How long would it take for society to crumble if....

[hedders]

We lost our supply of oil/petrol for some reason?

First there would be panic buying, after a week most publicly owned vehicles would have ground to a halt or had the petrol stolen.

Deliveries of food etc would stop after how long?
Public transport would seize up when?
How long before we had no electricity/gas in out homes

How long after that would it be total mayhem?

Or what about if our entire water supply became contanimated?

I reckon it would be a few days before people were killing each other to see if they had and bottled water...


cheery thoughts eh?



>> Edited by hedders on Wednesday 11th January 19:47

[mybrainhurts]

Don't worry.....the Greens have a plan.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

[AJLintern]

Why was it in Mad Max that they didn't drive round in hyper efficient vehicles to save the precious fuel? Not that I'm complaining

[hedders]

Yes yes yes...

But i wouldn't actually mind some informed responses too.

I am sure some of the Bib here have a good idea of how a scenario such as this would be handled and what would be expected to happen etc?

What would the rought timeline be between no fuel, or no water etc, and the breakdown of our little island society?

I can't see how it would be more than a week or so after losing our water supply, maybe a few weeks after losing oil?

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Are you always this cheerful?

[carsarecool]

Judging by the fiasco a couple of years ago with the fuel shortages, I'd say things would grind to a halt in about a week!

[bga]

The department for work & pensions service works a reckoning on 72 hours of no benefits paid before there is mass civil unrest.

I imagine it would be a similar timescale before things started to get lairy

[RobDickinson]

AJLintern said:

Why was it in Mad Max that they didn't drive round in hyper efficient vehicles to save the precious fuel? Not that I'm complaining

Wasnt the inteceptor 'the last of the v8's'? Sugesting they'd all moved to v10's befoer it got popular.

If oil ran out tomorrow the UK would be stuffed.

[hedders]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Are you always this cheerful?

Not always, I am feeling fairly good tonight

[m1spw]

I'd give it 10 minutes for riots to start in the streets, about half an hour for the whole society to break down.

Probably also while Blair used up the last of the fuel flying over to his buddies ranch in the US...

[hedders]

los angeles said:

hedders said: If we lost our supply of oil/petrol for some reason? You mean you don't think the phoney war in Iraq has anything to do with oil?

No, whatever my thoughts on that subject this is not a political question.

Lets say it was some kind of natural disaster that created the problem.

General opinion seems to be a few days

[eccles]

i rekon the price on sinclair C5's would go up pretty quickly, and all the steam engine boys would suddenly be seen in a new light!

[mutt k]

There is generally reckoned to be no more than 2 or 3 days supply of food in the shops. If no deliveries were possible, then there is your timeline.