@TLM
Funny thing that, isn't it ? that our ancestors could (and very recently in the scheme of things) successfully interbreed with other homo sapiens species.
They always do say that the mongrel is the healthiest animal
Then again, there's nothing else killing off the other great apes but us
I do care about climate change, and I find myself enraged at the waste. We personally are accountable for our fuel use, yet look at the waste of fuel in motorsport. It's inane, and that's just one example.
Plastics ? we're on the slow road to weaning ourselves off them I think. Even China has now announced a ban on single use plastic bags, so even the enormous blocks of some countries are paying heed.....they're all too well aware of the pollution these days. Smog kills, and they're dying. Malaysia has just sent back container loads of our dirty plastic waste, so we can no longer off load our filth to somewhere else. You use it, you clean it up. No bad thing I reckon. Mixed media packaging, etc., has to end. It's presently almost impossible to recycle it.
Survivalism though ? I think BcUK has been a bastion of sanity among the internet sites of rabid hype and panic. On the whole we don't do the whole
SURVIVALISM thing, that on this forum always comes across as 'get out asap', while bushcraft has always been rather a 'chill out asap', with an understanding of quiet competency and the sure and certain knowledge that a chilled out sit down and a think over a cuppa really does help one make rational decisions. That, underpinned with seasonality, and an healthy regard for many skills, is a better base than the zombie apocalypse.
Humanity thrives now because of farming. If society doesn't farm, in some way or other, even the best hunters go hungry and the young and old die too soon. Ask any 'indigenous' tribe and they'll tell you that very thing. We expect every one of our children to live to adulthood. In the past, the overwhelming majority of children died before they were five years old. In some countries it's still one in ten.....and that is still low compared to past numbers.
Smallholders, like the little Italian Grandpa of my son's girlfriend, who produces rich crops, feeds his family, and has enough extra to sell to make a living from it, or like British Red, rich in skills and practical knowledge, and prepared to work month in and out, year in and out, to improve his land and his produce, now that's real Survivalism.
@Robson Valley
Clever people have worked it out though. I shellfish = 1kcal, you needs hundreds for a meal.....so our ancestors harvested hundreds. Thing is though, the young and the halt and the old can collect shellfish, even if they can't labour to farm or hunt or fish.
However, for protein values it's a much better return. It works out between 15 and 20g of protein per 100g of shellfish as opposed to between 20 and 25g of protein for deer.....and a lot less effort in obtaining aforementioned protein.
I've dug in sites where we didn't even think to count the oyster shells, we just dug them up, bagged them and weighed them. Medieval and oysters, kind of indelibly stuck in my mind. Like the Neolithic and the whelks and limpets.
M
