we are but are the rest ? solar flare survival

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,120
68
Florida
I thought that a car was a Faraday cage, a car can be struck by lightening and survive.

The general belief about a car surving a lightning strike has more to do with it NOT being grounded (rubber tires are an insulator) Similar to birds sitting on power lines.
 

Andy BB

Full Member
Apr 19, 2010
3,290
3
Hampshire
I'd get a big club and stalk houses with smoke coming from the chimneys and light coming from the windows, cos they'll obviously have the supplies I need. And my long term preper of training all my daughters to higher levels of black belts in full-contact taekwondo will provide me with a ready-made defense force to hang on to my ill-gotten gains:)
 

Bushwhacker

Banned
Jun 26, 2008
3,882
8
Dorset
Who's going to run and maintain all of the world's current nuclear power stations when the proverbial hits the fan?
They'll all be in meltdown within a couple of years, good luck with that!
 
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Retired Member southey

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jun 4, 2006
11,098
13
your house!
IF it does this picture depicts how I shall live(thats me with the cool bottom knife hand!!!)

10330.jpg
 

Prawnster

Full Member
Jun 24, 2008
806
0
St. Helens
The communications network should be unaffected by a solar flare, the hard lines anyway. The government spent a lot of money making sure BT's network is EMP proof. My father in law designed and built the hardware. They were thinking more along the lines of a nuclear strike scenario than a solar flare. Same principle though, I believe.


Sent from whatever the coolest gadget is these days.
 

iHydro

Member
Apr 11, 2012
46
0
Digby, Lincolnshire
Interesting thread. My first thought would be to move higher up out of the way of the chaos and panic, getting myself and my family to a relative safety away from looting etc. I'd then go and find adequate supplies to help establish a more permanent shelter. I'm by no means a bushcrafter but I'd do my best to live off the land and feed my family until the worst has passed (maybe 6 months) by which point looting will be over, population will have withered due to lack of food/water. I'd then prepare to move on to somewhere else where I could better provide for my family and start rebuilding a community with other likeminded people.
 

TallMikeM

Need to contact Admin...
Dec 30, 2005
574
0
54
Hatherleigh, Devon
I'm stocking up on panic, as I hear this is what people like to buy when things go all pear shaped. Then I'll sell it at inflated prices, make a killing and live like a king. A king I tell you!!!!!
 

Bushwhacker

Banned
Jun 26, 2008
3,882
8
Dorset
Interesting thread. My first thought would be to move higher up out of the way of the chaos and panic, getting myself and my family to a relative safety away from looting etc. I'd then go and find adequate supplies to help establish a more permanent shelter. I'm by no means a bushcrafter but I'd do my best to live off the land and feed my family until the worst has passed (maybe 6 months) by which point looting will be over, population will have withered due to lack of food/water. I'd then prepare to move on to somewhere else where I could better provide for my family and start rebuilding a community with other likeminded people.

And maintain ALL the world's nuclear power stations of course! Don't forget that bit.
 

iHydro

Member
Apr 11, 2012
46
0
Digby, Lincolnshire
And maintain ALL the world's nuclear power stations of course! Don't forget that bit.

Well, with the exception of Japan, most nuclear power plants are built in such a way that if they ever melt down, the blast will be contained within an underground encasement that will prevent fallout. Or at least thats my understanding of how it works anyway!
 

ex-member BareThrills

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Dec 5, 2011
4,461
3
United Kingdom
Great thread and i think Damian's first post is a good summary of the issues. My thoughts are that cash as we know it would be unlikely to have much value. Im by no means a prepper but i do hold a good amount of silver and a little gold in the event that a currency of last resort is needed.
 

ged

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jul 16, 2009
4,995
29
In the woods if possible.
A really big flare hitting Earth would just fry the lot of us. As far as we're concerned, there wouldn't be any 'afterwards'.

Incidentally if we happened to get in the way of a gamma ray burst which happened close by (say, in our own galaxy), that would finish us all off in a couple of seconds.

There would be absolutely nothing that we could do about it, so no point in preparing for that. Fortunately they don't happen very often.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_ray_burst
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsec
 

Andy BB

Full Member
Apr 19, 2010
3,290
3
Hampshire
Well, with the exception of Japan, most nuclear power plants are built in such a way that if they ever melt down, the blast will be contained within an underground encasement that will prevent fallout. Or at least thats my understanding of how it works anyway!

Automatic failsafe is suppressing the nuclear reaction by dropping in carbon rods or similar. But minor details like that hold little relevance to those who can only equate nuclear with atomic bombs:) Pity really, as all life on earth depends upon nuclear reactions (in this case fusion) generating heat from the Sun, and virtually all the elements we depend upon to survive came from nuclear reactions - supernova etc. Ditto radiation - without it we'd never have made it out of the primordeal swamps - in fact there wouldn't have been primordial swamps in the first place!
 

wattsy

Native
Dec 10, 2009
1,111
3
Lincoln
pish. sensationalist, doom-mongering rot. none of what they say on the op's link is referenced or even linked to the original source of the 'information', and even if it were it'd probably just link to another idiot website run by someone who doesn't get on too well with other people. the website lists 21 active warnings from NASA regarding solar flares just for april and i've not heard of one aeroplane dropping out of the sky, no catastrophic loss of power, not one freezer full of ruined frozen goods because the Sun shot death rays at us.

i'm actually really looking forward to the end of this year because all those people who bought into this nonsense and stockpiled bags and bags of dried goods and bottled water will have to sheepishly turn to furious other halfs, parents kids etc and say "well at least we've got the next few meals sorted out, looks like we're having rice and beans for the next 10 years"

bring on december 21st. i've already booked the day off there's bound to be crowds of doom-mongering idiots wandering around shouting "REPENT SINNERS!!" at each other should be a giggle


 

Zingmo

Eardstapa
Jan 4, 2010
1,296
119
S. Staffs
As I see it, you can think through and prep for a specific TEOTWAWKI scenario but you will never be able to prep for every possible circumstance. There will always be some unforeseen factor which modifies the scenario in such a way as to render your prepping less useful.
In any situation, however, there is one resource which is going to be very precious indeed and you can start increasing your share anytime and all it will cost will be your time and maybe a dram or two. That resource is people and more specifically, friends. When it all goes up, will there be anyone out there who will lend or give you what you need based on goodwill alone?

Z
 

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