themselves will go back to more “sensible” lives. “Good times are coming”, baseball season is here, let’s get back to watching some more crackerjack news.
It is amazing how people become good conversationalists with most others discussing all the gossip related news, while becoming mentally tranquilized into a totally deceptive state of denial of truly dangerous issues of the times. It’s the blind leading the blind… right off the cliff.
Rather than dealing with harsh reality, people surround themsleves with easy to digest material that can be talked about without directly influencing anyone’s lives. Meaningless chatter. Even for those unwilling to even think to prepare for a societal catastrophic event, there is also no desire to even face the extreme possibility of a sudden loss of one’s employment. A personal SHTF.
Look at some of the terrible personal pain experienced in America right now – and it hasn’t even hit the fan on a grand scale. Those people who have lived it up on credit, who failed to put much of anything away for a rainy day, who’ve lost their job, and who eventually lost their unemployment benefits are experiencing the first level of collapse. This is happening to millions of people in our own country, all around us, as we speak.
These Americans, who once enjoyed the luxuries that modern living had to offer, are now at their wits end, with very little hope for a return to their previous lives. They are no longer able to pay most or any of their bills. Many have to humiliatingly turn to others for help to pay for food, or worse, to obtain old, unhealthy and poor tasting food from locally funded food banks. Their credit cards are totally worthless. Many have been evicted from their homes and have uprooted their families to live either on the street, in tent cities, with relatives, or have been forced to live at homeless shelters, They’ve have had their vehicles repossessed, or simply can’t afford the gasoline anymore. Their living conditions often make it difficult, if not impossible, to look presentable for job interviews. For many, the life of stability they knew just a short while ago is gone, replaced with fear and a constant stress to the point of nervous breakdown.
A personal economic meltdown is confined to the individual or family, or at worst a few families. The human civilization remains intact and so do society’s safety nets.
With food assistance, rental assistance, homesless shelters, and family to turn to, even the most destitute are almost always able to find some sort of help – however menial.
It is no wonder with these known assistance programs, then, that people have forgotten or never thought to consider what happens IF and WHEN human civilization goes through a strong enough SHTF event. If that happens on a mass scale what happens to everyone that needs help that has not prepared ahead of time? What happens when governments are in such total disarray or destroyed altogether that they can’t help even if they wanted to?
The media and others have portrayed the good people that sacrifice much if not all “luxuries” of life to prepare themselves and their family and friends for extreme times, as chicken littles. Those who have made the choice to store up emergency food, water, and other necessities to avoid extreme life threatening risks, including suffering horribly during and after a widespread SHTF event, are laughed at and ridiculed often for “wasting” their lives on delusional paranoia.
But who is delusional? Those who see the signs around them and understand how vulnerable the system is, or those who believe that things never change, that politicians have their best interests at heart, and that if the worst happens the government will be there to provide everything they may need?
How many have considered the dire consequences of their failure to prepare in the event that the infrastructure and everything a country’s people depend on totally collapses?
The misery from long term unemployment and lack of money is like a walk in the park compared to the severe anguish and dangerous conditions that await those who have failed to prepare for the aftermath of a large scale cataclysm. The “minor” problems of unemployment that seem extremely major and painful to most today should serve as a wake up call to what life will be like when something much, much worse happens – when those proverbial safety nets are no longer there to catch us.
Many preppers have become deeply frustrated at those around them, especially those that truly mean something to them, because they simply refuse to put away anything at all for emergencies. The prepper is usually a person that cares a lot and it is often difficult for them to take a tough stance towards the people that they care about. However, unless someone changes the habits of those people that fail to get ready, decisions will need to be made, and they won’t be easy.
The choice of what the prepared prepper should do will boil down to either either adding these people to their own circle or survival group and reduce the group’s safety, supplies and self sufficiency, OR, they will have to let the non-prepper fend for themselves. This is a very personal choice, and each of us will need to decide based on our own morals, ethics and personal relationships.
As a last ditch effort, discussing the following scenarios with the non-prepper may help them understand what life will be like without what has sustained them so comfortably for so long.
This is the hard reality the non prepper needs to understand:
- Without power the water company cannot get water to their faucets. Without water dehydration occurs within 24 hours. Dehydration causes much suffering before death.
- Toilets in homes, unless they have an incineration toilet that still need power to work, don’t flush without water. Where will they go to the bathroom and then where will they dispose of human waste?
- There will be no clean water available anywhere, especially in major cities, and they cannot live more than about three days without it.
- Drinking dirty and polluted water will make them incredibly sick and accelerate the dehydration process.
- Polluted water must be purified and that means having a good filter, bleach or other disinfectant, or fuel and something to boil water with.
- Understand just how fragile the power and the infrastructure is that pumps water to the public. A breakdown in our power infrastructure or a cyber attack against utility systems will render them useless.
- A single event can rapidly lead to a cascade of other events that would certainly collapse almost, if not, everything. This is why major snow storms, hurricanes or solar events in the past have affected millions of people in an entire region all at once.
- A single, seemingly unimportant event may become quite terrible as its repercussions spread; this can include a far and away disaster.
