Surviving Collapse

As major environmental crises loom, Christina Ergas makes the argument in Surviving Collapse that one possible way forward is a radical sustainable development that turns the focus from monetary gain to social and ecological regeneration and transformation. Employing qualitative and cross-national comparative methods, Ergas examines two alternative, community-scale, socioecological models of development: the first is a grassroots urban ecovillage in the Pacific Northwest, United States, while the second is a government-subsidized, but cooperatively run, urban farm in Havana, Cuba. While neither are panaceas, they prioritize social and ecological efficiency and subsume economic rationality towards those ends. Featuring cases that not only allow us to synthesize their strengths but evaluate their weaknesses, Surviving Collapse reveals a multitude of varied paths toward reaching radical urban sustainability and empowers us all to imagine, and possibly build, more resilient futures.

A user’s guide to economic, political, social and cultural collapse. In the face of political impotence, resource depletion, and catastrophic climate change, many of us have become reconciled to an uncertain future. However, popular perception of how this future might actually unfold varies wildly from "a severe and prolonged recession," to James Howard Kunstler's "long emergency," to the complete breakdown of civilization. In The Five Stages of Collapse , Dmitry Orlov posits a taxonomy of collapse, offering a surprisingly optimistic perspective on surviving the sweeping changes of the day with health and sanity intact. Arguing that it is during periods of disruption and extreme uncertainty that broad cultural change becomes possible, Orlov steers the reader through the challenges of financial, commercial, and political collapse. He suggests that if the first three stages are met with the appropriate responses, further breakdown may be arrested before the extremes of social and cultural collapse are reached. Drawing on a detailed examination of post-collapse societies, including the Somali people of Africa, the Pashtuns of Afghanistan, the Roma of Central and Eastern Europe, and even the Russian mafia, The Five Stages of Collapse describes successful adaptations in areas such as finance, self-governance, and social and cultural organization. These fascinating case studies provide a unique perspective on the characteristics that determine highly resilient communities. Shot through with Orlov's trademark dark humor, this is an invaluable toolkit for creating workable post-collapse solutions. Dmitry Orlov was born in Leningrad, Russia, and immigrated to the United States. He is the author of Reinventing Collapse and maintains the phenomenally popular blog Club Orlov.

The Modern Survival Manual is based on first hand experience of the 2001 Economic Collapse in Argentina. In it you will find a variety of subjects that the author considers essential if a person wants to be prepared for tougher times: -How to prepare your family, yourself, your home and your vehicle -How to prepare your finances so that you don't suffer what millions in my country went through -How to prepare your supplies for food shortages and power failures -How to correctly fight with a chair, gun, knife, pen or choke with your bare hands if required -Most important, how to reach a good awareness level so that you can avoid having to do all that These are just a few examples of what you will find in this book. It's about Attitude, and being a more capable person and get the politically correct wimp out of your system completely.

Captain Kate Holloway moved her family to New York to start over, and break the barriers that her work had created. But when an EMP brings New York to its knees, Kate must fight to survive amid the terror descending upon the city and rescue her family.

As environmental crises loom, 'Surviving Collapse' makes an argument for radical changes in the ways in which people live to avoid a dystopian future. To foster readers' imagination, Christina Ergas reveals real utopian stories that counter climate apocalypse narratives. Two eco-communities offer examples of alternative futures with small environmental footprints and more egalitarian social practices. They model solutions to the interconnected problems of rising social inequalities and environmental degradation. Each case engages in community-oriented practices, direct democracy, and ecological agricultural forms that attend to whole ecosystems. These practitioners recognize the value of whole biotic communities, human and nonhuman, and practice reciprocity.

'Patriots' is a man's action-adventure novel set in the near future, as America is torn-by a full scale socio-economic collapse.

From the author of Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive is a visionary study of the mysterious downfall of past civilizations. Now in a revised edition with a new afterword, Jared Diamond's Collapse uncovers the secret behind why some societies flourish, while others founder - and what this means for our future. What happened to the people who made the forlorn long-abandoned statues of Easter Island? What happened to the architects of the crumbling Maya pyramids? Will we go the same way, our skyscrapers one day standing derelict and overgrown like the temples at Angkor Wat? Bringing together new evidence from a startling range of sources and piecing together the myriad influences, from climate to culture, that make societies self-destruct, Jared Diamond's Collapse also shows how - unlike our ancestors - we can benefit from our knowledge of the past and learn to be survivors. 'A grand sweep from a master storyteller of the human race' - Daily Mail 'Riveting, superb, terrifying' - Observer 'Gripping ... the book fulfils its huge ambition, and Diamond is the only man who could have written it' - Economis 'This book shines like all Diamond's work' - Sunday Times

"A valuable cram course in how to survive the rest of your life." - James Howard Kunstler. Author of The Long Emergency, Too Much Magic, The Geography of Nowhere, and The World Made By Hand For billions of people, the ongoing economic crisis has marked the end of the world as we know it. The "American Dream" (and ones like it) of a guaranteed job, a home, and a pension, has given way to the nightmare of unemployment, unpayable debt, depression, and uncertainty. In Survive The Economic Collapse, Piero San Giorgio looks behind the headlines and sound bites and demonstrates that today's economic crisis is no temporary "downturn," nor is it simply the result of bad policies. The crisis is the beginning of the end of a global paradigm when expectations of endless economic growth and progress crash up against the reality of scarcity and limited resources. The implications of the collapse cannot be ignored: a steep decline in living standards due to the evaporation of easy credit; a new political landscape that might inspire nationalism, geopolitical reshuffling, and wars over resources; and, potentially, a reduction in global population. No mere doom-sayer, San Giorgio explains not just how to understand the crisis but overcome it to foster a resilient community, stay healthy, and become self-sufficient and productive in the "interesting times" that lie ahead. Packed with tactical information and resources, Survive is nothing less than a field manual for the apocalypse. This edition has been thoroughly reedited and includes an extensive postscript detailing global developments in the past decade.