Could You Survive a Carrington Event?

[The_Doc_Man]

For one viewpoint of this situation, see the novel "Earth Abides." There is also a TV series based on this work.

Earth Abides - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

As civilization decays because nobody can maintain the infrastructure, people must revert to a more primitive hunter/gatherer way of life. I've read it a long time ago. It was an example of how civilization dies, not with a bang but a whimper.

 

[Pat Hartman]

This sounds like a terrible and scary end, Cotswold

But it is realistic. Anything that shuts down our electric grid for more than a few days, even if it destroys nothing else will put us into a death spiral. Once the water treatment plants start shutting down, the average person will have trouble surviving. You can go a few weeks without food or live on short rations for months but without potable water, your lifespan will be measured in days. Food will already have been a problem and heat if it happened during the winter. Even if you have a fireplace, do you have enough wood to burn to keep warm? Can you acquire more? Yes, if you can manage to survive the first year, you can rebuild but staying alive that long will be impossible for most people who live in cities. People who live on farms or out in the woods where they have access to springs for water and food sources and fuel sources have the best chance of survival.

 

[Isaac]

Whenever I think of extremely miserable conditions such as post-acopalyptic mass suffering, painful terminal diseases, or captivation with torture, it always brings me back to my questioning of what is my view on suicide. Although I am a devoutly believing Christian, yet - the party line on suicide (that it's always wrong and no different than murder) bugs me a lot. Just doesn't sit right with me. Doesn't seem right.
Seems more to me that God would be very understanding of one's decision to end one's life for some drastic reason or another. This puts me very much at odds with my fellow believers, and in fact, many secular people.

A part of me just says this is a no-brainer - if your helicopter is downed in hostile Syrian territory and you see them closing in on you, and you decide this is what's best for you, (a hard decision that I would respect the outcome of), then by all means make sure you're right with God and put a bullet in your brain. If you're screaming in pain in disease and nobody can do anything for you and you may have substantial time left, then ...
That's just a part of me, though. Another part respects the traditional doctrine on this matter and feels that I should be pausing before ever recommending such a thing. The two parts are in conflict.