- Understand that the economies of the world are so interwoven that when one major economy falls it affects everyone.
- Not having any food in the house means that if the stores are emptied suddenly in a bad enough situation that there will be no food available for a long period of time afterward. Recent history during disasters around the world has shown that stores can literally be emptied in minutes.
- Think about how totally horrible the feeling of being very hungry is and what circumstances would cause one to be desperate enough to eat anything.
- ALL stores can be closed instantly under martial law.
- Understand that you may not be able to purchase anything after it starts, especially with any credit cards.
- Understand the complexity of food and water distribution; breaks in these chains can stop anything from getting to the people.
- What life will be like if no toilet paper is stored?
- Understand that without light sources, the night will be pitch black, often with zero visibility.
- There will be no communications, other than probably martial law type of instructions over the radio, that is if they have batteries for the radio.
- Other than ham and shortwave radio, any information that is available will be sent out by the government as filtered propaganda that “they” want everyone to hear.
- Without power consider what it will be like to not have any heat to stay warm, or air conditioned air to stay cooler – with no way of alleviating the situation.
- Travelling will likely be by foot or bicycle, as their will be no fuel and roadways may be blocked.
- Realize that ANY travel outside of the home or neighborhood will be extremely dangerous as ANYONE who moves becomes a target
- Non preppers will be pushed way beyond their limit because of lack of supplies.
- The non prepper must realize their government does not really care about them individually, that they are a mere number and help will likely not come from them.
- They have to figure out somewhere to get food. This can mean wild plants which they must know how to identify as safe, or risk poisoning themselves.
- They have to understand that when we refer to “having no food” it doesn’t mean not having the food they are used to enjoying, it means no food to eat at all.
- They have to understand that if they are fortunate enough to have any running water, they will probably have to bathe in cold water for lack of stored fuel to heat water.
- They have to realize that the very strange and totally unexpected is going to be all around them, made that much worse because of lack of any reliable self defense stores or skills.
- They might have to remain on the run constantly because of looking for water and food.
- They must understand that bad will be magnified magnitudes to living misery because of lack of food, water, and other necessary items that they took for granted for so long.
Okay, now comes the “truly ugly and unthinkable” life that most, if not all, people that have failed and refused to prepare themselves will deal with. Clear vivid visualization is key here for anyone that ho hums the idea of prepping.
What horrors they will likely face after a cave-in of their nation’s economy, war, geophysical upheaval, or whatever crisis is bad enough to disturb or stop their nation from working and functioning? There are plenty of very potential SHTF events that are simply awaiting a catalyst to trigger them.
- The Non-Prepper (NP) has to realize right off the bat that 911 and other emergency calls in will be met with silence or some recording telling the caller not to panic.
- The (NP) that has no reliable self defense that can stop an attacker, will not get help from public services, and will become a victim of rape, assault, torture, or murder.
- The (NP) that has no reliable self defense and will not only be at the mercy of criminal elements, but also have to contend with many desperate animals, some with rabies.
- The (NP) that has no food will either have to find food or be ready to beg for food or worse, like sacrificing their bodies or other horrible acts or things to get a bite of food.
- The (NP) will have to go through the worst, most rancid conditions of garbage to just maybe find what they should have stored up.
- The (NP) will go through panic and near if not total psychosis looking for any water source right before their bodies begin shutting down during advanced stages of dehydration.
- The (NP) will go through unbearable trauma when their children and other people around them are crying, screaming, and suffering with intense hunger pains in their stomachs.
- The (NP) will have to deal with the awful stench of rotting wastes from many sources because they have not taken the effort to even store up waste disposal plastic bags.
- The (NP) will have disease and pathogens everywhere, not only because they have no trash disposal means, but because they haven’t prepared how to deal with trash and waste.
- The (NP) will have to live in very primitive conditions after things around them deteriorate rapidly, because they have neglected putting away anything to make life more bearable.
- The (NP) and those around them will likely develop all sorts of infective skin rashes from the lack of insight of storing up toilet paper. Imagine the smell for a moment.
- The (NP) will have to handle biting insects and other vermin that will collect amoungst the filth that will pile up. No pest control stored up along with no other supplies.
- The (NP) will have no way of treating sickness certain to follow a SHTF event, no first aid and likely no training or knowledge about how to treat the ill on top of this.
- The (NP) will have sick and dying people around them because of not being able to treat minor injuries. Didn’t even stock up on disinfectives. Unsanitary conditions lead to infection.
- The (NP) and others around them will experience much grief as they watch helplessly as their family members literally die of starvation right in front of their eyes.
- The (NP) won’t believe how desperate hunger drives them and those that mean everything to them to “trying” to eat food that taste so bad it gags them and comes back up.
- The (NP) will likely have family and friends around them that have also not prepared committing suicide because they can’t take it any longer.
- The (NP) will witness some of those people around them lose any sense of civilized humanity in them and behave like wild animals after some time from lack of necessities.
- The (NP) and family members, maybe friends also, will at some point end up barbecuing or eating raw the family dog, cat, bird, any pet dear to everyone for food.
- The (NP) will likely get into physical fights with other family members over any scrap of food available as rational thoughts are lost to wanton hunger.
