Video Transcript
Being in a life-or-death kind-of-situation is a very uncomfortable place to be. Nobody would willingly put themselves in that kind of situation. Disaster movies are fun to watch from the comfort of our own home but being the main actor in a real-life situation where your very existence is at stake is much less comfortable.
Of course, we would rather not be the person who has to face insurmontable odds to survive very unfortunate sets of circumstances, except that sudden disaster can strike you at any time and the decisions you are going to make at this very moment will determine whether you live or die and watching this video could potentially save your life.
This is why you need to watch this video because having some basic survival knowledge will definitely increase your chance of not dying. Better safe than sorry. But before getting into full disaster mode don’t forget to support our new channel by sharing, commenting, and subscribing.
The first thing you need to do if you are facing a life-or-death kind of situation is: DO NOT PANIC! I can hear you saying, “Easier said than done”. Sure, thing but losing your grip is not going to help the situation, on the contrary it may accelerate your demise.
S.T.O.P for a minute or two. Sit. Think. Observe. Plan. Inventory the resources you have. Identify the critica tasks required for survival (water, shelter, warmth), make a plan to stay alive. Mental toughness is key. It is often grit that separates a survivor from a non-survivor.
Bad situations can turn dramatic for many reasons but the 3 potentially deadly events that can precipitate your exit from this earth are:
- Exposure to the elements: extreme cold or extreme heat on land or at sea.
- Lack of water and food.
- Injuries.
Let’s get into the disaster scenarios very gently by looking at bad situations that can be dealt with quite easily and where your chance of survival is pretty high. Before you go out anywhere, please check the weather forecast. The Brits have a saying: There is no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing. Staying alive in extreme weather conditions is a real art that requires skills, knowledge, some preparation and good packing skills. When you are out in the open clothing is your first line of shelter and your first protection. Have the right clothes for the right environment. Pack an extra layer of clothing just in case and don’t forget to pack a hat.
Sudden disaster can strike you at any time one minute you are doing your duty on an aircraft carrier and the next you found yourself in the middle of the ocean. This is exactly what happened to Marine Lance-Corporal Zachary Mayo in 1995. He was wandering around his aircraft carrier when a metal door swung open and whacked him into the ocean 100 miles from shore. He survived his ordeal thanks to some crazy navy training that he remembered and was found two days later by a fishermen’s boat.
If you ever find yourself adrift at sea (God forbid), do not try to swim to some faraway land the location of which you have no idea. You have to figure out a way to stay afloat and alive as long as possible until someone comes to rescue you. Marine Lance-Corporal Zachary survived his ordeal and was able to share with the world one crazy survival tip that actually works. He turned his pants into a life preserver.
First, take off your pants and tie the ankles together into a tight knot. Then lift the waistband high, hold it open and swoosh your pants through the air in order to fill them with air. Slip the legs over your head, make yourself comfortable and buoyant then pray that the sharks don’t take an interest in your exposed genitals and that some fishermen’s boat will come fishing in the vicinity, like right now.
You will probably need to re-inflate your pants pretty often because the pants’ main function is not to be an airtight life preserver, but whatever, you are in the middle of the ocean, and you’ve got nothing better to do.
Being adrift in the middle of the ocean is bad, but being on land, freezing cold, and lost in the wilderness is not good either. We heard countless stories of people getting lost in the wild or surviving a plane crash only to find themselves at death door again trying to survive cold, heat, thirst, and hunger.
Once again, if you find yourself in this dire situation, the first thing you have to do is S.T.O.P for a minute or two. Sit. Think. Observe. Plan. Inventory the resources you have. Identify the critical tasks required for survival (water, shelter, warmth). Make a plan to stay alive and make a fire.
Fire is the king of survival techniques. Fire can keep you warm, purify water, cook food, signal rescuers, give you light and comfort. It can also keep unfriendly predators at a distance.
The easiest way to make a fire is by using a lighter or some matches. Duh!
But chances are you are not going to have these two items handy just when you need them the most and you can also forget the idea of rubbing two sticks together to make a fire like our homo sapiens cousins used to do in the olden days. Mind you, Tom Hanks managed to pull it off in Castaway but that was just for the cameras.
