Posts Tagged ‘air pollution’

Man-made disasters are usually the result of things going wrong in our complex technological society. They include: blackouts, hazardous material spills, air pollution, house fires, radiation leaks, food or water contamination, and industrial chemical releases. In the best case, they simply rob us of our modern luxuries for a brief time. In the worst case, they impact the entire ecosystem in which we live. A profound example of a man-made calamity is the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident that, according to the World Health Organization, exposed six million people to dangerous levels of radiation and left a portion of our planet nearly uninhabitable.

This website is dedicated to helping people to become better prepared. It has no advertisements and serves no political agenda. Neither does it attempt to scare you, since I firmly believe that preparing should be motivated out of love rather than fear. It lays out a case for the need to be prepared. The information presented here is directly from my book, the Handbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness for the Family, 3rd Edition.

To help get everyone on the same page, as well as illustrate the point of how merciless our world can be, let’s start by defining the word “disaster.” One succinct yet informative definition is given below.

disaster – a calamitous event, especially one occurring suddenly and causing great loss of life, damage, or hardship, such as a flood, airplane crash, or business failure.

The key words here are calamitous event, suddenly, great loss of life, damage, and hardship. None of which sound appealing, but particularly distressing when put together in a single sentence! When described in this way, it becomes clear why we are interested in mitigating the hardship caused by such a crisis.

Why bother preparing?

Why bother preparing? The short answer is that the world is not as safe as we would like to think. It is a chaotic system with limitless inputs and limitless outputs. Anything can happen. If you can remember those three simple words, it might help you along your way. Put them in your head and don’t let them out. When someone asks you why you’re going to such trouble to prepare for darker days, just tell them “anything can happen.”

Life is wholly unpredictable. Ninety-nine percent of the time everything works great. The world spins like a top, the skies are clear, and your refrigerator is full of milk and cheese. But know with certainty that the world is a dangerous place. Storms rage, fires burn, and enemies attack. No one is ever completely safe. Not you. Not your children. Not the richest man alive. We all live as part of a very complex ecosystem that, at its core, is unpredictable and willing to kill us without remorse or pause.

Are you Prepared?

This website contains useful information, including a discussion of our basic needs that must be met in any disaster, a listing of the cornerstones to creating an effective preparedness plan, a checklist for an emergency auto kit, and a listing of relevant websites. It also allows you to purchase my books at the lowest price.