- The (NP) as many other (NP’s) will eventually go out of any safety of their home looking for food and or water, become disorientated and lost, and die a hard death somewhere.
- The (NP) that is “lucky” enough to find some government help will likely have to almost sell their soul, probably all their freedom, to get tiny rations – just enough to keep them alive.
- The (NP) will see widespread violence and barbarism that will shock them to the core and will wish that they had purchased some form of firearm and stocked up on ammunition.
- The (NP) better get used to attempting to explain the children and other adults why they wasted all that money on junk, and didn’t buy any emergency food and other supplies.
- The (NP), no matter how positive they are will drop quickly into depression and lose willpower as having nothing to hold on to does this, along with lack of any nutrition.
- The (NP) will feel the worst guilt imaginable as they hear their family moaning in anguish from lack of anything to eat, knowing they could have done something to prepare.
- The (NP) will most likely not see the rebuilding and recovery after A SHTF event. They will, like almost all NP’s, be statistics. Some will die hours or a day before help arrives.
- The (NP) from lack of food, drinking bad water, no light at night, the horrid smells, no good self defense, the overall horror, will often be paralyzed with fear and despair, blank stare.
- The (NP) is totally helpless after SHTF, will have to rely totally on charity of those prepared to live. They will take all sorts of desperate measures likely to get them shot. They’ll attempt to eat hazardous foods like an animal trapped in a house will do, and get sick and suffer much before dying. The (NP) will likely die (ugly and hard) as they lived, unprepared for anything.
If we were to use one single word to describe the torments that someone who “chooses” not to prepare will go through after a true you know what hits the fan it would be “PREVENTABLE”.
Almost every single person, even a very poor person, has the capacity to put away emergency food and supplies. Even homeless people have stashes of something just in case things become so bad that the normal hand outs and thrown-away items dry up. Many people with good sources of income don’t even have an extra can of food or any water put away at all. This is stupidity beyond words.
Every day lightweight disasters happen in all parts of the world that disturb services enough that people are confined to their homes for a certain amount of time. While recovery is short, people are still uncomfortable during these times. Look what happens after a power outage at night and you will be mystified at how many homes are completely dark for hours. People have not even bought an extra couple of candles or any battery operated light sources. Even in well-to-do neighborhoods you may hear only a lone generator going after a blackout. This lack of preparedness is truly frightening and plays itself out again, again, and again every time services are disrupted for minor to major reasons. It’s as if there is something wrong with storing extra food, water, and supplies.
Even after “lessons” played out to what happens to those non-prepared, most people still feel that it just cannot happen to them, or won’t ever happen to them again. It should be proof enough to people what happens to those unprepared after disasters simply by looking at those that have gone through it firsthand. The difference, though, comes in that these disasters have had recovery periods and help from others. Even Haiti received some help and conditions remain putrid over there.
After a TRUE SHTF, it is presumable that government help and others coming to the aid of those in need WON’T happen for long periods of time. During that time those that have chosen to not put food, water, and necessities away are going to be in life threatening positions. Most people just don’t get that when the supermarket shelves are empty they will stay that way for an extended period. When the utilities go down, especially water, it may be weeks, months, or longer before they come back, if ever. Without what someone needs to survive each day, it is not going to magically appear, and depending on the goodwill of others to feed them and sacrifice their own family’s survival chances is a terrible choice.
People MUST know what life will be like after SHTF in mega fashion if they refuse to prepare. This is NOT new. Terrible events have plunged people into the deepest levels of desperation and hopelessness, and they will happen again and again.
While the above consequences to the non-prepper are extremely abysmal for anyone to read, the simple fact of the matter is they have already happened time and time again to those that have nothing put away. People have resorted to cannibalism and gone to levels of primitive savage behavior out of shear desperation and out of literally losing their minds to the physical depletion of food and water that keeps the physical body operating. Sometimes showing the extreme severity and results of a person’s lack of action, such as failure of the simple act of putting away extra food, water, and supplies, can be the kick in the complacency that they need.
It’s really easy to put away food and supplies. All one has to do is add a little bit of extra food to the grocery cart for long-term storage. Over time this adds up to a well stocked pantry of supplies.
There is something that is in a can of food that everyone can eat and enjoy the taste of, so talk to family members about their nutritional preferences and start stocking up. Toilet paper and other supplies that really don’t have any expiration date can be put away and forgotten about ’til needed.
There MUST be common sense and intelligence to see what happens IF they don’t stock up for the future. There has to be the DESIRE to get started, and this is the real problem with so many.
Once started, however, prepping becomes a type of life saving routine or positive lifestyle habit. It is easy and can and will save one from misery. It may save their life and the lives of their family from ruin when SHTF, which is almost inevitably going to happen someday. Every month and year that goes by without a true SHTF event, makes it more likely that it will happen. Basic statistical chance shows this to be the case, but people continue the same pattern of behavior that has led them to the same devastation countless time before.
For those preppers that have people around them that refuse to prepare, you can at least have some degree of solace knowing that you tried to show the non-prepping person(s) what not having anything will mean to them and their families.
