Just watched The Road, got me thinking about Long term survival without sun

**Movie Spoilers if you care**
The movie is based on a Pulitzer prize winning book of same name. Takes places about 10 years (i believe) after an unnamed catastrophic disaster. it's important to note that this disaster is not just something vain like the dollar collapsing or some economic turmoil.

This disaster caused a forever gray sky with no sun EVER, causing all plants and animals including virtually all insect to die off. The temperature kept getting colder, there where frequent earth quakes maybe twice a week.(i think logically it was a meteor strike on land other side of planet). There was still plenty of water but it needed to be filtered and boiled, no big deal.

So what do you do? There is no sun so cant use solar power for electricity, no sun for green houses and gardens. Food stock I dont care who you are 99.99% will run out after 7 years. This was 10 years after the event. Also remember there are other desperate survivors willing to do anything and I mean anything to survive, that you have to contend with.

So what kind of sustainable plan is there?

What would be the point of living, seriously? If you believe in some sort of life after death or spiritual dimension or soul living on or whatever what's the point? Bullet in the head is what I would do. The sooner the better!

reply to post by Desolate Cancer


I heard about this film. Is it in the theaters or did you watch it on the net, sounds interesting, but I agree what would be the point of living really? What did the people in the film eat? Did they just loot food supplies?

reply to post by Zosynspiracy


I understand your point of view, and many would take that route. But I for one would hold out hope on the sky clearing and the sun shining again allowing the seeds to grow once more. But what are some methods of survival and sustenance that didn't involve cannibalism to make it to that point?

Because if there inst one then the only survivors would be cannibals, but even cannibalism inst sustainable. I am sure we can figure out some ways to survive sustainably.

Please note when I say sustainably I dont mean the "green" earth friendly term, but rather a way that is lasting.

reply to post by JohnnyR


It came out in theaters this past week. Some searched for any food they could find others/many resorted to cannibalism.

hey at least the beer would stay cold.



/sarcasm off/ Seriously there would be no point in going on.

new technologies would emerge, and hopefully people would endure until the natural means of the planert would restore some semblance of balance.

personally, i would eat people. hey, you would too me thinks...

reply to post by wx4caster


I dont see why or how new technologies would develop. I mean we lose much of our capabilities in both manufacturing and knowledge, I see no reason as to how these techs would emerge.

What is your thinking on that?

because we as humans are adapting creatures. if we want electricity bad enough, and we understand how it works, we will find ways to create it in the most dire circumstances. our efforts will result in new discoveries of seperate never before seen properties of pretty much everything because we are examining them under circumstances we have never been forced to before. and from that new technologies to cope with new problems requiring new solutions, resulting in further discoveries and so on.

that or an alien will land and fix it all for us

reply to post by wx4caster


Well I like your survival attitude. Perhaps you are right, in us figuring out new methods of survival. But I am hoping for us to examine some options we have right now right here.

Maybe wind turbine that power a highly efficient hydroponic system? Or using the abundant wood to create a turbine? I dont know.

reply to post by Desolate Cancer


I wanna see this movie so bad!!
looks great.

anyways your wind turbine idea is great. I also think people would start drilling towards the earth's core to utilize that energy somehow. I mean, it becomes feasible when there aren't any other options!!
I think biodomes would be built, creating miniature replicas of the most bountiful parts of earth that we are able to create in controlled environments.
If that did happen, scientific knowledge would be a must to survive, and with such a high percentage of people knowing as much as they're able to, scientific advances in specific fields like "how to save the earth" would increase.
Again, lookin' forward to this movie it was pushed back a couple of times and i kinda forgot about it

It sounds exactly like living in Cleveland. I would prefer death to that!

Sounds like a sunny day in England if you ask me, grey all the time, no sunlight, miserable people, hardly any wildlife ( unless you count bloody #ehawking seagulls?).
People would adapt to the new situation, I would , you can grow anything anywhere these days, you don't need solar light to grow plants.
You can use wind, or generators of the magnetic type, or even rechargable batteries powered by cycling people?
Water boiled and processed yes, urine can be processed as well, all you'd have to get over is the fact your drinking either your own or worse , someone elses wee.
Manufacturing would probably take on a new path, money would disappear bartering would prevail, if you don't fight everyday then your not human, as for the people saying " I'd kill myself" why wait?

I agree with the latest posts.
Have some faith in man.
The survivors would find ways to survive, the rest wouldn't.
Animals like chickens can be raised for food easily also!

reply to post by dodadoom


I agree that it was refreshing ot see people who have a strong desire to survive, as opposed to want to end it all because things are looking their grimmest.

I do not think however that chickens would be feasible to raise after a few years of NO sun. I am not talking about how to survive a few years after there has been no sunlight, but rather a decade or more.

Would mold and fungi be the best bet? I just think that unless had some source of continuous power supply that can power sun lamps agriculture as we know it would be impossible. But like I mentioned maybe we would develop nutritionally valuable mold or fungi that grow in caves or underground with no sun now, that might provide the sustenance we need.

Dos anyone know of any such things?

Well you dont need the sun to power a nuclear reactor, so power would be no problem and i suppose you could include gas, oil and coal fired power stations as well. So a bio-sphere or other artificial 'world' would be no problem.

hello, hydroelectric would be my bet for survival, probably last longer than the others, although I suppose oil, gas, and coal could be converted to burn animals,trees, etc, with the meat taken off of the animal carcases first, natural gas from human and animal waste is another way to obtain fuel, (Methane) and the solid by product is a very good growing medium, humans will survive, and prosper.

I could build a green house next to a river and use a water wheel to turn a gen head for electricity. With electricity I could run full spectrum lights to grow food. Then when people came to try and steal my food I would have fresh meat....just kidding about the meat......maybe.

Originally posted by mwood
I could build a green house next to a river and use a water wheel to turn a gen head for electricity. With electricity I could run full spectrum lights to grow food. Then when people came to try and steal my food I would have fresh meat....just kidding about the meat......maybe.

That is great thinking, I love it. It is something that a small group of people can do together, not requiring huge infrastructure like tidal power or nuclear.

In any disaster it is the communities who have best chance of meaningful survival, to be a loner makes you vulnerable. So best thing to do is find similarly decent people to group with asap.

Originally posted by Desolate Cancer


In any disaster it is the communities who have best chance of meaningful survival, to be a loner makes you vulnerable. So best thing to do is find similarly decent people to group with asap.

I read the book, and look forward to the movie that was pushed back from the original release date because 2012 came out the same week.

I guess they figure the public can only take One disaster movie at a time.

Anyway, in the book there are two types of communities that arise. The one that's given the most room in the plot are the cannibals. There are hunter cannibals. There are trapper cannibals. There are even baby-eating cannibals (a mother is actually a member of this group). Yeah, its a pretty brutal read.

The other groups are those that form safe havens.

Of course, how these groups survive isn't nearly as interesting as the other group, but much of the land, albiet devestated, remains strewn with cashes of food-stores.