# If 99% of humans suddenly died. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 27, 2019, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169 "2019-06-27T17:28:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2019, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/21 "2019-06-28T14:30:51Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Those places are sparsely populated for reasons. Too hot, too cold, no water, etc. Where would all those sanitizing wipes magically come from, in the middle of the Sahara? Well, while you’re roasting in the Sahara, I’ll be hanging out in, I dunno, midstate Illinois or something where you can easily be miles from any significant population center (but close enough for a supply run if needed). Might have to haul a few corpses out of a farmhouse but it beats being hip-deep in the dead in a major city. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2019, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/22 "2019-06-28T17:04:13Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > This POV is very head scratchey for me–control of WHAT, exactly? Seventy million people left alive in the entire world and they’re gonna congregate in order to kill more people? Makes no sense. There were about that many people for most of humanity’s existence, and that didn’t seem to stop people from fighting over stuff. The past was a lot more violent than the present, and the difference is primarily civil society. People are more able to resolve their differences without violence because we have better mechanisms to do so (markets, courts, social norms) and we are getting better at catching people who are violent. That all goes away (for a while). > [@](#): > > So someone else got to some resource first–sheesh, just wander on down the road and a few miles away (in most of the US anyway, and probably Europe too) there’ll be another stash of the exact thing you covet. Much easier to pick the bones than to make more of them. Not in the _very_ immediate aftermath. But pretty quickly. Within a few months probably. 1% of the population isn’t nothing. How long is the supply chain where you live? There are groceries on the shelves and gas in the pumps, but not an endless supply. Think about my example of the denizens of NYC heading upstate. There are still people in the rural communities they’re going to try to move to. Not many, but people who have lived there all their lives. How are they going to feel about the hordes of city dwellers coming in? There will be no organization, so you’re going to have minor fights. Minor fights can lead to major ones. There aren’t any functional police departments, but there are _lots_ of guns. The government of most countries is unlikely to remain continuous. In the US, for example, the line of presidential succession is only defined to 15 places. So there’s a good chance that the federal government is mostly undefined. On average you’re going to have 1 Senator, 4 Reps, and three aides to the undersecretary of who cares. The Military has a lot of people and a well-defined chain of command, so it probably manages to hold together, but there’s a lot of chaos. The world gets a lot smaller for a while because long-range communication is much harder without an electric grid and cell phones. So you get little fiefdoms. Local groups that band together in some kind of organization. And then as they organize and expand they start to run into each other. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2019, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/23 "2019-06-28T18:29:11Z")
Fuck gasoline, I know where the propane companies are and my mechanic is the only authorized dealer/installer for propane vehicle conversions. While y’all are out scrounging Mad Max style for rapidly deteriorating gasoline I’ll be hauling around a few generators to get the pumps going to fill up the big propane tankers and locating all the converted trucks, cars, forklifts, tractors, RVs and the like so I’ll be set for life and beyond with enough get up and go to, well, get up and go whenever and wherever I please. I live in Oregon and my supply line for everything but coffee and sugar is a maximum of 300 miles and pretty much anything I need I can grow myself. I’ll be out rescuing goats and sheep and dairy cows along with herding dogs to keep 'em in line. I could, if I wanted to, grow enough calories to feed myself right now on my small suburban lot–give me one of the nice established farms in the Willamette valley and I’ll be set for life. Population of Oregon and Washington combined is just shy of 12 million, so that’ll leave maybe 120,000 people in a huge area–with a buffer zone of very unpopulated land between Oregon and California and to the east there’s a lotta desert, also extremely sparsely populated even before the decimation takes place. Still not seeing where the hordes of marauders are gonna come from. East coast is on its own, it’s their own fault for jamming themselves into huge metropolitan areas ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2019, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/24 "2019-06-28T19:37:36Z")