All we can do is try. Once we’ve given it our best shot, all we can do is let those who have been warned about the direness of the possibilities live their lives the way that want to. They will, unfortunately, live in a world of regret and suffering if the nation and the world falls apart around them.
To every action there is an opposite equal reaction. Preppers will see their efforts have been more than worth it. Objects that are motionless tend to remain motionless and non-preppers will find there are horrific consequences for their lack of effort and motion to put away “life insurance” preps for themselves and their families.
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This article was originally posted at http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/how-horrific-will-it-be-for-the-non-prepper_05122012
Marc Faber – Before The Collapse U.S. Will Go To War
From November 23rd, 2012
Source: http://www.dailymotion.com/ETnow
More information about Marc Faber here: http://hedgejournals.com/marc-faber/
Marc Faber talks about the rise of China, the decline of the U.S., and the coming disaster with a collapse of our capitalistic system.
10 Things the Recent D.C. Power Outage Taught Us…
From NaturalNews.com | By Mike Adams (The Health Ranger) | On Sunday, July 8th, 2012
D.C. storm damage. Image: Washington Post
(NaturalNews) In the wake of violent storms, the power went out for millions of Americans across several U.S. states. Governors of Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio declared a state of emergency. Over twenty people were confirmed dead, and millions sweltered in blistering temperatures while having no air conditioning or refrigeration. As their frozen foods melted into processed goo, some were waking up to a few lessons that we would all be wise to remember.
Here are 10 hard lessons we’re all learning (or re-learning, as the case may be) from this situation:
#1) The power grid is ridiculously vulnerable to disruptions and failure
All it takes is Mother Nature unleashing a little wind storm, and entire human cities are cut off from their power grid. Wind and trees, in other words, can destroy in seconds what takes humans years to construct. As Newt Gingrich even quipped about the situation, what we witnessed was just a small taste of what a high-altitude EMP weapon attack could unleash across all of North America. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpuyPfAZRTU)
#2) Without electricity, acquiring food and water in a major U.S. city can become a difficult task
During the outage, masses of people across the Eastern U.S. scrambled to get squared away on food and water. Fortunately for them, malls and gas stations were open, providing (processed) food, water and air conditioning. That’s because the power outages were fragmented, affecting some neighborhoods but not others.
In a total grid down scenario, food and water supplies in a given U.S. city will disappear almost overnight. It’s much the same for gasoline, batteries and even ammunition. All these supplies (and many more) will simply be stripped from the shelves.
#3) Most people are simply not prepared and therefore worsen any crisis
The average American citizen practices zero preparedness. They are 100% dependent on the power grid, the city water supply, 911 services for protection and long-distance food deliveries to their grocery store. They have no backup plans, no stored food, no emergency mindset and no practical skills for surviving a real crisis.
As a result, their lack of preparedness worsens any crisis. Instead of being part of the solution, they become a burden on all the emergency services and supplies available in the area.
Hilariously, today’s city goers actually consider malls and movie theaters to be places of refuge. As FoxNews reported last weekend, “On Saturday, many people flocked to places like malls and movie theaters in the hope the lights would be on again when they returned home.” (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/01/millions-without-power-brace-for…)
#4) Cell phones are a fragile technology that can’t be counted on in an emergency
One of the more interesting observations about the current crisis is that many cell phone towers are out of service. That’s because they have no electricity and / or they have been damaged by wind or debris.
As a result, people who depend on cell phones for their lifeline to friends, relatives and 911 emergency services were suddenly left with non-functioning devices. Even in areas where the cell phone towers were still operating, many people had no place to charge their phones because their own homes were cut off from electricity.
When the grid is up, and there are no storms, solar flares or disruptions, cell phones are truly amazing devices, but they are vulnerable to even small-scale natural events, and they therefore cannot be relied on when you need them most.
#5) The internet is wildly vulnerable to natural disasters
According to news reports, these storms took down a portion of the Amazon Cloud, and this in turn shut down Netflix, Pinterest and Instagram. Those services have now been restored, but they were offline for several hours during which many of their users no doubt thought the world was coming to an end.
#6) Many people have no clue what to do in an emergency
Consider this quote about the CDC telling people what to do:
“The U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention was among many government agencies trying to keep people informed — from knowing when the food in your suddenly inoperable freezer can’t be eaten to taking a cool bath if you don’t have AC.” (http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/30/us/extreme-heat/index.html)
Seriously? Does the government have to tell people to take a cool bath in order to avoid overheating? Do people not know when food has spoiled? And even more strangely, is it now the role of the U.S. government to tell everybody what to do in every emergency?
Whatever happened to common sense? I can tell you what: It moved out to the country!
Out in the country of Texas, Georgia, Kentucky and just about everywhere else, ranchers and farmers still have common sense. They know about backup water supplies, and they can figure things out for themselves. It seems to be city people who need the most instructions from Washington D.C. because they’ve forgotten the fundamental skills of human survival.
#7) 911 and other emergency services are quickly overwhelmed or completely offline
According to MSNBC:
In Washington’s northern Virginia suburbs, emergency 911 call centers were out of service; residents were told to call local police and fire departments. Huge trees toppled across streets in the nation’s capital, crumpling cars. Cellphone and Internet service was spotty, gas stations shut down and residents were urged to conserve water.
