Sierra Brock, Austin Gean, Daniel Holland, Katie Hooper, Harley Patterson, Josselyne

Rodriguez, Sofia Savas, Allison Scheman

Scheman & White
AP Seminar
28 August 2014
Are Doomsday Preppers Posing a Threat by Sustaining for the Future?
Although prepping for the end of the world seems like a crazy idea, it is becoming a
growing phenomenon. Doomsday preppers, alternatively called survivalists, tend to have the
belief that a global disaster will occur at any time. They have proceeded to stockpile enormous
amounts of food, water, and protection. Many focus on creating an adequate shelter and having
training for operating firearms. Preparing for the end of the world is all about sustainability these survivalists are trying to save as much of the current Earth as they can before it is
destroyed. Doomsday preppers are possibly viewed as an extremist group, however; with the rise
of current global issues their preparation may be deemed necessary.
The environment is used in various ways that affect the sustainability of human beings
starting with doomsday preppers prepare for doomsday. Such as, alcohol is used as an anesthetic
or to sterilize a wound. Echinacea Purpurea is a herbal remedy to treat a cold. Echinacea
supplements decreased the odds of getting a cold by 58%, (Herbal Medicine). This plant is only
one of many that doomsday preppers will use to help heal and prevent illnesses.
Not only is society having trouble obtaining resources from the environment, but the
effects of people hoarding materials also has a toll on the economy. If preppers keep purchasing
and hoarding, there will be fewer resources left for others to survive. If all of the resources are
depleting, the price will rise so no one will be able to afford anything. For example, on any given

day Walmart is out of bullets for all types of guns. This explains why any person who goes to
find ammunition can't find any because others are purchasing and hoarding such supplies.
Therefore, the price is rising and it is extremely difficult to find exactly what you need because
of the those who are hoarding the supplies."The problem is not a lack of technical potential, but a
lack of policies," (Howarth). Thus, lack of policy enables people to continue purchasing and
hoarding resources. However, by observing the hoarders, others can learn what to do to be able
to survive. This situation is common knowledge based on supply and demand. If the supply
decreases and the demand increases, price will also increase. Hoarding can also be beneficial for
people who are preparing for a natural catastrophe. Survivalists are using their resources wisely
and having a much lower standard of living. This would be taught to help others learn how to
conserve and and not waste what they have. In the end, the world is not prepared like preppers
are and their hoarding can show everyone the rights and wrongs that will affect the economy in
the future.
These survivalists are viewed as a threat in their communities for stockpiling things such
as guns and ammunition, gallons of water and piles of food, artwork, and other things that are
essential to life or could possibly be of value in the future. Are these preppers a threat for storing
these things, or will these extra materials be of use in the near future? Possessing legal weapons
and other essentials in bulk does not automatically make you a threat, and additionally
survivalism is about sustainability, but preppers could potentially be posing a threat to their
community and society as a whole. According to the book Investigating Terrorism and Criminal
Extremism Terms and Concepts by Mark Pitcavage, the term survivalists is listed as The
survivalist movement feared a coming collapse of civilization, generally as the result of nuclear
war, and tried to prepare themselves to survive it. Survivalists typically stockpiled food, water,

and weapons, especially the latter, and instructed themselves on topics ranging from first aid to
childbirth to edible plants (Pitcavage). These survivalists are compared to groups such as Al
Qaeda and viewed as threats because they are seen as a conspiracy group who prepare for the
collapse of civilization.
Doomsday preppers not on only collect needed resources, but also gather art. Art is
collected because they believe it will not be available in the future and do not want the art to be
lost or damaged during the end times. Doomsday preppers build bunkers and shelters. Some
furnish their bunkers with art to make it feel more like home. Some extreme doomsday preppers
see their preps or stockpiles of resources as an artistic sculpture.
Furthermore, Doomsday Preppers have a culture of their own within their group of
survivalists. One show that is part of the pop culture currently on tv is Doomsday Preppers.
The show explains various things in order to be prepared like building a safe underground. The
show explains how to store food and water for months. The most interesting part of the tv show
is the cooling system. Some of the preppers with whom I do research watch Doomsday
Preppers just like Nancy Lanza. They watch it as entertainment and like most that watch the
show, they think the people featured on the show tend toward the extreme, (Huddleston). The
show seems that it doesnt help Preppers by giving them ideas on preparing. Some preppers are
not very social with other people, and tend not to share their beliefs, believing it could lead to
future threats of people looting their resources. While others tend to tell neighbors or friends
about their preps, some even help others or teach classes on how to survive Doomsday. They
tend to not call themselves preppers, but survivalists. The Cultural Anthropologist Chad
Huddleston sees the survivalists in agreeing with them and disagreeing. Huddleston sees the
threat from two different perspectives hurting society or helping society. He sees as hurting

