'Recession Apocalypse': Preparing for the End of the World

Economic Survivalists Hunker Down for Doomsday; Recession Triggers Movement Toward Self-Sufficiency

In the serene hills of rural upstate New York, Kathie Breault is hunkering down for doomsday. It’s not an all-out Armageddon that the 51-year-old grandmother is convinced of, but an imminent economic apocalypse.

A few years ago, Breault began reading about what happens when the world surpasses “peak oil” — a point where we will use more oil than we can produce.

“I was afraid that any day that oil would disappear, that gas would start to disappear, that I wouldn’t be able to get to work, I wouldn’t have money, I wouldn’t have food that I needed,” she said. “It was frightening — the picture that was painted.”

Breault and a growing number of so-called “economic survivalists,” are convinced that when oil supply wanes, the world will head for calamity; governments and the global economy will dissolve into chaos and collapse, the group believes, changing life as we know it.

…Breault isn’t alone in her transformation. Thousands are hunkering down for an economic apocalypse and share comments about converging catastrophes on Web sites and Internet message boards, like Peakoil.com.

Some survivalists have moved to rural homesteads, or what they call “doomsteads,” where they can live off the land, raise their own livestock and grow their own vegetables. Others are stockpiling food and guns in case widespread panic breaks out.

ABC