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48032427/ns/weather/)
#8) A national grid-down situation would be far more complex to repair
The recent storms that caused this “grid down” situation for millions of Americans was a local event, and its repair and restoration was aided by workers arriving from outside the affected regions. In a national grid down scenario, however, there will be no excess human capital to lend to the situation. Every worker will be busy trying to restore the power grid in their own home regions.
This means repairs will take significantly longer, and according to some experts like David Chalk and James Wesley Rawles, a national grid down scenario has the potential of being unable to be repaired at all, resulting in years of no power grid which would obviously cause a mass die-off across the U.S. population.
#9) Modern cities are built on systems that have little redundancy
When the power goes out to a local hospital, there might be a temporary backup generator, but even that generator relies on the delivery of fuel. The delivery of generator fuel, in turn, relies on the availability of diesel truck fuel, which depends on petroleum refineries functioning, which in turn depends on the power grid staying up and highways remaining navigable. This is a complex chain of dependencies which can suffer disruptions or even total failure without warning.
There are surprisingly few redundancies in modern cities: Power, water, 911 services, natural gas and even sewage systems are all vulnerable to single points of failure. Even the evacuation infrastructure of modern cities is ripe for total failure. The city of Los Angeles, for example, simply cannot — under any circumstances — be evacuated. The highways simply do not have the capacity to handle the mass of vehicles attempting to leave, and in less than 72 hours, the whole thing would turn into a giant parking lot of stranded vehicles and desperate people, ripe for the picking off by armed gangs riding motorcycles.
When 911 fails, most people have no backup plan. Most people have no skills to defend themselves against acts of violence. They have no mindset for dealing with difficulty, so they call others to solve their problems for them: the police, the plumber, the fireman, the ambulance and so on. In a collapse scenario, individuals whose specialty skills are currently shared across a broad population will suddenly be difficult or impossible to locate. Why? Because they’ll be at home protecting their families!
#10) Mother Nature will humble humanity
Any time human beings get too arrogant and too big-headed about all their amazing cell phone technology, hi-rise cities and nuclear power plants, Mother Nature just shrugs and sends forth a tsunami of water or wind. All of humanity’s greatest constructs are but fragile toys compared to the truly awesome power of Mother Nature and the resilience of planet Earth.
If the power grid goes down across planet Earth for just one year, 90% of human civilization will perish, and along with it all the DVDs, Nike shoes and designer bling as well. Even the entire fictional construct of society’s laws and banking system will cease to exist.
Mother Nature is real. Consciousness is real. Seeds are real. But much of what humanity has so far created is paper-thin and temporary. It can all cease to exist in the blink of a cosmic eye.
We are fragile beings exploring a sea of such greatness and scale that our own lives seem silly by comparison. What humans think of as a natural “disaster” is but a tiny expression of natural patterns to Mother Nature. If we truly hope to survive as a species, we would be wise to remember how insignificant we really are in the greater scope of things… and why we must learn to respect nature and the universe rather than arrogantly thinking we have conquered it with GMOs, nuclear power and a supercollider.
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a mission to teach personal and planetary health to the public He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, and he is well known as the creator of popular downloadable preparedness programs on financial collapse, emergency food storage, wilderness survival and home defense skills. Adams is a trusted, independent journalist who receives no money or promotional fees whatsoever to write about other companies’ products. In 2010, Adams launched TV.NaturalNews.com, a natural health video site featuring videos on holistic health and green living. He’s also the CEO of a highly successful email newsletter software company that develops software used to send permission email campaigns to subscribers. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography, Pilates and martial arts training. Known as the ‘Health Ranger,’ Adams’ personal health statistics and mission statements are located at www.HealthRanger.org
This article was originally posted at: http://www.naturalnews.com/036406_power_grid_failure_lessons.html
Fukushima Reactor 4 Poses Massive Global Risk
By Andy Johnson | From CTVNews.ca | On Saturday May 19, 2012
Cranes stand around tsunami-crippled four reactors, from left, Unit 1 to Unit 4, at Fukushima Dadi-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan Sunday, March 11, 2012. (AP /Kyodo News)
More than a year after a devastating earthquake and tsunami triggered a massive nuclear disaster, experts are warning that Japan isn’t out of the woods yet and the worst nuclear storm the world has ever seen could be just one earthquake away from reality.
The troubled Reactor 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is at the centre of this potential catastrophe.
Reactor 4 — and to a lesser extent Reactor 3 — still hold large quantities of cooling waters surrounding spent nuclear fuel, all bound by a fragile concrete pool located 30 metres above the ground, and exposed to the elements.
A magnitude 7 or 7.5 earthquake would likely fracture that pool, and disaster would ensue, says Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer with Fairewinds Energy Education who has visited the site.
The 1,535 spent fuel rods would become exposed to the air and would likely catch fire, with the most-recently added fuel rods igniting first.
The incredible heat generated from that blaze, Gundersen said, could then ignite the older fuel in the cooling pool, causing a massive oxygen-eating radiological fire that could not be extinguished with water.