society as having less materials for other cultures. On the other hand as helping society with
preparing for what can happen. These people have made a cultural of their own by the way that
they live. They have their own culture by always living in fear, and always thinking about what
could happen.They spend most of the time thinking about how they are going to survive. One
thing that is key to the future of the preppers is to keep their culture standing. These people are
prepared for whatever life gives them. They are always prepared with food, shelter, and water.
They know which materials they need most.
While preparing for doomsday, you also have to include natural disasters. Some natural
disasters are hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes. In the past, there have been as many
as 1000 tornadoes in the United States per year. There are also estimates that several million
earthquakes occur a year. In order to sustain yourself and your family in these types of situations,
you need to be prepared. Some things you need to have in these situations include: water bottles,
non-perishable food, first aid kit, flashlight and batteries (Lipton). Something else that would
assist those in the areas that have these disasters commonly, would be more advanced technology
to predict the natural disasters. This would assist in those being able to gather up their food stuffs
and get to their bunker/safe place during the disaster. In comparison, there are many different
types of doomsday preppers that range from those that are preparing for a minor disaster and
those that are preparing for major disasters. The minor preppers (those that are preparing for a
power outage or something similar), need about the same things as those who were in a natural
disaster: water, food, gas, and flashlights. One of the most important things in this time, would
have to be water. Doomsday preppers need to know how to decontaminate water, If you have
run out of bottled water there are a couple of methods of treating potentially contaminated water.
The first is to boil water (if you have access to a fireplace or butane stove, for example). The

second is to use no more than 12 drops of bleach per gallon.(Lipton) Then, there is the group
that are preparing for almost anything, the extremists. Some of the things they need would be:
a rain catching and filtration system, solar panels, a good sized generator, extra clothing, multiple
lamps and flashlights, and a several month supply of food. There is also another group of
preppers that are ready for an economic collapse. Some of the items they stockpile include:
Food and water storage, Solar panels, and lots of weapons and ammunition. As you can see, the
needs of each type of prepper vary, and get more extreme as they go up in type.
Since the effect in recent years of doomsday theories, an example being December 21,
2012 and the apocalyptic scare brought by it, has the market for firearms booming. Since
November 2012, the FBI has recorded over 16,808,538 through instant background checks
(Date). The FBI released a new statistic in 2013 of 21,093,273 total weapons sold in the U.S
(Pavlich). The firearm business is now a race to collect military grade firearms to better protect
people and their families. The Gun Industrys Deadly Addiction, Through the end of 2012, Stag
Arms sold an Executive Survivors Kit--a wheeled briefcase containing an AR-15, two highcapacity magazines, 60 rounds of ammo, a first-aid kit and even a military field ration-- all for
the Mayan-apocalypse worthy price of $2,012 (Dickinson). Preppers have been shelling out
money to firearms companies ever since the election of President Barack Obama. An anxiety has
fallen over people around the country, but mainly preppers. This is reflected in a gun companies
SEC filings; Smith & Wessons SEC filings, which trumpeted strong consumer demand for
our firearm products following a new administration taking office in Washington
D.C.(Dickinson). The recent elections have scared the extremist group of preppers and caused
a growth of firearms owned and money going into these companies. This craze from preppers to

buy and stock weapons could be crazy, or a fantastic idea in case of an unseen danger in the
event of a doomsday on Earth.
Current global issues have people worried for the future. Doomsday preppers seem to
think they have it figured out; believing in either a meteor strike, hurricanes, economic collapse,
EMPs, etc, will end the world. Although scientists have researched each event and have data
proving how unlikely these events could occur, they still prep their whole lives around it,
believing that a small disaster will set everything off balance. Society sees these people going to
the extreme by stocking up tons of canned foods and fresh water to survive for months, even
years. Many preppers are providing just for themselves or their family the lifeboat strategy of
saving ones self, family, and perhaps a few friends, (Sandler). Others are not ready for the
end some are not even prepared for a minor disasters that could occur. If or when the end
comes, having most of the population unprepared will lead to a huge decrease in the worlds
population causing the human races sustainability hanging by a thread. Prepping could be
necessary for future sustainability.

Works Cited
Date, Jack, Pierre Thomas, and Jason Ryan. "Guns in America: A Statistical Look." ABC News.

ABC News Network, 11 Dec. 2012. Web. 05 Sept. 2014

Dickinson, Tom. (2013). The Gun Industrys Deadly Addiction. Rolling Stone. Issue 1178
Pg. 32-35. I
Dwyer, Devin. "Survivalist Industry Thriving on Debt Default Threat." ABC News. ABC News
Network, 15 Oct. 2013. Web. 26 Aug. 2014.
"Herbal Medicine." University of Maryland Medical Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2014.
Howarth, Richard B. Sustainability, Well-Being, and Economic Growth. Think
Here. Center for Humans and Nature, Sept. 2012. Web. 25 Aug. 2014.
Huddleston, Chad . "'Doomsday Preppers': Our New Threat?" American
Anthropological Association. American Anthropological Association, 16 Jan. 2013.
Web. 26 Aug. 2014.
Lipton, Shana T. "Earthquake Safety and Preparedness in Los Angeles." About.
About.com, 13 Jun. 2010. Web. 27 Aug. 2014.
Pavlich, K. "Katie Pavlich - 2013 Guns Sales Set New Record." Townhall.com. N.p., 7
Jan. 2014. Web. 05 Sept. 2014.
Pitcavage, Mark. Investigating Terrorism and Criminal Extremism Terms and
Concepts. 1.0st ed. Institute for Intergovernmental Research, 2005. 120. Print.
Sandler, Mike. Doomsday Prepping for a Sustainable Future The Huffington Post.
19 Feburary 2013.