By Kathryn Chatman

Rochester High School offers a course called Wilderness Survival to grades 11 and 12. However, if there ever was a time where survival skills were needed, most people wouldn’t know what to do and would die. Society needs to be ready for an apocalyptic event.

Certain apocalyptic events are extremely likely to happen. In an interview with survival expert Dan Martin, he said that on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most likely to happen, events such as global pandemic and social and economic collapse would be a 9 or 10. Man-made disasters such as nuclear bombs are a definite 10, because of mistakes humans may make. Because of this likeliness, and the cluelessness of most of society on this topic, the survival of humanity would be in jeopardy.

Pandemics have been shown to pose a serious threat in the past. In the late 1340’s, the Bubonic Plague, also known as “Black Death,” resulted in the death of more than 75 million people in Europe. The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 killed more people than World War I. If another pandemic were to occur, it may wipe out as much, or even more, of the human population than other pandemics did in the past.

Society needs to prepare for an apocalypse so that the human race doesn’t die out. Japan’s population has been decreasing rapidly since 2004. It is estimated that by 2060, the population of Japan will have dropped from 127 million to 87 million people. India’s birth rate has dropped from 6 live births per woman in 1960, to 2.1 births in 2009. Populations are already starting to fall, and if many people were to die in an apocalypse, the human race may cease to exist anymore.

Many people believe that if an apocalyptic event were to happen, it wouldn’t be serious or threatening to society. However, disease, warfare, and natural disasters that occurred in the past proved to pose a huge threat on humanity. People also believe that an apocalypse will not ever happen. But there are many factors currently found in society that could lead to the collapse of humanity. There is constantly speculation that a third World War could occur, global warming is a big issue and there are countless diseases that could lead to a pandemic.

People need to prepare for an apocalypse. This may not mean gathering friends and family, buying several rifles and moving into a steel bunker. All it takes to survive is saving up extra cans of food, purchasing a weapon or two, and learning basic, necessary survival skills. If everyone were to do this the human race may actually stand a chance during the apocalypse.