Friday, October 19, 2012

Doomsday Preppers: How to Survive like Megan Hurwitt

By Terrance Franklin


After doing a little investigation I realized that Megan was misrepresented rather drastically by the makers of Doomsday Preppers. She is definitely a normal girl who preps quietly just like you or I, however the editors took liberties with a few of the more extreme things she said in passing. At risk of derailing this post I'm going to save each argument for the part it is covered in.

1. Oil crisis

As per the interview with Megan after the show, this was among the many scenarios she was getting ready for, with the others thought to be too mundane for television. Whilst the notion of a thorough embargo is fairly far fetched, there is certainly lots of reason for being worried regarding oil.

Regardless of whether OPEC countries prefer us to have it or not, the provision of oil in the earth is finite. Peak oil was a theory released by one of the leading geologists of the 20th century, M. King Hubbert. His work with mathematical models is still used nowadays to forecast the oil production of a certain geographical region. Hubbert himself could forecast the peak of US oil manufacturing (in the mid 1970s) as earlier as 1956.

The concept of peak oil uses this type of model for the earth as a whole. Numbers differ on when the peak will be reached (if it hasn't already) however regardless of when it takes place we are in trouble because of basic economics. With growing need for oil and decreasing supply, access to oil will become progressively more challenging. This extends to all factors of international business, transport and manufacturing of plastic items and may cause the havoc National Geographic was trying to show as outrageous.

2. Insane people and urban prepping

Megan brings up an excellent point when she talks about how society will fall after supplies become depleted, that can essentially be in 3 days. This has been observed before fairly near to home with the state of New Orleans after hurricane Katrina - good people and American citizens turning to looting and damage in distressed times. How good you believe your neighbors are goes out the window whenever their children are feeling hungry.

Even if she had the space to stockpile resources, she doesn't possess ways to defend herself in a city with thousands and thousands of starving people. This is the fact for most of us who reside in cities (including myself). It might be better to focus on bugging out compared to pantry prepping in the conventional sense

3. Physical prep

According to her bug out focused survival plan, Megan is smartly undergoing physical preparation. I like that she is doing body weight and calisthenics based training instead of working out in a fitness center. Mobility is the title of the game and almost nothing will build that faster compared to moving your very own body.

Another good practice (especially for her) will be rucking. For those of you unfamiliar with this is basically walking with a jam-packed back pack, really common in the military. Meg was having difficulty with vigor when she examined her bug out run however this might have helped her out.

6. Raw fish and vitamins

Megan has an eye out for vitamins when she chooses eating uncooked fish instead of cooking it. There is a whole nutritional motion around this referred to as raw foodism that is based on the health advantages of eating like this. However, in a true survival scenario I feel the danger outweigh the advantages. The loss of vitamins due to cooking is partial, however getting a food borne illness, specially while bugging out, can be potentially deadly.

7. Shooting full beer cans

If there is one thing which made me turn my head above anything else in this show, it was the shot of Megan shooting full beer cans. I've seen some ridiculous things in my day however watching a Texan waste beer like that is too much to bear.

8. Ounces and not pounds

My favorite quote of the series so far has to be Megan talking about ounces and not pounds with regards to bugging out. With a strategy like this, urban preppers need to take attention on reducing the quantity of equipment they have got. While homesteaders and pantry preppers are centered on volume, urban and bug out preppers need to focus on economic system. As we can observe with Megan's level of stamina during her dry run, in spite of extensive conditioning there is a serious problem in bugging out. You?d better assume that every ounce counts when you are intending to get out of dodge.




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