Survival guides are swift sellers in the worst of times. Remember the Y2K scare, or the run on gas masks after 9/11? While often dismissed as required reading for doomsdayers storing up canned goods in the cellar, I found myself leafing through one recently that got me thinking.
If you followed the news this summer, you saw headlines of massive food shortages, failed banks, power grids buckling, wildfires sweeping through homes, floods and droughts creating havoc in the Midwest, and this week, the heart-wrenching memories of the devastation by Hurricane Katrina. Who can help but wonder what it’s like for people holed up in their houses, surrounded by the elements, fearful, rationing food, waiting for the rescue that may or may not come?
Matthew Stein says he is not a survivalist, but he’s prepared for a range of catastrophes if the infrastructure we take for granted should fail. Really prepared. He’s just out with a revised edition of When Technology Fails, a manual for self-reliance, sustainability, and surviving the long emergency, and he joins Word of Mouth with advice on calculating a year’s food supply, storing fluids in animal skins, discerning poisonous from edible plants, and other information you didn't know you needed.
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