“So the fear is the newest fuel could begin to burn and then we’d have a conflagration of the whole pool because it would become hotter and hotter. The health consequences of that are beyond where science has ever gone before,” Gundersen told CTVNews.ca in an interview from his home in Vermont.
Worst-case scenario
“There are a couple of possible outcomes”, Gundersen said.
Highly radioactive cesium and strontium isotopes would likely go airborne and “volatilize” — turning into a vapour that could move with the wind, potentially travelling thousands of kilometres from the source.
The size of those particles would determine whether they remained in Japan, or made their way to the rest of Asia and other continents.
“And here’s where there’s no science because no one’s ever dared to attempt the experiment,” Gundersen said. “If it flies far enough it goes around the world, if the particles stay a little bigger, they settle in Japan. Either is awful.”
Essentially, he said, Japan is sitting on a ticking time bomb.
The damaged Reactor 4 cooling pool was reinforced by workers who went in and “jury-rigged” it after the tsunami, but the structure still contains a massive amount of fuel, Gundersen said.
Reactor 3 has less fuel inside its cooling pool, but it has not been strengthened since the disaster and poses a greater risk of failing.
“Reactor 3 has a little less consequences but a little more risk, and Reactor 4 has more consequences but…a little less risk,” he said.
Finding a fix
The solution, Gundersen said, is for the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to immediately begin the process of transferring the fuel rods from the cooling pools to dry cask storage — a massive and costly endeavour, but one he said is absolutely essential.
To even begin the removal process at Reactor 4, TEPCO would first have to construct a crane capable of lifting the 100-tonne fuel rod canister, since the original crane was destroyed in the disaster last year.
In order to do that, they would have to build a massive structure around the existing pool to support the new crane, which would then be used to lift the fuel rod canister from the water, down to the ground and into a steel and concrete dry-cask.
All this of course, has to be done in a highly contaminated area where workers must wear protective suits and limit their radiation exposure each day, adding time and expense to the process.
Still, with the consequences so high, Gundersen said there’s no time to lose.
“This is a ‘now’ problem, this is not a ‘let’s-wait-until-we-get-the-cash-flow-from-the-Japanese-government’ problem. The consequences of a 7 or 7.5 earthquake don’t happen every day, but we know it happened last year so you have to anticipate that it will happen,” Gundersen said.
‘Fate of the world’ depends on Reactor 4
He’s not alone in pressing the Japanese government to adopt a sense of urgency about the Reactor 4 dilemma.
Robert Alvarez, a former top adviser at the U.S. Department of Energy, also expressed concern in a letter to Akio Matsumura, a Japanese diplomat who has turned his focus to the nuclear calamity.
Matsumura had asked Alvarez about the risk associated with Reactor 4.
“The No. 4 pool is about 100 feet above ground, is structurally damaged and is exposed to the open elements,” Alvarez said in his response. “If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cesium-137 released by the Chernobyl accident.”
Mitsuhei Murata, Japan’s former ambassador to Switzerland and Senegal, has also made it his mission to convince the UN and the world that urgent action is needed.
“It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Japan and the whole world depends on No. 4 reactor,” Murata said in a recent letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in which he urged him to back efforts to address the problem.
Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said most major threats have been eliminated and “cold shutdown” status had been achieved in December.
But Noda declined to comment directly on the risk posed by Reactor 4, only telling The Wall Street Journal’s Asia edition that it was important to “remain vigilant.”
“We have passed a situation where people have to run far away or evacuate,” he said. “Ahead of us are time-consuming tasks like decontamination and decommissioning (of the plants). We will proceed with the utmost care.”
Gundersen said the remaining challenges at the Fukushima Da-Ichi site are not technological. Everyone knows what needs to be done and how to do it, he said. The challenge lies, rather, in convincing Japan that action must be taken now.
That will require international pressure, as well as international investment, on a grand scale, he said.
“We’re all in a situation of having to pray there’s not an earthquake. And there’s the other half of that, which is pray to God but row toward shore. And Tokyo’s not really rowing toward shore right now,” Gundersen said.
This article was originally posted at: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20120518/fukushima-dai-ichi-risk-reactor-4-120519/#ixzz1vc29fR9i
Is Evacuation of Japan Imminent?
Photo credit: citypictures.org
March 11, 2011: A massive earthquake strikes off the coast of Japan. Thousands die in the chaos that ensues after the quake and resultant 33 foot high tsunami that follows. The reactors located at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant sustain significant damage and has been hailed as the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.
March 13, 2011: The NRC states that they do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the US: http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1107/ML110720002.pdf
March 15, 2011: MSNBC.com- “Scientists and nuclear experts say they can’t stress enough that no contamination is expected to reach the U.S. and precautions such as stockpiling potassium iodide are not necessary.” According to this article and many others like it, it isn’t necessary for US and North American residents to acquire the radiation tablets. However, one should take note how the US government has handled past precautionary measures. A significant amount of radiation pills were purchased for US troops in 2001 and again for US postal workers in 2002 to prepare for the possibility of dirty bombs being set off in the US or attacks on North American nuclear power plants.