If 99% of humans died off, the remaining 1% are going to be very seriously freaked out. This is going to take them in different ways, of course. But consider that nearly everybody is going to be grieving, all at once, for almost everyone they ever knew; and simultaneously, because they’re unlikely to have any idea either what happened or what is going on elsewhere, terrified that it’s going to happen to themselves any minute. Most of that 1% is going, one way or another, to not be in their right minds for a while. There’s a reason why most traditions bring food to the grieving: because losing even one person can leave some people in no shape to even get dinner on the table. Add in to that a tiny but real percentage of people who are just plain pure nasty and who are no longer going to expect to be constrained by any police force; and also a probably significantly larger percentage of people who will conclude that God is telling us something but who will disagree, some of them violently, about what that is; and a significant chunk of people who may be very good at doing their own specific type of work but have no idea how to deal with the basics of food and shelter by any method other than by paying somebody else to do it (yes, there’s plenty of wood to cut for firewood, and chain saws, and wood stoves, and you can kill yourself very easily dealing with any part of that if you don’t know what you’re doing; and there are a lot of similar examples): and I’m afraid contagion from the corpses would be the least of your worries. My guess is that quite a lot of that 1% wouldn’t survive the first year. The ones who were still alive after the first year, and who had managed to band together with other people who turned out to be reasonably trustworthy, would go on from there. By the time we were a hundred years out there’d be some decent societies – and probably some really nasty ones, too. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2019, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/25 "2019-06-28T21:23:36Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > Fuck gasoline, I know where the propane companies are and my mechanic is the only authorized dealer/installer for propane vehicle conversions. While y’all are out scrounging Mad Max style for rapidly deteriorating gasoline I’ll be hauling around a few generators to get the pumps going to fill up the big propane tankers and locating all the converted trucks, cars, forklifts, tractors, RVs and the like so I’ll be set for life and beyond with enough get up and go to, well, get up and go whenever and wherever I please. What if someone else sees all that sweet propane and vehicles you gathered and comes to take it from you by force? Do you see how there might be cause for conflict here? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2019, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/26 "2019-06-28T21:57:13Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Are the 99% chosen randomly, or did the 1% survive because they are in some way more capable of surviving? Outlaw Biker Gangs. They’ve got the patches on their vests already. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2019, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/27 "2019-06-28T23:11:49Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > What if someone else sees all that sweet propane and vehicles you gathered and comes to take it from you by force? Do you see how there might be cause for conflict here? Naw, I’ll have signs up letting them know that I also have that ring of propane trucks around the perimeter wired up to nice big bang bangs and any visitor will become air pollution in short order if they try to come in without permission. The signs will also list a couple more propane places they can go raid. Like every U-Haul lot, everywhere. And most of the gas stations. And every RV campground/sales lot/service center. This is Oregon, we have access to all kinds of interesting shit. I’m just not scared of people in general and don’t automatically assume a dystopian future. A lot of people react to trauma by becoming scared and very very helpful to assure their needs are met, why not assume these types will be the majority rather than the sociopaths? Statistically, cooperative people are a much higher percentage than the 4% normally assumed for sociopaths. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/28 "2019-06-29T03:28:29Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > Naw, I’ll have signs up letting them know that I also have that ring of propane trucks around the perimeter wired up to nice big bang bangs and any visitor will become air pollution in short order if they try to come in without permission. The signs will also list a couple more propane places they can go raid. Like every U-Haul lot, everywhere. And most of the gas stations. And every RV campground/sales lot/service center. This is Oregon, we have access to all kinds of interesting shit. That’s OK. We know you keep all of the juice hidden in the old school bus…you’re not fooling anyone… There are almost two million in the greater Sacramento area, so we’ll still have 20,000 folks. There’s plenty of farmland, plenty of livestock, several rivers…I suppose the Folsom Dam might be an issue, though. If there’s nobody left to operate it, it’s only a matter of time before it fails. I guess my house, which sits in a floodplain at an elevation of about 15’ (but nicely protected by the levee system - for the moment, at least), might not be the best place to hole up… ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/29 "2019-06-29T03:59:49Z")
Yeah, that earth fill saddle dam to the side of the main dam at Folsom is a big problem–it’s already been compromised with drying out so bad during the drought then they had to bring the water level up veeeeerrryyy sloooooowlyyy to avoid blowing that sucker right out Oroville style. And when it all goes crashing down that canyon, whoa nellie. Yeah, I was raised in Sactown and both my father and second husband worked for Water Resources, I’ve learned some shit. That’s one good reason why I live in Oregon now! Not too many dams here to worry about–North Bonneville could give way but not for a while and I’d move down the valley quite a bit, probably around Silverton up the hill a ways. That way if Detroit Lake blows the dam it’ll all pass right on by. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/30 "2019-06-29T15:40:07Z")
