Community emergency preparedness and cooperation is critical when dealing with potential disasters. Imagine going through a zombie apocalypse; though it may seem like a funny example, it provides a relatable framework for community based disaster prepareness in events like climate change or pandemics. By imagining how you would survive a zombie apocalypse together, you can explore practical strategies for managing risks and build a sense of community.
Since our earliest beginnings, humans have been dealing with apocalyptic situations by working together to manage risk and recover from disasters. So how can we leverage our basic abilities for dealing with the apocalypse in the face of the increasingly uncertain future that we are all facing? Or - as I like to put it - how can we work together to survive a zombie apocalypse?
You might think it’s silly to talk about a zombie apocalypse when we’re dealing with so many real threats in the world - from climate change to increasing frequencies of pandemics to nuclear events. But the fact is, the zombie apocalypse is an awesome stand-in for the many kinds of catastrophes that we could face in the future. It’s a fun way to do what’s called ‘All Hazard Preparation’ which is essentially general purpose preparing for emergencies - it’s having that shelter-in-place kit, go bag, and deep pantry that can help you get through many kinds of emergencies, whether they involve zombies scratching on your screen door or not.
Zombie apocalypse stories also give us a window into thinking and talking about how we would survive a zombie apocalypse together. The zombie apocalypse makes preparing for emergencies and disasters more approachable - and so much more fun than the typical approach to disaster preparedness which somehow manages to be both scary and boring at the same time.
Zombie apocalypse stories - whether they are TV shows, movies, or just our own half-joking stories we tell ourselves and our friends about how we would band together to survive the zombie apocalypse - can provide a really fun way for us to engage in all the things we actually need to do to manage risk both individually and collectively. None of us want to face the zombie apocalypse alone - and these stories are a way of bringing us together.
Not only for the fun of telling them, hearing them, and talking about them, but to motivate us to do the work that comes after we engage our collective imagination in these fictional tales of general-purpose all-hazard zombie apocalypse threats.
So join me and let’s build our zombie apocalypse teams, shore up our risk management strategies, and face this uncertain future together. Because if we can take on the zombie apocalypse, we can handle just about anything.