March 16, 2011: Regarding skyrocketing sales of radiation pills…from The Huffington Post the California EMA and the California Department of Public health issue a statement:
We urge Californians to not take potassium iodide as a precautionary measure. It is not necessary given the current circumstances in Japan, it can present a danger to people with allergies to iodine, shellfish or who have thyroid problems, and taken inappropriately it can have serious side effects including abnormal heart rhythms, nausea, vomiting, electrolyte abnormalities and bleeding.
This same article from HuffPo states that “There’s been no indication so far that measurable amounts will reach the U.S. Pacific coast. More than 5,000 miles of open ocean separate Tokyo and Los Angeles, and scientists say there is little current risk of increased radiation even in Japan, outside of a narrow swath of land within a few miles of the damaged plant.”
March 21, 2011: Bloomberg News reported that some radiation monitors in California, Oregon, and Washington State may not be working properly, as abnormal readings are being reported from some of the units. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-21/some-radiation-tracking-air-monitors-may-not-be-working-properly-epa-says.html
April, 1, 2011: From NPR.org: Japanese officials forced to admit radiation levels from the damaged nuclear reactors reported were misstated.
On April 28, 2011: here at Radical Survivalism, we reported on food shortages from popular suppliers of long term, freeze dried food as consumers stocked up in case of nuclear disaster in Japan. http://radicalsurvivalism.com/web/2011/04/28/delays-announced-for-emergency-food-supplier/
December 2011: Radiation.org reports increased mortality in the US, citing correlations to the disaster in Japan in March of that year. http://www.radiation.org/reading/pubs/HS42_1F.pdf What is notable regarding this investigation is that this report appeared on MarketWatch.com, but the report seems to have been scrubbed from the Market Watch web site.
January 25, 2012: Popular blog EXSKF relays the chilling comments from city assemblyman Yoshiyuki Motoyama “…share the pain of Tohoku.” Motoyama was apparently displaying his displeasure at parents who wished to have their children dropped from the school lunch program so as to bring food from home. Parents were concerned that food provided in the school lunches may have been exposed to radiation. http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2012/01/city-assemblyman-in-tokyo-to-school.html
February 3, 2012: Japanese government employees take part in an evacuation drill in Tokyo. According to Military.com, “The exercise gave the U.S. military’s ships a chance to plan for an evacuation under various circumstances, including a situation where mooring at the otherwise intact pier might prove unwise.” http://www.military.com/news/article/army-navy-ships-take-part-in-tokyo-evacuation-drill.html
March 28, 2012: Real Economics-Fukushima is still a big problem.
Question: Is the nuclear power plant safe now?
Yukitero Naka, Nuclear Engineer: Well, that’s what TEPCO and the government says, but the people in there don’t believe it. There is still a great danger. My personal concern is the fourth reactor block.
March 30, 2012: The Guardian reports the 12 mile evacuation perimeter around Fukushima “largely intact” while some towns are being reclassified: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/30/japan-fukushima-evacuation-zone
In the wake of supply of potassium iodide in the US being depleted by a huge uptick in purchases by consumers after the earthquake in Japan, this next report illustrates our government’s ability to commandeer a huge supply of product at any given time. http://www.wnd.com/2011/04/285721/ Shortly after the disaster at Fukushima, vendors posted on their websites that Rad Stickers were not available for purchase, as all supply had been purchased by the US government to be sent to Japan. A Rad Sticker is small sticker (produced in the US) that can detect radiation exposure and were given to first responders, civilians as well as reporters that were sent to Japan to cover the tragedy.
The story that 40 million are to be evacuated from Japan (according to the EUTimes.com) appears to originate from Sorcha Faal. Is important to note that Sorcha Faal (whatdoesitmean.com) is reported to be an alias of David Booth, a noted conspiracy theorist. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Sorcha_Faal
In spite of the dubious origins of this report, it may be of great interest to you, the reader, that there are reports that 9,000 of the 19,000 US troops are to be removed from Okinawa. Japan has pledged 3.1 billion dollars to subsidize a portion of the 8.6 billion cost of the relocation. Some of these troops will be sent to Hawaii, to Guam, or to start a new rotational process in of all places, Australia.
A deal forged by the US in 2006 to move Futenma Air Force Base to date has never been implemented. The failed contract resulted in political suicide on the part of Yukio Hatoyama of Japan in 2009. Hatoyama was unable to fulfill his campaign promises of putting the deal into action and was forced to resign.
From the MarineCorpstimes.com April 27, 2012:
Citing an “increasingly uncertain security environment” in the Asia-Pacific region, they said their agreement was intended to maintain a robust U.S. military presence to ensure the defense of Japan.
Which raises the question, defense from what?
Whispers on the internet suggest that some Japanese could be evacuated to the “Ghost Cities” of China, while other articles suggest that Japan needs to be protected from China’s rise. This conflict of reporting may incite some conspiracists to claim that the quiet movement of troops off of Okinawa is being implemented without fanfare as to avoid global panic.
