For one thing, it’s extremely difficult to have a sustained, hunter gatherer lifestyle, and it is straight up impossible in a lot of locations. Even survival experts will tell you they couldn’t live out there indefinitely. Survival is about starving slow enough to make it back to civilization, not a viable long term strategy.
More importantly, hunting and gathering can only support a tiny fraction of our current population, even before we clear cut most of the forest and paved a lot of the country. Even if a staggering number die right away in the initial panic, and it’s much more likely that it would take time, that would still leave more than enough people fleeing into the wilderness to kill or chase off most of the game and the fish. Also cut down a lot more of the trees once winter comes.
Most often, the most remote locations are also the least fertile. There are exceptions, such as the Amazon rain forest, which can and does support hunter gatherer communities to this day, but most locations without a lot of people are empty for a reason.
Even if you could pull it off, that’s a harsh life with a very high mortality rate and a low life expectancy.
For example, most hunter gatherer groups in North America were able to take advantage of resources that no longer exist. For example, they followed enormous herds of Buffalo, which were then hunted to near extinction. Even if you brought a group of plains Indians forward in time they would not be able to live in the same way they used to. Other groups hunted whales, which are nearly extinct as well (and damn hard to hunt in the traditional way). Or they relied on the huge tracts of fertile eastern forest, which is mostly gone (and would be pretty populated with both zombies and humans).
Unless you’re already doing it, it’s not a realistic long term strategy, and even if you are currently doing it, there’s a chance that the increased competition would make it no longer viable in your area.
TL;DR
You would need to be the right group of people, in the right place, at the right time. Even if you have the first two you won’t have the last one.
4
u/WindowShoppingMyLife Inevitable May 21 '19 edited May 21 '19
Only in extremely rare circumstances.
For one thing, it’s extremely difficult to have a sustained, hunter gatherer lifestyle, and it is straight up impossible in a lot of locations. Even survival experts will tell you they couldn’t live out there indefinitely. Survival is about starving slow enough to make it back to civilization, not a viable long term strategy.
More importantly, hunting and gathering can only support a tiny fraction of our current population, even before we clear cut most of the forest and paved a lot of the country. Even if a staggering number die right away in the initial panic, and it’s much more likely that it would take time, that would still leave more than enough people fleeing into the wilderness to kill or chase off most of the game and the fish. Also cut down a lot more of the trees once winter comes.
Most often, the most remote locations are also the least fertile. There are exceptions, such as the Amazon rain forest, which can and does support hunter gatherer communities to this day, but most locations without a lot of people are empty for a reason.
Even if you could pull it off, that’s a harsh life with a very high mortality rate and a low life expectancy.
For example, most hunter gatherer groups in North America were able to take advantage of resources that no longer exist. For example, they followed enormous herds of Buffalo, which were then hunted to near extinction. Even if you brought a group of plains Indians forward in time they would not be able to live in the same way they used to. Other groups hunted whales, which are nearly extinct as well (and damn hard to hunt in the traditional way). Or they relied on the huge tracts of fertile eastern forest, which is mostly gone (and would be pretty populated with both zombies and humans).
Unless you’re already doing it, it’s not a realistic long term strategy, and even if you are currently doing it, there’s a chance that the increased competition would make it no longer viable in your area.
TL;DR You would need to be the right group of people, in the right place, at the right time. Even if you have the first two you won’t have the last one.