One Year To Go – Are You Ready?

First and foremost, the very notion that there is only one year left until (perhaps) the end of the world as we know it, should have many people making New Year’s resolutions – planning to survive. It can be your resolution if you choose – there will never be a better opportunity to take control of your destiny. This is especially important for those with families…
In the UK, prudent decision to store food and water. They aren’t crazy survivalist gun nuts, or doom and gloom religious zealots. They’re just doing what humans have always done – except for the last two generations who seem to think they are invulnerable to catastrophes.

Just like the Shaws, divorced mother-of-four Lynda Mayall is stockpiling supplies:

As well as buying several hundred pounds worth of freeze-dried ‘survival’ meals, her cupboards contain more than 100 tins of beans, fish, soup and vegetables. She also has stocks of pasta and rice.
‘I think I have about a six-month supply of food in the house,’ she says.  ‘The freeze-dried tins are great because they take up so much less space. It is something we can fall back on if times are tough. It is my security blanket.’ Miss Mayall says her stockpiling instinct has been sharpened by  the way in which the European crisis  is unfolding.

If you are thinking you can’t afford to stockpile, think again:

For the past 18 months, Chris James, a 40-year-old business consultant from Manchester, has bought an extra can of baked beans and one litre of water every time he goes to the supermarket.
‘I think there is a chance, a remote chance, that the supply chain will break down badly,’ he says.
‘For less than £1 a week I’m able to fill my garage with baked beans and water. It’s a tiny outlay for what could be a great benefit.

highlight a few recent cases of critical situations:

Take the fuel strikes of 2000. Lorry drivers, fed up with high diesel prices, blockaded the refineries. Almost immediately they exposed the frailties of a society that feeds itself via a just-in-time supply chain.
Within days, shelves were bare and supermarket bosses were warning civil servants in Whitehall that there were just three days of food left.
Then there was Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Within days, residents of the richest country in the world were looting to feed themselves and their families.
Next came the credit crunch and that day in September 2008 when the Royal Bank of Scotland almost folded. It would subsequently emerge that its cash machines were only hours away from running out of money.

What can we expect in the coming year?
Natural disasters appear to be on the rise. While we are still within the realm of of normal statistical probability, if 2012 starts like 2011 did, there will be a lot of very fearful people. Although there’s no easy way to measure it, I’ve noticed earthquakes in a lot of places that don’t usually get them – that could be indicative of something.
Religion. There are quite a few evangelical Christians who believe that they have the ability to bring on a Biblical apocalypse, and 2012 is a year they have latched on to. A popular idea involves building the Third Temple in Jerusalem, thereby fulfilling Biblical prophecy. Fingers crossed Rick Perry doesn’t become president. Meanwhile Pope Benedict is very frail, and he is visiting Mexico in March where a volcano is threatening to erupt. According to the prophecy of Saint Malachy, 

War and Terror. There’s no predicting terrorism, but it’s not hard to predict escalating tensions in the Middle East. Israel has been talking about preemptive strikes against Iran, and the new leaders of Egypt (whoever that will be) are unlikely to be as friendly with Israel as Mubarak was.
Economy. The USA seems to be coming right, but now Europe is in trouble, and things could get a lot worse. Don’t be surprised if some major European banks get in trouble. Liquidity is at an all time low, which is why the price of gold has begun to fall – people are cashing out because the banks can’t loan them any money! Of additional concern is rumors regarding China – they might be cooking the books (just like Greece did) and hiding the truth about their economy.
The Sun. At the tail-end of 2012 and into early 2013 we can expect the peak of the solar cycle. Some experts think it will be quiet, some expect it to be the stormiest peak in a century. If it is quiet, we might be entering a new mini-Ice Age. And if it is turbulent, NASA has warned that the power grids in the USA and Europe could go down.
Space Nasties. Just this week NASA declared that a supernova harming us in 2012 is impossible. They said it with certainty. That’s a strange thing to say considering they are still discovering new types of supernovae. I would fully expect that one day they will discover a type of supernova that is many times more powerful than they are currently aware of. NASA’s debunking is just as foolhardy and dangerous as the worst 2012 hoaxes. And of course they repeatedly fail to mention the threat posed by comets, especially dark comets.
Disease. Scientists have been warning for a long time that a big, scary, deadly flu pandemic is well overdue. 2012 could easily be the year that the first pandemic of a globalized world attacks us. Keep in mind that the #1 killer of soldiers in WW1 wasn’t a human enemy – instead it was the flu.
If I have added to your worries, that was intentional. Preparing for the worst is cheap and easy, and you really don’t have an excuse not to prepare:

• Take a 2 hour drive into the countryside and think about where you would flee to if disaster struck where you live.
• If something you regularly eat can be bought in bulk – say rice or baked beans – do so and you will be saving money whilst being prepared.
• Store water. We buy cases of 24 500ml bottles for $8. That’s 33c each. Beats paying $2-3 from a corner store. Water stores well and lasts a long time. But without water you will die in 3 days. Numerous 2012 scenarios involve town water supplies failing. Please, please, store some water.

While I wish, dream and hope for an uneventful 2012, the odds are stacked against it.