How would you prepare for an ice age?

[ForrestBlack]

In all seriousness, if we really do get an eruption from the Yellowstone Caldera super volcano, it is extremely likely to eject enough gas and ash and other material to plunge us all into a new ice age. The last super volcano, which by all measures was smaller and less powerful than the one in Yellowstone reduced the world's human population by over 90%.

So, what would you stock up on? Water filters? Winter wear? Canned Goods? Dirt bikes?

[Amelia G]

By watching football, drinking beer, and maybe humming loudly?

[Wickedanima]

I'd make arrangements to move closer to the equator. Woot! Island life.

[VoltaireBlue]

I'd stock up on guns and ammo to hunt with.

a while back, I saw a show on pbs here called folk ways. the old school appalachian folks here are amazing. they live w/o electricity, and do everything by hand. if there ever was another ice age, they'd be the strongest survivors.

[LeilaHazlett]

Probably kill myself. I hate the cold, it's currently 48 degrees F in my apartment because there is no heat...I don't think I could deal with it much colder than that.

[jonny.illuminati]

already stocked up.... if you know nothing about survival now, chances are you are going to be part of that 90 percent population decrease... learning survival skills doesn't happen from reading about it. it takes time and practice to learn the skills necessary...

Ed and I are preparing a compound for those that make it to our location... cool hair and costumes required...

[Morning Glory]

what are you going to do? buy 15,000 hand warmers?

there's nothing to do. I'm going to live in a cave and make fire with sticks and stones. that seemed to work pretty well during the last ice age.

[Morning Glory]

Now that I think about it, why would an ice age destroy civilization? it would just be really cold all the time, but we would still have all the same modern technology so we could just run the heaters all the time. Society goes on just fine in Alaska when it gets like 30 below zero.

[jonny.illuminati]

Now that I think about it, why would an ice age destroy civilization? it would just be really cold all the time, but we would still have all the same modern technology so we could just run the heaters all the time. Society goes on just fine in Alaska when it gets like 30 below zero.

that's because people in alaska are used to it... if NYC hit 40 below 0 there would be brownouts or blackouts and people would freeze to death... most of the population is not used to being so cold...

[Morning Glory]

they could just run the heater in the winter, and then run it again in the summer instead of the AC. what's the difference? and they will be using a lot less electricity for everything else, like outdoor lighting, so I think it would even out.

or we could all just make like WA and move to Mexeeko. Haven't you seen the Day After Tomorrow?

[Morning Glory]

Yeah, I don't like the cold either. There has to be a less inconvenient way to get rid of 90% of the world population.

[jonny.illuminati]

Yeah, I don't like the cold either. There has to be a less inconvenient way to get rid of 90% of the world population.

like bring back the Bubonic Plague?

[mystoo]

Move back to Texada Island and start chopping firewood.

[Buster Friendly]

that's because people in alaska are used to it... if NYC hit 40 below 0 there would be brownouts or blackouts and people would freeze to death... most of the population is not used to being so cold...

the cold wouldn't be as much of a problem for some of us, the ones who do have a little bit of survival training etc. fire would be a problem. even if it was very fucking cold, people would still set parts of the city on fire improperly trying to stay warm, and without a decent fire dept. to combat that it would be a fucking problem.

Potable water would be an issue, sure you could always just grab some snow, and melt it, but who knows what the quality would be, and it's not going to snow all the time either.

the biggest problem in NYC would be competition from other human predators. resources would be scarce, there are always people who are at least as well armed, trained, and intelligent as you are out there somewhere. sometimes they don't have to be any of those three, just more ruthless, and cruel.

world wide food production is going to be an issue- 6.??? billion people gotta eat. we feed them mostly these days with grains that need sun light, and warm growing seasons. yep, that would suck.

I am thinking that in NYC the rats would be an issue. see, they out weigh us humans, and it is said that if we stopped feeding them our trash, they'd come up from down below,because that's where most of them live... they'd come up, and start looking for food, and adapting to the new terrain.

[athenahollow]

I would move the equator, that's how.
Fuck this cold shit.

[nathanmbailey]

Ed and I are preparing a compound for those that make it to our location... cool hair and costumes required...

Appears I'm stocking up on hair coloring products and costumes...

In reality though, I would think that Alaska is also equipped with better generators and transformers to handle that kind of climate. Stuff way more weather resistant than NYC, seeing as that's the ongoing trend of examples. They also have their power lines routed differently. They are prepared, but another ice age would put it at the lowest temperatures or even lower for much longer than they're use to even.

I know just from living in the Chicago area that extreme snow and cold causes power outages, freezes pipes, all that fun stuff. Running the heat all the time doesn't help when there's no power and it's too cold to even start the backup generators some "better prepared" people would have.

I think I'd just chill for awhile.

[Morning Glory]

so we all agree: fuck new york.

[Amelia G]

I Yellowstone spews magma everywhere, exactly how far is everywhere, if hypothetically someone lived in say Los Angeles, for example?

