By Terrance Franklin
After doing a little investigation I realized that Megan was misrepresented rather drastically by the makers of Doomsday Preppers. She is definitely a normal girl who preps quietly just like you or I, however the editors took liberties with a few of the more extreme things she said in passing. At risk of derailing this post I'm going to save each argument for the part it is covered in.
1. Oil problems
Based on the interview with Megan after the show, an oil crisis was one of the many scenarios she was getting ready for, with the others considered too boring for television. While the idea of a thorough embargo is fairly far fetched, there is surely lots of reason behind being worried regarding oil.
Regardless of whether OPEC countries prefer us to have it or not, the supply of oil in the earth is finite. Peak oil was a theory released by among the leading geologists of the 20th century, M. King Hubbert. His work with statistical models is still used nowadays to forecast the oil output of a particular geographical area. Hubbert himself was able to forecast the peak of US oil production (in the mid 70s) as early as 1956.
The theory of peak oil extrapolates this sort of evaluation to the earth as a whole. Numbers differ on once the peak will be attained (if it has not already) however regardless of when it happens we are in trouble due to simple economics. With rising demand for oil and decreasing supply, access to oil becomes a lot more difficult. This includes all aspects of international business, transport and manufacture of plastic items and may cause the havoc National Geographic was aiming to show as absurd.
2. Crazy people and prepping in the city
Megan brings up an excellent point when she talks about how society will fall after resources run out, that will basically be in three days. This has been noticed before relatively close to home with the state of New Orleans after hurricane Katrina - respectable people and Americans trying out looting and damage in distressed times. How good you think your neighbors might be goes out the window when their children are feeling hungry.
Even though she had the room to stockpile supplies, she does not have ways to defend herself in a city with thousands and thousands of starving mouths. This is the truth for most of us who reside in cities (myself included). It might be better to concentrate on bugging out compared to pantry prepping in the conventional sense
3. Physical preparation
In line with her bug out driven survival plan, Megan is sensibly going through physical preparation. I like the fact that she does body weight and calisthenics based training instead of exercising in a health club. Mobility is the name of the game and almost nothing will build that speedier than moving one;s own body.
Another significant practice (especially for her) will be rucking. For those who are not familiar with this is actually marching with a jam-packed back pack, quite common in the military services. Meg was having problems with vigor when she tested her bug out however this might have helped her out.
6. Fresh fish and vitamins
Megan has an eye out for natural vitamins when she opts for consuming fresh fish instead of cooking it. There is an entire nutritional trend around this referred to as raw foodism which is dependent on the health advantages of eating this way. But, in a real survival situation I think the danger exceed the benefits. The loss of vitamins due to cooking is partial, however getting a food borne ailment, particularly while bugging out, can be potentially life threatening.
7. Shooting full beer cans
If there is one thing which made me turn my head above anything else in this show, it was the shot of Megan shooting full beer cans. I've seen some ridiculous things in my day however watching a Texan waste beer like that is too much to bear.
8. Ounces not pounds
My favorite quote of the series so far has to be Megan talking about ounces and not pounds with regards to bugging out. With a strategy like this, urban preppers need to take attention on reducing the quantity of equipment they have got. While homesteaders and pantry preppers are centered on volume, urban and bug out preppers need to focus on economic system. As we can observe with Megan's level of stamina during her dry run, in spite of extensive conditioning there is a serious problem in bugging out. You?d better assume that every ounce counts when you are intending to get out of dodge.
1. Oil problems
Based on the interview with Megan after the show, an oil crisis was one of the many scenarios she was getting ready for, with the others considered too boring for television. While the idea of a thorough embargo is fairly far fetched, there is surely lots of reason behind being worried regarding oil.
Regardless of whether OPEC countries prefer us to have it or not, the supply of oil in the earth is finite. Peak oil was a theory released by among the leading geologists of the 20th century, M. King Hubbert. His work with statistical models is still used nowadays to forecast the oil output of a particular geographical area. Hubbert himself was able to forecast the peak of US oil production (in the mid 70s) as early as 1956.
The theory of peak oil extrapolates this sort of evaluation to the earth as a whole. Numbers differ on once the peak will be attained (if it has not already) however regardless of when it happens we are in trouble due to simple economics. With rising demand for oil and decreasing supply, access to oil becomes a lot more difficult. This includes all aspects of international business, transport and manufacture of plastic items and may cause the havoc National Geographic was aiming to show as absurd.
2. Crazy people and prepping in the city
Megan brings up an excellent point when she talks about how society will fall after resources run out, that will basically be in three days. This has been noticed before relatively close to home with the state of New Orleans after hurricane Katrina - respectable people and Americans trying out looting and damage in distressed times. How good you think your neighbors might be goes out the window when their children are feeling hungry.
Even though she had the room to stockpile supplies, she does not have ways to defend herself in a city with thousands and thousands of starving mouths. This is the truth for most of us who reside in cities (myself included). It might be better to concentrate on bugging out compared to pantry prepping in the conventional sense
3. Physical preparation
In line with her bug out driven survival plan, Megan is sensibly going through physical preparation. I like the fact that she does body weight and calisthenics based training instead of exercising in a health club. Mobility is the name of the game and almost nothing will build that speedier than moving one;s own body.
Another significant practice (especially for her) will be rucking. For those who are not familiar with this is actually marching with a jam-packed back pack, quite common in the military services. Meg was having problems with vigor when she tested her bug out however this might have helped her out.
6. Fresh fish and vitamins
Megan has an eye out for natural vitamins when she opts for consuming fresh fish instead of cooking it. There is an entire nutritional trend around this referred to as raw foodism which is dependent on the health advantages of eating this way. But, in a real survival situation I think the danger exceed the benefits. The loss of vitamins due to cooking is partial, however getting a food borne ailment, particularly while bugging out, can be potentially life threatening.
7. Shooting full beer cans
If there is one thing which made me turn my head above anything else in this show, it was the shot of Megan shooting full beer cans. I've seen some ridiculous things in my day however watching a Texan waste beer like that is too much to bear.
8. Ounces not pounds
My favorite quote of the series so far has to be Megan talking about ounces and not pounds with regards to bugging out. With a strategy like this, urban preppers need to take attention on reducing the quantity of equipment they have got. While homesteaders and pantry preppers are centered on volume, urban and bug out preppers need to focus on economic system. As we can observe with Megan's level of stamina during her dry run, in spite of extensive conditioning there is a serious problem in bugging out. You?d better assume that every ounce counts when you are intending to get out of dodge.
About the Author:
Thank you for reading! Terrance Franklin writes about nutrition and survival on a variety of sites on the web. For more information on doomsday preppers, be sure to check out here. And for even deeper reading, follow the link at http://doomsdaypreppers.hubpages.com/hub/doomsdayprepper