Koolau
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I've watched a bit of several "episodes" of Doomsday prepers. The glass-half-empty part of me agrees that there might be a reason to at least be prepared for some significant disruptions if, for instance, a major confrontation takes place in the middle east. I know, here in Paradise, we have something like LESS than 7 days of food if it were equally distributed. The powers that be chide us to have a hurricane kit (food, water, flashlights, batteries, etc.). Most folks have very little set aside.
Imagine a major disruption in oil supplies. Does anyone think Hawaii's 1+ million folks (located more than 2500 miles from ANYWHERE) would be a priority to send oil burning container ships full of food (or oil, for that matter)? No, I think the mainland coasts would be the priority. For that reason alone, it makes sense to have some supplies.
I think what concerns me about the DP program is the rather unlikely scenarios they are preparing for. Earth's magnetic pole shift comes to mind. Apparently, this HAS happened before - several times at multiple 100s of thousands of year intervals. But, no one really knows what that would mean to our way of life (other than changing all of our compass headings by 180 degrees.)
I DO think it prudent for folks to keep some food/water around in case supplies are disrupted. Waiting until the last minute leads to a run on grocery stores/gas stations. Not a pretty site when we get a tsunami warning (or, in the old mainland days, a big a$$ snow storm is on the way.) Our relatively frequent power outages here are disturbing (one was island wide for 18 hours). There is a helpless feeling that creeps into one's thinking when such a relatively benign event occurs. Being prepared helps mitigate that feeling and leads to a sense of well-being (was quite glad to have flashlights with extra batteries AND battery operated radios.)
However, preping for "the end of the world" seems like an exercise in futility. "Surviving for WHAT?" seems an appropriate question. YMMV
Imagine a major disruption in oil supplies. Does anyone think Hawaii's 1+ million folks (located more than 2500 miles from ANYWHERE) would be a priority to send oil burning container ships full of food (or oil, for that matter)? No, I think the mainland coasts would be the priority. For that reason alone, it makes sense to have some supplies.
I think what concerns me about the DP program is the rather unlikely scenarios they are preparing for. Earth's magnetic pole shift comes to mind. Apparently, this HAS happened before - several times at multiple 100s of thousands of year intervals. But, no one really knows what that would mean to our way of life (other than changing all of our compass headings by 180 degrees.)
I DO think it prudent for folks to keep some food/water around in case supplies are disrupted. Waiting until the last minute leads to a run on grocery stores/gas stations. Not a pretty site when we get a tsunami warning (or, in the old mainland days, a big a$$ snow storm is on the way.) Our relatively frequent power outages here are disturbing (one was island wide for 18 hours). There is a helpless feeling that creeps into one's thinking when such a relatively benign event occurs. Being prepared helps mitigate that feeling and leads to a sense of well-being (was quite glad to have flashlights with extra batteries AND battery operated radios.)
However, preping for "the end of the world" seems like an exercise in futility. "Surviving for WHAT?" seems an appropriate question. YMMV