Revolution

Starvation, thirst and exposure would be the initial big killer- how many people in developed nations live where food simply cannot be grown, water collected, or dwellings heated & cooled without power?

After that, the resurgence of diseases & afflictions we don't think of normally: vitamin C deficiency (aka scurvy), diarrhea, flu, colera, etc., would wipe out hundreds of millions or billions within a year or two.

I'd be surprised to find a world like in this show had a globsl population over 100M- about what it was when America was discovered.

Dannyalcatraz said:

Starvation, thirst and exposure would be the initial big killer- how many people in developed nations live where food simply cannot be grown, water collected, or dwellings heated & cooled without power?

After that, the resurgence of diseases & afflictions we don't think of normally: vitamin C deficiency (aka scurvy), diarrhea, flu, colera, etc., would wipe out hundreds of millions or billions within a year or two.

I'd be surprised to find a world like in this show had a globsl population over 100M- about what it was when America was discovered.

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You mean the US population was 100M when America was discovered?

Around 1000AD, the world population was estimated between 250 to 350M
It then went up to over 400M by 1250AD, then down to 350-375M at 1400 and back up to 425-500M by 1500AD.

This census chart consolidates a bunch of info, but I can't imagine that the world would decline to 100 million, which is pre Middle Ages level.

International Programs - Historical Estimates of World Population - U.S. Census Bureau

You mean the US population was 100M when America was discovered?

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Yeah, my timeline is off- i went back & looked- but I honestly do mean a global population of 100M. The reason is the starting conditions are different. The climb to 7 billion was slow. The fall from 7 billion in a scenario like this would be like a crashing plane.

The ancient world's population was basically in growth mode supported by sufficient food supplies, water and shelter. Most lived an agrarian lifestyle and could hunt. Population density was much lower. People were prepared for harder living than we are today.

In a collapse of the modern world, population densities will be much higher, and most people live in cities. This leads to better disease vectoring, more starvation (since there is less food nearby and more people wanting it). This means death in huge numbers.

There will be more people dying of thirst because so few of us live near a potable water source. Even in some of our cultivated farmlands, water isn't necessarily easily available without power. I live in Texas. Texas has only one natural lake. While we do get rain, the climate is pretty dry, so our farms need to irrigate. And that requires power.

Another part of that is because we've reclaimed some of that farmed land from deserts or river basins that have been dammed up. Once those dams fail to operate properly, they'll burst after a while, sending millions of tons of water to reclaim some of those farms.

And think about this- what is the water going to be like downriver from the charnel houses of the doomed cities they flow through? Contaminated with putrified corpses for many miles...undrinkable.

The lack of sewage disposal and treatment in highly-populated areas would be a massive killer. When you flush your toilet it all seems so effortless and automatic, but every bit of high-density living — apartments, condos, and even most modern neighborhoods of tightly-packed houses — would quickly become uninhabitable.

And downstream from them as well (all the rotting bodies + rain = polluted runoff)...for years.

Dannyalcatraz said:

The climb to 7 billion was slow. The fall from 7 billion in a scenario like this would be like a crashing plane.

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You mean it would fall out of the night sky in a tight spiral with the lights still flashing?

I was a little bothered in the third episode when the Militia men were torturing the location of the rebel hideout from their captive, by pointing a gun at the captive and firing it, despite it only having one bullet in the chamber. While the rebel kept flinching, the Militia leader dude went on a long monologue about how bullets nowadays were as precious as diamonds, since they were so scarce.

And then, when the rebel spilled his guts and gave up the rebel hideout, the Militia guy ... shot him with the precious bullet. Despite there being half a dozen other Militia guys around him, any one of which could have stabbed the rebel with a knife, or slit his throat, or snapped his neck, or whatever. Kind of wasteful, and it went against everything he had just said in his monologue.

Johnathan

I pulled out after episode 2, so much potential, and IMHO did not live up to it.

Kind of wasteful, and it went against everything he had just said in his monologue.

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Yep.

And when did episode 2 air? I missed it somehow.

Dannyalcatraz said:

Yep.

And when did episode 2 air? I missed it somehow.

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Last Monday in Sept. last Monday was ep 3.