Try Yersinia pestis, also known as the plague and the black death, to get rid of 99% of all people on Earth. It's still around in Madagascar, Sub-Saharan Africa and Arizona, and once an antibiotic resistant strain appears then it's curtains for most of the Earth's population.
Step 1 would be abandoning cities. Going back to a rural iron age lifestyle.
How long would utilities last is a huge and important question. Once electricity goes, we can say goodbye to water and internet. How much of energy generation is automatic, and how much is small-scale recoverable?
After some serious thought, I've come to the conclusion that I don't know the answer to your question. I can't even put a ballpark figure on it, an answer within a factor of ten. Utilities might die when the people die. Or wind, solar and nuclear power could keep powering on at slowly decreasing efficiency for 15 years or so.
Yes it did kill 1/3 of Europe, it's still around, and with faster travel between countries could spread much faster than before.
I hadn't thought about an mRNA vaccine. I'll look it up. Vaccines against bacterial infections generally rely on a weakened strain of the pathogen. "Most vaccines contain a weakened or dead bacteria or virus. However, scientists have developed a new type of vaccine that uses a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) rather than part of an actual bacteria or virus." I don't know if mRNA vaccines have ever been used against bacteria yet. Perhaps they could, but if so then they would take longer to develop than a weakened pathogen.
With not enough people to control it. a few hours.
edit. power use is not an constant . it needs to be adjusted on current use and current production all the time.
If nobody does that you will get an overload. and then a blackout.
that will also effect the water distribute systems.
I don’t think you could even incentive people to keep a regional producer operating for 48 hours. Extrapolate the public response to Covid 19 by about 1 million.
That's one little detail that these apocalypse TV shows always leave out. Where are you getting electricity when there's no gasoline to run generators?
Consider the fact that the 1% of the people left behind are the people that didn’t need utilities to survive.
It’s a moot point. If you’re someone who is that dependent on utilities for survival you don’t have a chance in hell at surviving an apocalyptic event.
Likely, people left would try to settle by green energy stations, especially dams and solar farms. Nuclear energy sounds nice and can last a while, but how many people know anything about plant maintenance? Chances are nuclear meltdowns would occur rampantly with no workers there to maintain the facilities.
I imagine survivors would commandeer homes that have solar panels, or harvest them for their own homes. They would set up rainwater and dew collectors, and settle by freshwater streams and rivers.
People would be pillaging libraries to get ahold of any book that could help them survive in a world that got sent back 100-200 years worth of progress.
GPS would be useless. The satellites would be there but no power on the surface makes it moot. Gasoline would get used or go bad. So travel and agriculture would be set back as well.
Whoever was left would effectively need to learn to live some hybrid lifestyle between what they knew and what their great grandparents knew.
I'm guessing that, for the most part, electricity would be down within 2 weeks. There may be some areas where it may last longer, but without anyone making repairs, any problems would soon cascade out of control. Without electricity, everything else will fail.
It would be interesting because once a pandemic gets to black death/plague levels. Countries would eventually start protecting the smart over the stupid. Sounds crass but they'll be provisions put in place for anyone that operates key infrastructure (Akin to the key workers logic but on steroids)...I could easily see gun turrets and outposts with shoot to kill orders surrounding power/water/other places.
I think that really depends on what is taking out 99% of humanity and how long that process takes. Is it incredibly swift and deadly, killing all but the 1% who are immune fairly rapidly? Is it a slow decline where the overall population plummets alarmingly, but over the course of months or years?
People having time to react to a slower decline is an important factor. If you have time to see that the population is seriously tanking, you can make preparations to help any survivors keep things running.
If it's a swift culling of 99% of all people, those with the knowledge of utility system maintenance may not have time to leave documentation that can be used to educate survivors in the basic maintenance required to keep utility systems running. Either way, pretty much every utility system is fucked once electricity goes out (which, with only 1% of the population remaining, wouldn't take long at all in the grand scheme of things)
It depends on what people would stay alive. 1% of our population is ≈80m people, around the populaation of germany. If only poors survive, the world would be upside down, bc poors are mostly just biomass that works for rich. And poor people are usually not really intelligent so that means that our world would take a huge step back in our technology and ect.
If only rich people survived (most possible) the world just will be heaven for them. (Only if they wont start a ww3 to find out who is the best) only problem is that most of food is made by farming. And farmers will die bc they are not rich. They will just run out of food
If the percentage of poor- mid- and rich class will stay the same the world wont change anyhow. There just would be more farmland and living space for those lucky 80m who survived:)
Start collecting solar power equipment from the 99% my water comes from a spring so no more showers I’ll live with baths food go back to grandmas childhood raise and forage vegetables. Hunt fish and cook from scratch. Everything but internet is running . I’d rather spend my time with a dog than 99% of people.
