SURVIVORS' NOTES

In order to provide you with the information listed on our zombie plan, each member of our task force had to carry out extensive research into the field of zombies and how their portrayal affects our society. To give you additional insight, we have included some of our findings on this page:

The following is a report performed after extensive research by our Visual Editor, Maxwell Webb. The report details the nature of the disease and offers insight into the the way in which infection is spread:

You may have heard of “superbugs”, the drug-resistant bacteria that infect our hospitals and are seemingly incurable. The CDC has reported that around 2 million Americans are infected each year and around 23,000 die from said infections. While this is a real threat and something very dangerous, there is almost a mysticism that comes with the name as if it was something out of a horror film or a comic book. While their name and reputation are somewhat intimidating, they may be a bit misleading, as these bacteria are not invincible, but resistant to multiple antibiotics. Antibiotics have been incredibly useful over the past several decades to help us overcome previously devastating illnesses, but their overuse and mistreatment have contributed to the development of these “multidrug-resistant bacteria” (Miller). They are most often strains of known and treatable diseases that have mutated to be immune to multiple antibiotics normally employed to treat their more common “cousins”.

In order to understand how to fight these deadly maladies, it is important to understand exactly what a superbug is: a strain of a disease that has mutated and adapted to become resistant to the antibiotics normally used to treat it. This potential to mutate exists any time we treat the presence of a foreign body with antibiotics. By eliminating or treating the main strain, we open the possibility for the mutated, drug-resistant strain to flourish and infect us as well. Davies and Davies also inform us that “the most striking examples, and probably the most costly in terms of morbidity and mortality, concern bacteria.”

The recent increase in number of antibiotic-resistant infections (shown in the graphic below) can be attributed to a number of different reasons, but the CDC stated that not using antibiotics as prescribed is the “single leading factor” (qtd. in Miller) to the increased rate of such infections. Other factors include the overuse of anti-bacterial soaps, hand-sanitizers, and a general lack of hygiene. One of the reasons these infections are concerning is, as Coombes was quoted as saying in Miller, “Cancer chemotherapy, organ transplants, surgeries, and childbirth all rely on antibiotics to prevent infections. If you can’t treat those, then we lose the medical advances we have made in the last 50 years”. It becomes apparent why superbugs pose such a threat.

However, as of yet, these mutations haven’t been completely unstoppable. As stated above, superbugs are not invincible, they are typically just resistant to the more common antibiotics used to fight the main strains of infection. In response to the increased rates of infections, there have been some exciting new developments in the field of treatment and prevention of these superbugs. Some are adjustments being made to improve existing antibiotics, while others are completely new treatments or discoveries that could contribute to the eradication of the threat.

Among the number of techniques being used to augment the effectiveness of existing antibiotics is one that introduces small doses of silver to the medication. Silver has been used to treat certain illnesses for centuries, and recent studies have shown that it can make modern-day antibiotics much more effective by causing changes in the bacterial cells’ metabolisms and other systems that make it more susceptible to the attacks of antibodies (Morones-Ramirez, et al.).

Another promising strategy to amplify the effects of modern antibiotics is to pair them with certain mechanisms that are designed to weaken the structure of bacterial cells. It would be helpful to recall that each bacterium is a living thing that needs sustenance and protection in order to survive. This protection comes in the form of a cell wall that guards it from outside threats. Some of these new designs for combatting these bacteria involve inhibitors to their resistance-systems, while others exploit weaknesses recently discovered in the structure of the bacteria themselves (Wright; Dong et al.)

While these techniques are promising, the development of brand-new antibiotics has the potential to completely eradicate some of the more threatening and deadly superbugs, such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). A new microbe found in our own stomachs has proven to “reverse resistance in pathogens” (Mole) and make them much easier to eliminate. Because the conditions under which the microbes are grown are difficult to recreate in a lab setting, their DNA is being analyzed to try to locate the pattern responsible for their super-powered drug-battling abilities. Several of these sequences have already been used in the development of two antibiotics, and the hope is that they will contribute to future defenses as well (Mole).

Unfortunately, there have been fewer and fewer new antibiotics being developed over the past years. There are several opinions given to explain the cause of this unfortunate occurrence, but the author of this article is of the mind that the research funds of pharmaceutical companies are being spent on other more lucrative projects and less focus is being applied to the superbug issue (Lynda). These businesses prefer to invest in medications that will be used long-term by patients with chronic or long-lasting conditions (a patient who gets cured quickly is a patient who stops buying medication, which means the company stops making money from that customer). While the field of new and improved antibiotics and the breakthroughs involved in their development are exciting and very promising, they don’t have the same potential to make a profit, which means, unfortunately, that many times they get pushed aside to make room for other projects.

