If an entire continent is planning ahead for emergencies, why aren't we?

 

It's not just preppers who are concerned about future events, and try to be ready for them.  Bloomberg reports:

... over two days in central Brussels last month, some 60 European Union and government officials, food security experts, industry representatives and a few journalists gathered to confront the possibility of something barely on the radar a few years ago: a full-blown food crisis.

. . .

To watch one of the best-fed regions in the world stress test its food system underscores a growing level of alarm among governments over securing supplies for their populations. In the space of four years, multiple shocks have shaken up the way food is grown, distributed and consumed.

The coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and disruptions on key shipping routes have disturbed supply chains and sent prices soaring. Erratic and extreme weather now regularly disturbs farming. Against that backdrop, officials are no longer asking when a food crisis may arrive, but rather how many crises they can deal with at once.

. . .

In truth, few governments in Europe are prepared for managing future food crises, according to Chris Hegadorn, a retired US diplomat who co-organized the workshop.

“We’ve been living in crisis for the last three years,” said Hegadorn, adjunct professor of global food politics at Sciences Po in Paris. “There's a lot more to be done on every level. Crises are only going to come faster and harder.”

There's more at the link.  Worthwhile reading.

I'd classify myself as a "prepper" rather than a "survivalist".  The latter term conjures up images of people hunkered down in muddy trenches in a post-nuclear-war landscape, rifles in hand, determined to hold out against the ravening hordes.  I don't think that's very likely;  indeed, if it comes to a nuclear exchange of that magnitude, I suspect those who die in the explosions will be rather better off than those who don't!  Nevertheless, there are those who use the terms interchangeably.  Commander Zero has some words of wisdom for what they imply.

Survivalism is giving yourself as much advantage as possible for when something big and bad happens. If we were to sum up the nature of survivalism in one word, one idea, it would be resilience. For most anticipated unfortunate events we can’t be 100% proofed against them..a lot of that stuff is out of our control. But, while we can’t control what happens to us, we can control our response to it.

. . .

Here’s a truth that you can absolutely bank on: before the big EOTWAWKI [End Of The World As We Know It] happens you will face many smaller, personal ones. You may be in one right now. What do they look like? Job loss, divorce, medical emergency, foreclosure, busted transmissions, leaky water heaters, tennis-ball-swallowing dogs, vulnerable loved ones, home invasions, unexpected expenses, 2am phone calls, and a thousand other crises that mean nothing to everyone else but are paramount to you because they are happening to you.

But if you’re a bit prepared for those events…youve increased your resilience against them…then, guess what, they aren’t EOTWAWKI events. They’re learning experiences. Or pains in the ass. Or simply and only…inconveniences. And I will happily trade EOTWAWKI for an inconvenience all day long.

So, moral of the story here – being a survivalist is an every day affair.

Again, more at the link, and well worth reading in full.

In so many words, that's what the European conference was all about, albeit from a governmental rather than an individual perspective.  Participants were figuring out scenarios for the future, ranging from less to more likely, and working out ways in which they (or, rather, European governments and agencies) could be better prepared to respond to any of them that might happen.  We should be doing the same thing with our own families:  working out how we might best cope with scenarios such as Commander Zero outlines, and putting in place the supplies and plans we'll need to do so if necessary.  We're trying to make ourselves as resilient as possible.

If anyone doubts whether that's necessary, ask them why members of the European Union - the biggest economic union of nations in the entire world - are worrying about it.  If they are, from their continent-wide perspective, then we should be too, because we'll be affected by it sooner and harder.  It's always the "little people" who are first to get the short end of the stick in a crisis.

Peter