1) Currency Crash.
In 2015 the country of Zimbabwe started printing out a 100 trillion dollar Zimbabwe banknote, a piece of paper that had a value of about 40 US cents. A countries currency becoming almost worthless is nothing new, with probably the most famous example being 1920’s Germany were people would take their worthless currency to places in wheelbarrows, with the average price of a loaf of bread in November of 1923 being around 200,000,000,000 marks.
Seeing these things happen in other countries makes people believe its just something happening elsewhere and it wont affect them, quickly forgetting about it and moving on. But what would you do if you went to the shops at the weekend only to find that everything is 10 times the cost and people are also panic buying, leaving the shelves almost bare. In the situation of a financial crash it would take a while for things to stabilise again, but at least during that time you’ll have a well prepped pantry full of preservable food, right?
2) Natural disasters
No country on earth is free from natural disasters, though some have it allot worse than others. Here in the UK we are free of tornadoes and if we have a minor earthquake that only a few people could feel it makes front page news. This however doesn’t mean that we are safe from nature as each year there’s always a region of the country that gets badly flooded and families are trapped in their homes for a while.
Normally when this happens the response is usually pretty good and they get people out there quite fast, but every now and then someone is trapped for much longer than they are prepared for, and its not unheard of for people in remote areas to be snowed in for days until someone can reach them. If you are stuck in a house for whatever reason do you enough food to last everyone for a week?
3) Displacement
If for some reason you are forced to leave your home suddenly, natural disaster, war, Cat-led pet invasion etc.. Then you may be on the run for a while. In other parts of the world people are forced on a regular basis to move long distances or live in a temporary home for various reasons, normally due to war, but it also applies to natural disasters.
There are still areas in the US that are awaiting repairs from tornado’s that happened years ago, and it was less than 100 years ago that the most devastating tornado the country has ever seen passed by, tearing apart areas of 3 states across a 219 mile long line of destruction. No matter which country you live in, you could be forced to find your own safe drinking water or be put in a shelter camp for a few days before food gets sorted out. Would you know how to provide safe drinking water and something to eat for your family should you be forced to quickly relocate somewhere?
4) Society Breakdown
Something else that people don’t think will affect them, with riots and rebellions happening in some far off country you’ve never heard of before, people think it cant happen to them in their nice cosy 1st world country. Well i assure you it most certainly can, but maybe not on the level you’re imagining.
With visions of a post apocalyptic world aside, clashes between various factions and government bodies happen all to often, and if the local stores have been raided and the people who did it are still around then you can guarantee they wont be re-stocked any time soon. Civil unrest can cut off local areas from their normal services, and when this happens people have the choice to travel much further to get the things they need or wait it out. There are many reasons your local supermarket may be closed or out of stock, maybe animal rights protesters shut down a local slaughterhouse or a rally turned bad and the only road into town had been closed. There’s a ton of reasons you may be trapped somewhere, and if it happens to you then you’re going to have to rely on your skills to keep your family safe and fed.
5) You may get lost
Even though this is the most obvious reason to practise your bushcraft skills it also happens to be the most likely to happen to you. There is more chance you’ll get lost than any of the other situations happening, even if you live in a small and relatively safe country.
Everyone goes on holiday and visits people, or perhaps work wants you to attend something in a location your not familiar with. Even in small countries like the UK people often get stranded on some remote Welsh or Scottish road with the mountains blocking their phone signal. Even though the chance of you getting lost may be small its still the most probable, with the best case situation being you have a food and water supply in your vehicle and known exactly how to call for help and remain safe, so do you?
For a great range of information to sharpen your bushcraft skills I’d like to recommend Muddy Faces, these guys provide information on anything to do with bushcraft you can think of making it a great all in one place to prepare for the worst.