Big business priorities aside, there are still companies and agencies willing to fund the development of new methods for combatting superbugs, and they have a grand potential to do a world of good in our hopefully less-than-doomed society.

Luckily, it is not entirely in the hands of the world’s elite scientists and businessmen to come up with ways to prevent the spread of infection. According to Dr. Melvin Sanikas, there are several other employable methods available to us in a much more approachable way. If more vaccines become available and are used more often, he suggests, this could limit the number of antibiotics used. “For example,” he says, “increasing use of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine could potentially avert 11.4 million days of antibiotic use in children age 5 years and younger – roughly a 47 percent reduction in the amount of antibiotics used to treat Strep pneumococcal cases.”

Dr. Sanikas also says that correct and quick diagnosis and strict surveillance are key to prevent the continued existence of superbugs. By being able to correctly identify when a patient has been infected, hospitals can much more effectively monitor and take precautions to ensure the security of the rest of their patients.

Superbugs are out there, and they’re growing stronger. There are things we can begin doing now to help, but unless some drastic changes occur, they are on target to become the most deadly killers within a few short decades. It is estimated that they will be responsible for more then 10 million deaths a year by 2050, surpassing cancer, diabetes, traffic accidents, and other diseases as the most deadly killer of human beings.

Now more than ever, and with increasingly more urgency, we need to focus on these and other ways to help us overcome and best this microscopic plague.

Maxwell Webb

The following video is actual footage of the field research our Writing Editor performed to provide you with the inforation in your Zombie Plan:

Christopher Schlenker

Humanity has one big advantage in this world over animals and in the case of World War Z, the living dead. This advantage is our keen ability to rationally think and reason. Throughout time this ability has allowed us as a species to grow and advance into what we are today. Max Brooks tells the story of a world that is recovering from a catastrophic global zombie outbreak that nearly ended the world. He handles many different social subjects that we see today ranging from conformity all the way to xenophobia. If you look close enough to Brooks writing then you can see that there is an underlining thread that runs throughout most of his book. Brooks World War Z is truly about fear. It seems like we live in a culture of perpetual fear these days. We fear each other not because rational reasons, but because of irrational reasons. We spend so much time fearing someone else’s sexual orientation, their religious beliefs, what color there skin is and where they come from in the world. When we let fear dictate what is going on in our lives, then everything starts to become the boogie man or perhaps a zombie.

Before looking at the parallels between the real world and Max Brooks zombie apocalypse World War Z, we need to take a second and fully understand exactly what fear is. Fear is one of the most basic human emotions. “Fear is programmed into the nervous system and works like an instinct. From the time we're infants, we are equipped with the survival instincts necessary to respond with fear when we sense danger or feel unsafe”. (http://kidshealth.org/en/teens/phobias.html)

Human beings are inherently pack animals; we stay together in large groups/cities to feel safe. Once we feel things become out of our control, fear comes into play and we tend to look to others for guidance. We will follow anyone who looks like they know what they are doing, even though there is no guarantee that the person they are following has any more knowledge of what is going on or even has a plan themselves. Brooks illustrates this in the interview with Gavin Blaire the pilot of a D-17 combat dirigible who explains the sight of Highway I-80. People panicked in the beginning of the zombie outbreak. They all followed each other hoping that someone in front of them knew what to do and would keep them safe. They clogged the highway unaware of the horrors that were befalling those ahead of them, the ones who were supposed to lead them to salvation. At the end of Blaire’s story he speaks of an experiment in the 1970s. He said “an American journalist lined up at some building, nothing special about it, just a random door. Sure enough, someone got in line behind him, then a couple more, and before you knew it, they were backed up around the block. No one asked what the line was for. They just assumed it was worth it”. (Brooks, World War Z) We have seen these kinds of actions throughout history, horrific events that drives people to act or do things that are against their own wellbeing during times of crisis because of fear.

Those same fears that drove so many to follow a group into the unknown also motivated people to leave on their own or with there families with no idea where they were going or with any actual idea of how to survive once they reached a destination they felt was safe. Max Brooks uses the story of Jesika Hendricks and her family’s journey to find safety in Canada as an analog to the natural disaster that happened in the Midwest during the 1930’s. During this time families had to figure out if they wanted to stay and try to ride out the situation or take great risks and uproot their families and migrate to an unknown destination. Most families took the risk, “in fact hundreds of thousands left the great plains for the West Coast.” (Ganzel) Just like in Jesika’s story, so many people had no idea what they were doing.

