APOCALYPSE NOW

As the Doomsday Clock is set one second closer to midnight and war rages on worldwide, Charlotte Cripps meets the people preparing for the end of civilisation... just in case

- Charlotte Cripps

After a recent playdate, a dad friend of mine told me that he and his family would be able to survive off-grid during a national crisis. He's well prepared for it, in fact. He stockpiles food in barns and frozen meat in freezers. Along with canned goods, long-life milk, rice and grains. He works in cybersecurity and told me that at his second home in Wales, where he has a few acres, he's got enough supplies - along with solar and diesel power generators - to keep them all safe for a month. He's also trained his children, ages eight and 11, to shoot, fish and fend for themselves.

"Why not just be ready for all situations?" he said. "The UK hasn't got contingency measures in place to the extent that we would need for a large-scale alternative plan for clean water, energy and food. [The country] is a lot more fragile than people realise. If a cyberattack does manage to shut down our power supply, most banks and utilities have back-up, but if we run out of power, we lose our phone signal because there's not enough energy."

It got me thinking. I stockpile antibiotics just in case. And I do worry about asteroids. But should I be more worried about the state of the world? Just last month, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists set their symbolic Doomsday Clock forward one second, making it 89 to midnight - the closest to oblivion it's ever been. They had much to pull from, they said: the Russia-Ukraine war, conflicts in the Middle East, the threat of nuclear conflict, climate change, the AI arms race, and a looming bird flu pandemic. But is going all out with an underground bunker or a supply of dry food mere common sense, or a sign that you've allowed your paranoia to run rampant?