Is the world ready for a pandemic?

The newspaper ElPais.com has published a series of reports on an impending avian flu (H5N1 virus) pandemic, written by the award-winning journalist Simon Parkin. Simon has studied the past, present, and future of this flu by speaking with epidemiologists who are carrying out the most innovative investigations, the farmers who are at the forefront of the problem, and the politicians whose policies are trying to stop (and prevent) it. This series consists of five reports (in Spanish) published throughout November.

  1. The beginning: The Outbreak of the Bird Flu in Hong Kong, 1997 > Read here
  2. Premonition: How the Bird Flu shaped the Great War > Read here
  3. Birds on the fly: The return of the Bird Flu > Read here
  4. Evolution: How a virus becomes a threat > Read here
  5. Outbreak: Our next global pandemic > Read here
Picture of matches

The thing about viruses is that they can mutate in the blink of an eye. The H5 and H7 virus could easily find a way to propagate to humans in different ways and having a small 2% death rate only could be disastrous.

"If anyone had to estimate the odds on which apocalyptic event is most likely to eliminate the human race, a pandemic would be more likely than any nuclear attack, robot lift or asteroid. Epidemiologists and health professionals around the world agree: despite the efforts of governments and agencies to prepare for the worst, the world is not prepared for a worldwide outbreak of a deadly contagious disease. In February 2017, Bill Gates warned that, unless drastic action is taken soon, a pathogen that is airborne and moves quickly "could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year."
Simon Parkin in the "Outbreak: Our next global pandemic" report

Annual Report on Global Risks 2018

"It’s crucial to assess which risks can be dismissed firmly as science fiction, and which could conceivably become real"
- GCF CEO

Global Challenges Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Switzerland, founded in 2012, which aim is to contribute to reducing the main global problems and risks that threaten humanity. They invite thinkers from all over the world to send in proposals on how to address global challenges, giving priority to the five greatest and most urgent risks:

  1. Climate change
  2. Other large-scale environmental damage
  3. Politically motivated violence
  4. Extreme poverty
  5. Population growth

In the 2018 Annual Report (which you can read here), the GCF analyses the likelihood of a variety of situations, such as: weapons of mass destruction, catastrophic climate change, ecological collapse, pandemics, asteroid impact, supervolcanic eruption, solar geoengineering and artificial intelligence, and then they consider the governance of such scenarios.

Report picture 1
Nuclear arsenals from Russia, USA and the world from 1945 until today
Report picture 2
Risk factors to determine the potential danger of an outbreak

Ranking of the 20 best apocalyptic movies of all times

Who doesn’t like to snuggle up on the couch with a blanket, on a rainy day, and watch the world end? SurvivalHacks wants to bring you this ranking of the best disaster, apocalyptic & post-apocalyptic movies by IMDb to inspire your prepping even more:

Movie cover of Gravity
  1. Wall·e (2008)
  2. Blade Runner (1982)
  3. 12 Monkeys (1995)
  4. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
  5. Planet of Apes (1968)
  6. Children of men (2006)
  7. Gravity (2013)
  8. 28 days later (2002)
  9. Apolo 13 (1995)
  10. Mad Max 2 (1981)
  11. The impossible (2012)
  12. The Abyss (1989)
  13. Take Shelter (2011)
  14. Dawn of the Dead (2004)
  15. The Road (2009)
  16. The Mist (2007)
  17. 1997: Escape from New York (1981)
  18. I am Legend (2007)
  19. 1984 (1984)
  20. Snowpiercer (2013)