“We just existed! We survived, let’s put it that way.” –Florence Thompson survivor of the dust bowl.

Families packed up whole households, bringing with them completely useless items like televisions, video games and other things that have nothing to do with surviving. People are so fearful of leaving there old lives behind, that they are willing to burden themselves with worthless junk, just to keep some kind of normality. Again in times of crisis the majority of people let fear take over, they do not think, they simply react to problems as they happen.

Today fear plays more and more of a part in our global policies. We have become increasingly closed off and xenophobic as time goes on. We can see this in today’s sociopolitical climate. One group of people starts to blame another group of people for events that they had no control of, leading to laws and rulings that are rash and inhumane, just so we can once again feel like we are truly safe. Countries have become so worried about controlling who comes in and from which country; they forget to look at just why exactly these people are risking their lives for a chance to try and get in. Most of these people are simply struggling to just live and are trying to help their family’s live better lives. An example of this is the influx into the United States with over “38,000 Muslim refugees from Syria and surrounding areas entered the U.S. in the fiscal year 2016”. (Radford) These refugees have all been impacted by the wars that are happening in that area of the world.

Fear drove the decisions of those in charge of governments to take hard line stances with their forces and with each other during “The Great Zombie War”. They felt it was better to indirectly murder thousands upon thousands, than risk further spreading of the infection or have to use resources on people that were not their own. We see reactions like this in today’s policies, like with the United States “travel ban” and The United Kingdoms “Brexit”. You can also see the fear mongering that is going on in our government; an example is a quote that our leaders have picked up from our presidents son which said "If I had a bowl of Skittles and I told you three would kill you, would you take a handful?" "That's our Syrian refugee problem”. (Detrow) We would rather abandon a group of people just so that we could potentially feel safe. “We lost a hell of a lot more than just people when we abandoned them to the dead”. (Brooks, World War Z) Although these actions come nowhere near as drastic as Russia, India and Iran in “World War Z” they still come from a very fearful view of the world.

In the end, we have all known fear in some way or another. For some of us fear has been a constant companion that is always looking over our shoulders, it’s the underlying force in our lives that keeps us feeling stuck or even safe. On occasions fear has saved us from entering into a dangerous situation. Other times it has paralyzed us and prevented us from acting and moving forward in life. Fear can keep us from understanding someone else not like ourselves, from falling in love, from experiencing new things, and perhaps the saddest of all, from fulfilling our true purpose during the limited amount of time we have in this life. Fear isn't always a bad thing, it gives us something to fight and allows us to grow so we can become stronger. Perhaps Max Brooks isn’t truly telling a story of fear, instead he is telling a story of triumph of the human spirit and what we can do if we don't let our fears rob us of our humanity, we must always overcome these zombies we have in our lives and to never let it completely consume us at the end of the day.

Michael Quinones

Kolby Lund

With the increase in global temperature also comes the warming of the human race, and it’s coming faster than ever. If the temperature of the planet continues to rise it will get so hot that there will be areas that humans will not be able to survive. Numerous studies around the world are trying to prove how global warming is actually affecting the earth. Some think that global warming doesn’t exist at all while some believe that global warming is going to wipe out the entire human population. Deforestation, driving cars, agriculture, and oil, to name a few, all contribute to global warming and climate change because of their greenhouse effect. Scientists have worked hard to prove that climate change is the real deal and are really trying to reverse the effects.

Professor Will Steffen, a climate change expert and researched at the Australian National University, has said “human activities now rival the great forces of nature in driving changes to the Earth system.” The professor has also helped with an equation to calculate how fast humans have sped up the heating of earth which has shown that human activity is 170 times faster than the natural forces at work.

As the earth is being worked to death by the human race we will experience a change in climate and with that comes a change in natural disasters.

The planet is being heated by the human population at such a fast rate that even the future of the winter Olympics is at a high risk. In 2014 the University of Waterloo, which is located in Canada, studied how climate change will affect the future of winter Olympic host countries. Daniel Scott is a researcher at the University who has put together a graph to show which previous winter Olympic hosts could potentially host another Olympics in the future. Scott said “fewer and fewer traditional winter sports regions will be able to host an Olympic Winter Games in a warmer world.” And only six countries were shown to have climate reliability meaning they would be able to hold the winter Olympics again and Salt Lake City is one of these six. This is just one example that show what could happen with the high and low emissions in the past hosts of winter Olympics. The world is getting closer and closes to the end of winter sports with the continuing increase in global temperature.

