SFU: Apocalypse hazards

[Daniel]

Just wondering... what sort of dangers and hazards would present themselves in a post-apocalypse setting? Generically, or in an urban fantasy. I'm trying to write up a list but it's not coming to me.

[Viola]

The availability of food, water and fuel would probably be scares as well.

[Sandi]

I agree that infection would be a big risk. Antibiotics have saved a lot of people.

I think other survivors might be a big risk too. Not just looters, but armed robbers, rapists and people who think they have to protect themselves from the former.

Then. of course, there's ourselves. Depression, defeatism, and isolation would be the most obvious issues. But you have to consider that very few of us have the knowledge, skills, or physical endurance to survive any kind of catastrophe.

[Phil]

No medicine including mundane things like allergy meds. and birth control. You don't want to sneeze while you're hunting or get pregnant unless you're prepared for it. No insulin for diabetics. No first aid unless you're with someone who knows it and has supplies. No surgery at all. No dentistry.

Wild animals; where I live that would be bears, wolves, cougars and smaller nasty things like racoons, coyotes, and skunks not to mention other humans.

No easy food unless you already know how to hunt or trap and know what edible plants are abundant in your area. Fishing would probably be your best bet.

No electricity which means no light or heat after dark for the most part.

No new metal or plastic or glass things including any tools or eyeglasses or weapons that broke.

If you managed to become part of a small community almost everybody would spend all their time farming or gathering food.

[PointyEars42]

Totally agree Sandi. I think that veneer of civilisation would quickly prove to be a thin one and that, behaviourally, we'd go back to the Dark Ages in a shockingly short period of time. Look around at the world today for evidence– we’ll likely run out of sanity and control long before we run out of bottled water and baked beans.

Anyone whose bad behaviour is being held back because they think they're going to get caught is likely to flourish in a world with, for example, no security cameras or no DNA processing labs. Rape and murder and other hard physical crimes would become even easier to get away with and will flourish *immediately* – if not actually become a way of life. Everyone who isn't part of your group or family becomes an enemy competing for resources and lines would be drawn wherever there are already weak points that are being held in check by political correctness (racism, mysogyny, nationalism, every possibly type of bigotry). Suicide rates would sky rocket as people gave up hope or found themselves suddenly unproductive and bored and scared with no hope of intervention or of things ever returning to "normal".

There’s be a massive initial dying off amongst the sick and elderly and the very young (ie those least able to fend for themselves and/or who need the most care) as health care floundered and medicine ran out. If the apocalypse is disease-based, this would happen very quickly as we’d use up supplies trying to heal the initial sick/wounded and have little left when the healthy people start getting sick or injured... or would we have the foresight to immediately go to a triage scenario? Average human lifespans would drop at any rate.

Long term? I can only imagine what 2 or 3 years without fuel for fishing fleets will do to restore marine life and what 10 or 20 years will do to restore the ocean beds. On the other hand, how does a fractured society with crumbling infrastructure stop the nuclear power plants from poisoning everything around them? Will we strip the planet bare in a decade as 8 billion people try to find firewood? What do you do with the sewage of 8 billion people? Do our cattle go feral and roam the grasslands in vast herds? Do scavenger species start breeding out of control as they feed on our mass graves? I assume the more rural you are, the more likely you are to survive any type of apocalypse since the population density would be lower and the access to arable land greater... can you imagine how many isolated self-sufficient communities wouldn’t even know that disease/zombies/aliens/etc had wiped out half the planet?

[PointyEars42]

Also: batteries become the most valuable commodity on earth.

[Michele]

Yep medical issues become number one, and crime number two. There would be a huge die-off reducing the population by at least 50%. Then I'd guess food and drinkable water would be very scarce. And then would come the big bad guys - those who have taken control of territories and have large groups of organized followers/armies, and are the worst sort of twisted sadistic monster dictators.

People would be very stinky.

Travel would become a nightmare, where both people and animals would be dangers on the road. And communication would be very slow, leaving people isolated and lost and afraid for friends and family in distant places.

Biological warfare or nuclear fallout could create mutants.
Any major change to the whole planet would affect the weather and might increase natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes and hurricanes. So there could be an ice age or toxic fog and rain, desert conditions, more radiation from the sun.

Garden gnomes come to life.

[Phil]

Michele wrote: "Yep medical issues become number one, and crime number two. There would be a huge die-off reducing the population by at least 50%. Then I'd guess food and drinkable water would be very scarce. And ..."

You forgot to mention dogs and cats living together...