[One Eyed Cat]

I would commandeer my grandfather's old house. He built a shelter there during the Cold War. We could secure the perimeter fairly easily (it's now a gentrified Bay Area suburb and my friends are batshit crazy and have guns). I'd try to send a smoke signal jonny's way. We could have post-apocalyptic cultural exchanges. I have cool hair.

OEC

[Ajax Knucklebones]

I'd kill Rockwulf. Slice him open and live inside him, ala Taun Taun style.

[Buster Friendly]

so we all agree: fuck new york.

Uh, no.

New York Fucks You.

[Amelia G]

I'd kill Rockwulf. Slice him open and live inside him, ala Taun Taun style.

No more SF flicks for you.

[Ajax Knucklebones]

No more SF flicks for you.

Awwww...Come on! It might work.

[One Eyed Cat]

Don't eat the yellow(stone) snow.

OEC

[nathanmbailey]

If anyone attacks, you can just take a dog-do snow cone and rub it in their eyes. Then meet up later at St. Alfonso's Pancake Breakfast.

[Mr Karl]

Move back to Texada Island and start chopping firewood.

You used to live on texada?

[mystoo]

I did. You've heard of it? You ever been there? It's fucking awesome!

[Tsathogua]

Why not steal a boat and head for Iceland? Lots of hot springs, far away from everything (including Yellowstone and its volcano) and no one else would be thinking of going there.

Plus, they have a ton of beer in Iceland and a small population to drink it. Come to think of it, I would loot as many liquor stores as possible, steal a boat and head for Iceland.

That sounds like a party.

[Morning Glory]

I'd smoke alot of pot.

[Velvet-Tongue]

I'd move back to Florida.

[Nos]

guns, canned goods, food for my dog, hand warmers, and drugs to barter with.

[Mr Karl]

I'd get used to the idea of canabolism...........That should keep me fed for a long time.............the warm and dry part's pretty straightforward

[Mr Karl]

I did. You've heard of it? You ever been there? It's fucking awesome!

I ended up on Hornby............never got around to my pilgrimage for the source of timewarp

[mystoo]

Aaaagghhhh...the Timewarp. I was living there during harvest season, made an assload of money and blew it all in Van in one weekend. I hear good things about Hornby but have never been.

[Mindgames]

I Yellowstone spews magma everywhere, exactly how far is everywhere, if hypothetically someone lived in say Los Angeles, for example?

The radius of zero survival originally published by USGS is 600 miles, so you're just outside that, which is bad. Inside 600 miles you'll probably be killed quickly by heat and blast, but out to the next 1200 miles you'll die slowly.

The spewing to bother about is ash, as everyone agrees Yellowstone is pyroclastic like St Helens - in which case it depends on the wind direction as to what shape the plume is. Prevailing is Easterly, so from the numbers USGS put out there'd be a few yards in Wyoming and a few inches in NYC. CA will probably get some backscatter even if the plume is West-running, so you may get an inch or two of ash, but you won't be seeing any of that glowing red Hollywood goop. It'd circle the planet eventually, so Europe would get a sprinkle too.

2 inches will collapse 90% of roofs on domestic buildings, and a couple of inhaled breaths will kill you, as the ash turns to concrete inside your lungs. An inverse Jimmy Hoffa. We were in the area when Mt St Helens blew, and had coughs for months. It also destroys everything mechanical - it's basically broken glass, so it melts inside engines, jams filters, grinds away bearings - but kinda useful if you run out of oven cleaner.

I'd steal a boat. Piracy is the only sensible option, and fish are probably the only things worth hunting other than other hunters. Being able to shoot moose is fine provided there aren't 250,000 people in front of you trying to shoot the same one.

[Janiac02]

I'd steal a boat. Piracy is the only sensible option, and fish are probably the only things worth hunting other than other hunters. Being able to shoot moose is fine provided there aren't 250,000 people in front of you trying to shoot the same one.

Need a first mate? I can make some amazing fish... I'll throw in some bad pirate talk and an eyepatch for free. Yarrr!

[Obscuria.com]

I'd buy a pint of ice cream and pull the holy shit handle.

[jonny.illuminati]

I would commandeer my grandfather's old house. He built a shelter there during the Cold War. We could secure the perimeter fairly easily (it's now a gentrified Bay Area suburb and my friends are batshit crazy and have guns). I'd try to send a smoke signal jonny's way. We could have post-apocalyptic cultural exchanges. I have cool hair.

OEC

deal!

[jonny.illuminati]

No more SF flicks for you.

that's not SF... humans have been eating each other for a million years... only recently has eating human become taboo...

food shortage = return to our roots... in russia and china there is currently a big problem with cannibalism...

[jonny.illuminati]

I'd kill Rockwulf. Slice him open and live inside him, ala Taun Taun style.

i'm pretty sure rockwulf will be running security at mine and ed's compound... so technically coming to the compound to eat him would likely end up in someone being turned in to bacon...