Deforestation is one of the main contributing factors of climate change. Everyone in the world uses paper and the more paper we use the more trees get cut down. However, paper isn’t the only reason trees get cut down. Trees are also removed to make room for roads and houses, or for farming and the oil industry. When deforestation happen the most dramatic impact is a loss of habitat for the millions of species that live in the forest and can’t survive the deforestation. While the trees are getting cut down, the other trees that are still standing now have to work harder. “Trees play a critical role in absorbing the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming. Fewer forests means larger amounts of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere and increased speed and severity of global warming,” said National Geographic in their research. Agriculture plays a big part in deforestation because forests are removed so that more crops can be planted and there’s more room for cattle, chicken, and pigs to have space to grave. When more humans are born there will be a need for more food and this will call for more deforestation.

In addition to agriculture affecting deforestation, agriculture affects global warming on its own as well. It's estimated that "producing beef requires 28 times more land, 6 times more fertilizer and 11 times more water than producing pork or chicken. As a result, the study estimated that producing beef releases 4 times more greenhouse gases than a calorie-equivalent amount of pork, and 5 times as much as an equivalent of poultry." Here is a graph that was provided by Gidon Eschel, a researcher in the physics department at Yale, which shows the emissions (greenhouse gases) that are being put off by each animal. As you can see, everything gives off some greenhouse gases, even vegetables. But this amount is actually nothing compared to the burning of fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels are defined as buried combustible geological deposits of organic matter. Which includes the decay of plants and animals which are then converted to oil, coal, natural gases, and heavy oils. When burning these fossil fuels, it creates carbon dioxide and it gets released into our atmosphere which in turn gets trapped in our atmosphere and then heats the earth. This is called the greenhouse effect. The following picture shows what happens in daily life and how carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere.

Additionally, this greenhouse effect is why the glaciers are melting at the poles and in Greenland. The more the ice caps melt the more sea levels will rise which will put some states and countries under water. The faster the world reacts to global warming the better the chance there is at reversing the damage the human race has done to the earth.

Oil pipelines breaking and leaking everywhere is one of the most commonly heard of effects to the environment. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, for example. Humans have taken advantage of what oil offers the human race and have exploited it. Companies drill in the sea and damage sea life. In 2016 Shell dumped almost 90,000 gallons of crude oil into the ocean and are still trying to figure out what happened. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has tightened the regulations of offshore drilling since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in 2010. The explosion claimed 11 lives and causes the largest man made oil spill in history, spilling three million barrels of oil into the gulf. Vicky Wyatt from EchoWatch said "the oil and gas industry's business-as-usual mentality devastates communities, the environment, and our climate. Make no mistake, the more fossil fuel infrastructure we have, the more spills and leaks we'll see. This terrible situation must come to an end. President Obama can put these leaks, spills, and climate disasters behind us by stopping new leases in the Gulf and Arctic. It's past time to keep it in the ground for good." As the government lets more oil companies drill offshore the more problems it will cause. The gulf is still struggling from the Deepwater Horizon explosion which is one of a decade long of oil spills but certainly the biggest one that affected more life than it helped. There needs to be no more drilling in the gulf so the sea life can to normal and flourish. This is why the use of fossil fuel burning should be limited because the less that's used the less our atmospheres and planet will have to deal with it.

However, the human race is striving to make changes for a better earth. For example, Tesla came out with the first electric car that can go from zero to sixty in 2.8 seconds. Tesla is still striving to be the best and keep making better electric cars with a longer battery life. The world is moving in a different direction with electric, solar, and many more alternative power sources. Tesla has also made solar panels that look like roof shingles and are just as good or even better than the more traditional solar panels seen on houses. This could be our future; little oil use and much more electric or solar use.

You have to wonder what impacts will Tesla or any other company make to the earth when switching over to electric. What could happen to the planet? Is this just another temporary fix for the human race? These are just some of the questions that will have to be answered with time. Many things lead to climate change and many things help to reverse it. There are little things that can be done to help out, like picking up trash and recycling. While this doesn't seem like a lot, the little things can turn into big changes like cleaning up the ocean, or coming up with an idea to help cut the gases in the atmosphere. Who knows what the future will hold?