Over the past year I couldn’t help but feel like we are living in a pre-apocalyptic world; 2020 gave us the pandemic but 2021 has given us so much more. With deadly flash floods sweeping across the western hemisphere, hailstorms boasting sizes bigger than tennis balls in Italy, fires boundlessly ravaging the Mediterranean countries, Siberia and the United States, hurricanes battering the lives of those in the caribbean with Jamaica feeling the biggest hit, earthquakes further destroying what was left of the little hope Haitians had since the last one 11 years ago, the Delta mutation wiping out families, famines caused by wars and droughts in Yemen and Ethiopia and the list can go on and on.
This article isn’t written with the intention to have you covering your ears to what’s happening in the world and trying to escape. It is to get you curious, clearly humanity is on the brink of transforming into something that will be unrecognisable. It is as if the earth is purging human beings because we have forgotten how to live sustainably within the natural order or “the circle of life” as the Lion King describes it. And although mother nature will ultimately win, humans are similar to cockroaches in that when you think that we are gone, we pop right back up.
My plan is to list legit doomsday preps that might not save our world but will ensure that our minimum viable population (MVP), which is the ecological threshold that specifies the smallest number of individuals in a species/ population capable of persisting, will survive. This article was definitely inspired by a show on Netflix called Salvation, if you are into wonky scientists, the end of the world and government intervention shows then this is definitely one for you.
- SPACEX MARS PROGRAMME
Yes, I had to start with Mr. Elon Musk, although many of us chuckle at the thought of a new civilisation settling on Mars, it might just be the only thing to save us sapiens. Musk’s plan, which is underway, involves constructing a fully reusable super-heavy lift launch vehicle known as the SpaceX Starship (at least it does sound like something off Star Trek). This spacecraft journey would require it to first enter Earth’s orbit, where it can be refueled before it departs on its 100+ day journey to Mars. Luckily it is not a one way trip as after landing on Mars, the spacecraft would be loaded with locally-produced propellants to return to Earth. In March 2019, Musk was interviewed mentioning that it would be theoretically possible for a self-sustaining city on Mars to emerge by 2050. However with the way things are moving he might need to move faster.
- THE GLOBAL SEED VAULT
This one isn’t necessarily a plan to directly save us but it ensures that we have a backup to restart and cater to our primal need of food. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is located on a remote Norwegian island about 1,300km from the North Pole. And inside the 130 metres deep vault on the side of a mountain are more than a million frozen seeds, kept at a chilled -18C. These seeds represent more than 5,000 plant species which could come in handy for those around to use them. Although the location was deliberately chosen for safety and cold storage it is hard to think how anyone would be able to access them after an apocalypse.
- THE SURVIVAL CONDO
Don’t you wish you were rich? Well I do because money makes the world sing… and I guess buys you a place in the next chapter of the human race. The Survival Condo in Kansas was built from the remains of a missile silo belonging to the US government during the Cold war period. It is an underground bolt structure hosting fifteen floors and various amenities at different levels and can protect against a nuclear bomb 100 times more powerful than the Nagasaki bomb. The structure has several luxuries like an indoor dog walk, a shooting range, a rock climbing wall, an indoor pool, a water park, a library, a theatre, bar, fitness center, first aid facility, and a command center to keep the users active. The apartment blocks have power backups and water storage required to sustain life for five years.
- THE DOOMSDAY PREPPERS
As French president Emmanuel Macron said in 2017, “there is no plan B because there is no planet B”. Doomsday preppers have known this for a while and although the National Geographic TV channel has hoisted us through 4 seasons of a show painting them as weirdos, one thing we can’t deny now, is that they might be onto something.
“I discovered growing numbers of city dwellers, and those who wouldn’t even identify as preppers, securing survival supplies. I encountered a bit of a prepping phenomenon among tech executives and engineers from Silicon Valley, whose drive to prep was driven by climate change above any other reason,” said director of the short documentary, The Bunker Boom, Arianna LaPenne. Prepping is for everyone, it doesn’t only mean finding a shelter underground to live in but also learning how to start a generator or a fire to keep warm, learning the tricks and trades of food storage and medical attention.
- MIND UPLOADING SERVICE
I had to end it off with the strangest and most far-fetched of them all. Nectome founded by Robert McIntyre is a preserve-your-brain-and-upload-it company. Its chemical solution can preserve a body as a frozen glass statue for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Scientists will scan your bricked brain and turn it into a computer simulation someday in the future. That way, someone who looks a lot like you, but isn’t you, will make a reappearance. Although the storage service is not yet for sale and may not be for several years, there is a waiting list one can join for a deposit of $10,000, which is fully refundable if you change your mind.
Written by Tshimangadzo Nemurangoni
