Our Uncertain Future Archives

Someone else’s job, someone else’s problem

When Britain’s water and sewage industry was privatised in 1989, the promise was that private investment would result in a massive expansion of the infrastructure to overcome some of the problems with droughts and leakage that had emerged in the 1970s. The real reason for privatisation – based on the actual outcome – was

These preppers have ‘go bags,’ guns and a fear of global disaster. They’re also left-wing

The day after President Donald Trump was elected in 2016, Eric Shonkwiler looked at his hiking bag to figure out what supplies he had. “I began to look at that as a resource for escape, should that need to happen,” he said. He didn’t have the terminology for it at the time, but this

‘People were buying crossbows faster than I’d like’ – how prepping went mainstream in Britain

Once, getting ready for the apocalypse was for the paranoid. Now, in the face of cyber-attacks, climate breakdown and nuclear threats, the UK government recommends it. Should everyone have a survival kit? This is a great time to be a shopkeeper, if that shop is for those worried about the breakdown of civilisation. “It started

‘Blackouts can happen anywhere’: how power systems worldwide can collapse

After Europe’s biggest blackout in over 20 years, experts warn that while such incidents are rare, no grid is infallible Europe’s biggest blackout in over 20 years on the Iberian peninsula unleashed hours of chaos for people in Spain, Portugal and parts of France earlier this week. But in the aftermath it has raised a

Why Well-Off Brits Who Think Collapse Is Coming Still Stay Silent

In one hand, an oat latte. In the other, a phone with social feeds full of doom-scroll posts about the end of the world. Across Britain, a quiet transformation is happening. It’s not the stereotype of survivalist preppers hoarding beans in bunkers. It’s middle-class professionals - scientists, sustainability experts, teachers, doctors, policy analysts and management

Climate crisis on track to destroy capitalism, warns top insurer

Action urgently needed to save the conditions under which markets – and civilisation itself – can operate, says senior Allianz figure The climate crisis is on track to destroy capitalism, a top insurer has warned, with the vast cost of extreme weather impacts leaving the financial sector unable to operate. The world is fast approaching

Root cellars vs. money

The Snow Moon is certainly living up to its name this year. But then, the Wolf Moon was snowy also. In fact, there have been only a handful of days in 2025 when it was not snowing here in central Vermont — and only a couple days above freezing. So the garden is deeply buried

Britain’s food supply is precarious – and Trump’s chaos is spreading. I have a plan. Do you?

I’ve started a stockpile, but that isn’t the answer. If crisis strikes, the government needs a strategy to protect us all I hate to sound like a prepper, but I feel bound to confess that over the past month I’ve been stockpiling food. I think, if you can, you should do the same. I’ve put

Collapse Will Look Nothing Like the Movies

Modern, overdeveloped societies in the West are already in a severe crisis, which will eventually turn into a long global emergency in the decades ahead. A five-century-long era of economic growth, ushered in by colonization and leading to the plundering of natural, mineral and most of all fossil fuel resources, is about to come

Global economy could face 50% loss in GDP between 2070 and 2090 from climate shocks, say actuaries

Exclusive: Report by risk experts says previous assessments ignored severe effects of climate crisis The global economy could face 50% loss in gross domestic product (GDP) between 2070 and 2090 from the catastrophic shocks of climate change unless immediate action by political leaders is taken to decarbonise and restore nature, according to a new report.

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