how long does it take for the soft tissue to decay out in the open? Normally wild animals would eat the remains, but I don’t think that would be a risk in an urban environment. However dogs and cats may start eating the dead. But putting aside being eaten by dogs and cats, how long does a dead body just laying on the floor of the kitchen take to decompose most of its soft tissue? I’d assume a few months at most. I did find this > **[How Body Farms Work](https://science.howstuffworks.com/body-farm1.htm)** > > Human death is a complex subject: It's got a little to do with decay and a lot to do with insects. Read about human death and decay and decomposing bodies. > [@](#): > > Maggots can consume up to 60 percent of a human body in under seven days So in under a week over half the biomass of humans is already eaten by maggots. Add in bacteria and I’m assuming within a few weeks the hazard will be gone. It isn’t like people are going to die in the water supply. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/31 "2019-06-29T16:19:17Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > So in under a week over half the biomass of humans is already eaten by maggots. Add in bacteria and I’m assuming within a few weeks the hazard will be gone. It isn’t like people are going to die in the water supply. Interesting bit there. Serious question: Can the maggot army ramp up their population that fast to consume 6 billion bodies in a week? Then what, we have a LOT of flies, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/32 "2019-06-29T17:57:12Z")
Yeah, the birds and fish and frogs will have a field day of food supply for a while. Flies don’t live long though. Guess it would also make a difference if the cataclysm occurred in winter or summer. If winter, it could take a while for things to stop being gross inside houses and there’d be some wonderful spring surprises that first year. Best case would be it happening right at the beginning of summer, by fall everything would be back to normal. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2019, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/33 "2019-06-30T03:40:56Z")
Another great book that addresses this sort of thing is [Earth Abides](https://www.amazon.com/Earth-Abides-George-R-Stewart/dp/0345487133) by George R. Stewart. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/34 "2019-07-01T19:16:00Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > Naw, I’ll have signs up letting them know that I also have that ring of propane trucks around the perimeter wired up to nice big bang bangs and any visitor will become air pollution in short order if they try to come in without permission. Do you routinely set deadly booby traps to protect your possessions right now? If not, do you see how doing so might result in increased danger to yourself and others due to the breakdown of civil order? ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/35 "2019-07-01T20:25:16Z")
If I do I’m not gonna announce it on a message board, duh. And no, I do not find it self evident that putting a deterrent to poor behavior and encouraging behavior that costs no more effort but that is more in my best interests is a bad plan. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/36 "2019-07-01T21:32:00Z")
I didn’t say it was a bad plan. I said it was _dangerous_. Using violence or threat of violence to protect yourself and property is a good plan when civil order breaks down. The point is: people get killed when that happens. Maybe it’ll be someone who doesn’t believe your threat, or can’t read your sign. Maybe it’ll be you when a sufficiently-armed group decides to snipe you (or whatever) before you can set it off. Maybe the wiring will short out or there will be a leak or any of a dozen other things that could go wrong. Maybe a thousand other things will go wrong. The point is that there will be more violence after we’re down to 1% because the systems that we have right now that are pretty effective at preventing a lot of violence mostly go away. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/37 "2019-07-01T23:17:42Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > There is [a documentary about that](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me4pOQOt20s) available on YouTube. It’s a mildly cheesy movie, but I really enjoyed it. I’m guessing it’s a fairly common fantasy/thought experiment. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2019, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/38 "2019-07-02T00:37:39Z")
Consider that everyone will have scavenging access to about 45 other homes. I live in suburbia, and I’m pretty sure I can raid 45 homes in a single day. Somebody’s going to have a generator. If not, the house down the street with solar panels is now my house. I’ll have food, hot water, electricity, a dozen Brita filters (not to mention fridges’ carbon filters), 900 gallons at least of fresh water in everyone’s tanks, any tool I could want, a dozen cars with gasoline, enough fabric to do absolutely anything with, and probably more than a fair share of seeds. Honestly, what else could I need? So the power plant goes down. Who cares? No more commercial farming…nobody to eat it, either. No more water sanitation plant. Big deal, I have multiple methods of cleaning water. And all of this comes before I’ve even tried raiding a Walmart distribution warehouse or gas station or grocery store. There’s really no threat, and all my basic needs are cared for. What’s the worry? > [@SmartAleq](#): > > Yeah, the birds and fish and frogs will have a field day Well, not the fish. A stream day, maybe. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2019, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/39 "2019-07-02T02:15:42Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > It’s a mildly cheesy movie, but I really enjoyed it. I’m guessing it’s a fairly common fantasy/thought experiment. “Daddy would have gotten us Uzis.” ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2019, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169/40 "2019-07-02T13:08:59Z")
This thread made me think of _The Leftovers_ where Carrie Coon’s character claims to have visited the “other side,” the parallel universe where the two percent of people who disappeared ended up. I don’t remember her going into great detail about what she found, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-99-of-humans-suddenly-died/836169.md?page=3)