From Akio Matsumura, regarding the situation at Fukushima…we are told that “The current Japanese government has not yet mentioned the looming disaster, ostensibly to not incite panic in the public. Nevertheless, action must be taken quickly.”
On April 2, 2012, Takao Yamada of The Mainichi writes:
The worse-case scenario drawn up by the government includes not only the collapse of the No. 4 reactor pool, but the disintegration of spent fuel rods from all the plant’s other reactors. If this were to happen, residents in the Tokyo metropolitan area would be forced to evacuate.
April 9, 2012. The L.A. Times informs us that radiation from Japan has been detected in kelp beds off the coast of California. Kelp is present in many food and pharmaceuticals and is commonly referred to as carageenan in ingredients. Giant kelp beds are also home to thousands of species of fish and sea life.
The Japan Times online reveals in an interview September 19, 2011 with the former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan that the president of TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) wanted to evacuate their staff from the Fukushima facility on March 15, 2011. Prime Minister Kan’s response was he was “outraged.” Kan resigned earlier in the month of September, 2011.
As early as March 15, 2011, following the crisis in Japan, the invitation had been extended from Russia to Japan to receive Japanese nationals. http://www.eutimes.net/2011/03/russias-zhirinovsky-calls-on-japanese-to-move-to-russia/
This week the “Chair of the Japanese Democratic Party’s Political Council Seiji Maehara is set to visit Moscow from April 29 to May 4 to discuss a range of territorial issues with Russia’s Foreign Ministry and the Federal Assembly. Coming ahead of Vladimir Putin’s inauguration as President, this visit can initiate a new round of talks on the disputed sovereignty of the Kuril Islands.” http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_04_13/71656029/
Since the end of World War II, discussions have gone on between Russia and Japan over the Kuril Islands without making any forward progress. Currently, it would appear that the two countries may be attempting to come to an agreement on settling the old grievances generated when Russia seized the islands from Japan during the war. Could the Kuril Islands potentially be a safety net for millions of displaced Japanese citizens?
Meanwhile, back in the States…Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of Japan visits with President Obama at the White House 4/29/12 and is to be treated to a gala dinner and Samurai exhibition by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The two following articles are of great interest to those in the online preparedness community. From RT April 4, 2012: DHS Won’t Explain its Order of 450 million Hollow Point Bullets. http://rt.com/usa/news/dhs-million-point-government-179/ And from Fed Biz Opps: https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=19f566deeffa645babd1e3731b7326c6&tab=core&_cview=1 Behind the scenes, once again the US government is purchasing great quantities of radiation pills.
April 16, 2012: Reuters. US Senator Ron Wyden (OR) “…the damage was much worse than he expected.” Senator Wyden, who is a senior senator on the Senate Energy committee, toured the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear plant on April 6 this month.
April 30, 2012: ENE News-In an anonymous interview April 29, 2012 with a PhD student from Tokyo, we are told that Medical doctors working in Fukushima say lots of people are dying — “Bleeding, losing hair, and having a bad health condition.” http://enenews.com/interview-medical-doctors-working-fukushima-lots-people-dying-bleeding-losing-hair-having-bad-health-condition-video
Today, as of this writing, an “urgent” request has been sent to the UN Secretary General Ban-ki Moon regarding the seriousness of the situation at Fukushima. Green Action Japan states:
We Japanese civil organizations express our deepest concern that our government does not inform its citizens about the extent of risk of the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 spent nuclear fuel pool. Given the fact that collapse of this pool could potentially lead to catastrophic consequences with worldwide implications, what the Japanese government should be doing as a responsible member of the international community is to avoid any further disaster by mobilizing all the wisdom and the means available in order to stabilize this spent nuclear fuel. It is clearly evident that Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 spent nuclear fuel pool is no longer a Japanese issue but an international issue with potentially serious consequences. Therefore, it is imperative for the Japanese government and the international community to work together on this crisis before it becomes too late. We are appealing to the United Nations to help Japan and the planet in order to prevent the irreversible consequences of a catastrophe that could affect generations to come.
Japan May Face Power Blackouts, Minister Says
By Michael Kitchen| From MarketWatch.com | On April 25th, 2012
Residents searching through debris in tsunami-ravaged Sendai, Japan
Japan could face rolling backouts and forced usage cuts this summer if temperatures are above-average, as the nation is set to shut its last operating nuclear plant next month, Economy Minister Yukio Edano said in an interview with the Nikkei newspaper, published Thursday. Edano said the government would announce its power supply-demand forecasts in early May and could begin seeking conservation efforts that month. In the short term, Edano said, “the government will tap nuclear reactors if necessary while placing a maximum emphasis on safety,” but over the coming decades, Japan “should move away from its reliance on nuclear power as quickly as possible.”
Last summer — the first following Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster — Japan forced large electricity consumers to cut usage by 15% and sought voluntary conservation from the public.
The original article was posted at: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/japan-may-face-power-blackouts-minister-says-2012-04-25
Gallery: We Are Never Immune From Disaster
Photo: T. Rob Brown | The Joplin Globe | Associated Press
A tattered flag waves in the morning wind outside the tornado-stricken St. Mary’s Catholic Church on 26th Street in Joplin, MO.