So, what’s the next best thing? Use the very thing that people carry with them everywhere, every day, night and day, their mobile phone. If you are carrying steel wool or wrapper foil of chewing-gum good for you because it can save your life. Twist the foil up into a loop and touch it to both the positive and negative terminals of your phone battery in order to generate enough heat to set fire to something dry and easily flammable.
If this doesn’t work, you can use the lithium in your battery, which is made up of a dangerous concoction of chemicals carefully segregated so that they don’t go off. Burst open the battery case, take a sharp stick, then stab the phone as your life depends on it because it does. This beating up triggers a process called “thermal runaway” which is a rather undesirable thing to happen in 99% of cases, you don’t want your phone to explode except if it is going to save your life.
The next thing you need to do is to collect water and find food. If you cannot locate any water source, the next best thing would be to harvest fresh water from plants with a plastic bag and a rock. Just as you release water vapor into the air when you breathe, so too do plants. Tie the plastic bag around some leaves, put something heavy like a rock, to create a reservoir at the bottom, and wait for the magic to happen. It is going to take a while so feel free in the meantime to go hunting for food; but after 24 hours or so, you should have a cup and a quarter of freshwater. Don’t worry it tastes much better than you own sweat.
So, your extended stay in the goddamn wilderness has turned out not too deadly so far. You managed to save yourselves from hyperthermia by starting a fire that keeps you warm, whilst keeping unfriendly predators at a distance. You successfully alleviated your thirst by drinking sweat I mean freshwater from plants. Now, you are starving and becoming weaker and weaker by the hour from lack of nutrition.
Time to become a hunter-gatherer and venture around to look for food. There is no obvious way to tell if a thing is edible simply by looking at it. You could put it in your mouth, sure, but many poisonous wild-growing plants look an awful lot like the kind of thing you’d put on the dinner table.
For example, regular carrots and parsnips look almost identical to hemlock, a plant that will kill you so dead that they used it to execute people in the olden days. Fortunately, there is a way to figure out whether or not something is okay to eat. It is called the universal edibility test or UET. It is not flawless, but it is better than saying prayer.
When you find something that looks like it might be edible smell it first. Plants that don’t want to be eaten have evolved for millions of years to communicate that fact to us, and many of them smell bad. If it smells okay, rub it on the inside of your elbow or wrist and wait to see if you develop a rash or hives or anything.
Ideally, you have enough time before you starve to death to give this test the scientific rigorousness it warrants, but if time is short you want to give each step between 15 minutes and an hour before you move to the next step. If the plant passes the elbow test, the next thing is to rub it on your lips, then wait again. If you are still feeling okay put some of it in your mouth and swish, it around but don’t swallow. After that eat a very small amount of it and wait overnight. If you are not dead by the morning, then whatever you’re thinking of eating might be safe.
Of course, this test comes with some disclaimers. For example, it apparently doesn’t work very well with mushrooms; experienced survivalists will tell you that you should never eat a wild mushroom no matter what it looks like.
Whilst you are out and about looking for food, make sure you don’t twist your ankle or cut yourself badly. Did you know that the most common injuries happening in the wild are sprained ankles, broken limbs, and cuts?
To treat a twisted ankle, remember R.I.C.E: Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. First, rest the ankle by getting off it immediately. Second, reduce swelling by icing it. Since you are in the wilderness and ice packs are in short supply there, soak a t-shirt in cold water and wrap it around the injured ankle. Compress the joint by whatever means you find. Finally, elevate the ankle above the level of the heart.
Try not to cut yourself, but if you do, treating a cut in the outdoor is not that different from treating a cut at home. Your first job is to stop the bleeding, clean the wound, then bandage the wound.
Remember that disaster can strike any time without warning, so better be safe than sorry. Whenever you are out and about on land or at sea, best to wear a pair of trousers rather than a dress. Trousers work better as a life preserver. Always carry your mobile phone, chewing-gum can become handy, always carry a plastic bag for water collection and some extra layer clothing with you such as an extra-T-shirt in case you need to use it as a bandage. Having the right type of gear with you and the right kind of knowledge acquired by watching videos such as this one will make you a survivor.
Thank you for watching and/or reading and don’t forget to like, share and subscribe to our channel because it can literally save your life and stay tuned in because I have a whole bunch of videos in the pipeline!
Yours Truly Script Writer, Joanne Reed
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