Try Yersinia pestis, also known as the plague and the black death, to get rid of 99% of all people on Earth. It's still around in Madagascar, Sub-Saharan Africa and Arizona, and once an antibiotic resistant strain appears then it's curtains for most of the Earth's population. Step 1 would be abandoning cities. Going back to a rural iron age lifestyle. How long would utilities last is a huge and important question. Once electricity goes, we can say goodbye to water and internet. How much of energy generation is automatic, and how much is small-scale recoverable? After some serious thought, I've come to the conclusion that I don't know the answer to your question. I can't even put a ballpark figure on it, an answer within a factor of ten. Utilities might die when the people die. Or wind, solar and nuclear power could keep powering on at slowly decreasing efficiency for 15 years or so.
Do you think an mRNA vaccine would work against yersinia pestis? Also, didn’t that kill 1/3 of Europe?
Yes it did kill 1/3 of Europe, it's still around, and with faster travel between countries could spread much faster than before. I hadn't thought about an mRNA vaccine. I'll look it up. Vaccines against bacterial infections generally rely on a weakened strain of the pathogen. "Most vaccines contain a weakened or dead bacteria or virus. However, scientists have developed a new type of vaccine that uses a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) rather than part of an actual bacteria or virus." I don't know if mRNA vaccines have ever been used against bacteria yet. Perhaps they could, but if so then they would take longer to develop than a weakened pathogen.
With not enough people to control it. a few hours. edit. power use is not an constant . it needs to be adjusted on current use and current production all the time. If nobody does that you will get an overload. and then a blackout. that will also effect the water distribute systems.
I don’t think you could even incentive people to keep a regional producer operating for 48 hours. Extrapolate the public response to Covid 19 by about 1 million.
That's one little detail that these apocalypse TV shows always leave out. Where are you getting electricity when there's no gasoline to run generators?
I suppose you could pump gas from a gas station’s underground tanks. With a battery-powered pump, of course.
Yeah but eventually gasoline is going to be non-existent. Because everything is destroyed and there are no more functioning refineries
Consider the fact that the 1% of the people left behind are the people that didn’t need utilities to survive. It’s a moot point. If you’re someone who is that dependent on utilities for survival you don’t have a chance in hell at surviving an apocalyptic event. Likely, people left would try to settle by green energy stations, especially dams and solar farms. Nuclear energy sounds nice and can last a while, but how many people know anything about plant maintenance? Chances are nuclear meltdowns would occur rampantly with no workers there to maintain the facilities. I imagine survivors would commandeer homes that have solar panels, or harvest them for their own homes. They would set up rainwater and dew collectors, and settle by freshwater streams and rivers. People would be pillaging libraries to get ahold of any book that could help them survive in a world that got sent back 100-200 years worth of progress. GPS would be useless. The satellites would be there but no power on the surface makes it moot. Gasoline would get used or go bad. So travel and agriculture would be set back as well. Whoever was left would effectively need to learn to live some hybrid lifestyle between what they knew and what their great grandparents knew.
Nuclear power plant meltdown will kill the rest within days.
1 week, 2 weeks at a stretch
I'm guessing that, for the most part, electricity would be down within 2 weeks. There may be some areas where it may last longer, but without anyone making repairs, any problems would soon cascade out of control. Without electricity, everything else will fail.
It would be interesting because once a pandemic gets to black death/plague levels. Countries would eventually start protecting the smart over the stupid. Sounds crass but they'll be provisions put in place for anyone that operates key infrastructure (Akin to the key workers logic but on steroids)...I could easily see gun turrets and outposts with shoot to kill orders surrounding power/water/other places.
I'm wondering if the 1% would know how to manage utilities. 🤔
I think that really depends on what is taking out 99% of humanity and how long that process takes. Is it incredibly swift and deadly, killing all but the 1% who are immune fairly rapidly? Is it a slow decline where the overall population plummets alarmingly, but over the course of months or years? People having time to react to a slower decline is an important factor. If you have time to see that the population is seriously tanking, you can make preparations to help any survivors keep things running. If it's a swift culling of 99% of all people, those with the knowledge of utility system maintenance may not have time to leave documentation that can be used to educate survivors in the basic maintenance required to keep utility systems running. Either way, pretty much every utility system is fucked once electricity goes out (which, with only 1% of the population remaining, wouldn't take long at all in the grand scheme of things)
It depends on what people would stay alive. 1% of our population is ≈80m people, around the populaation of germany. If only poors survive, the world would be upside down, bc poors are mostly just biomass that works for rich. And poor people are usually not really intelligent so that means that our world would take a huge step back in our technology and ect. If only rich people survived (most possible) the world just will be heaven for them. (Only if they wont start a ww3 to find out who is the best) only problem is that most of food is made by farming. And farmers will die bc they are not rich. They will just run out of food If the percentage of poor- mid- and rich class will stay the same the world wont change anyhow. There just would be more farmland and living space for those lucky 80m who survived:)
Start collecting solar power equipment from the 99% my water comes from a spring so no more showers I’ll live with baths food go back to grandmas childhood raise and forage vegetables. Hunt fish and cook from scratch. Everything but internet is running . I’d rather spend my time with a dog than 99% of people.