FIVE WAYS TO REBUILD OUR WORLD
You’re a member of a small community of survivors following a world-changing catastrophe. How can you apply hundreds of years of scientific knowledge to avert a new dark age?
WORDSDR LEWIS DARTNELL
DID YOU KNOW?
Nine countries have nuclear weapons: the UK, US, India, Russia, France, China, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea
The world as we know it has ended. A particularly virulent strain of avian flu has killed most of us before quarantine orders could be implemented. Or maybe a rocky asteroid a few miles across has slammed into our planet, fatally changing the atmospheric conditions. Or tensions between two countries have reached breaking point, and one or both have taken the nuclear option. In the end, it doesn’t really matter how – the world as we know it is over and the crucial question is, what now?
Post-apocalyptic worlds are the stuff of so many novels and films. The immediate aftermath is often portrayed as barren and violent, with roving bands of scavengers hoarding supplies of food and preying ruthlessly on those less well organised or armed. For a period of time, this may not be too far from the truth. Eventually, however, rationality would ultimately prevail, and settlement and rebuilding would begin.
Did you know? Waterborne diseases kill more than 3.4 million people per year
But with the total collapse of the infrastructure that had previously ruled our lives, this would be no easy task. What knowledge would we need to recover as rapidly as possible?