Assuming humanity survives the apparently inevitable mass extinction event to come, we will have kept much of our culture and technology — hunter gatherers would not survive the loss of food and resources. We WILL lose some things, however, starting with
1) Russia. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. When the going gets hot, the tough get going towards the Poles. And unless someone’s built a bridge to Antarctica I don’t know about, that means heading North. Now, Russia has been generally invasion-proof for most of its history, but that is due to 3 factors. A) The Russian Winter. Which we will not be seeing again for quite some time. B) The Size of Russia. This has been a factor mainly because most invasions have been from Europe, along the long axis. This invasion will come from the south. And, finally, C) the Size of Russia’s Population. Russia has the third largest population in the world, giving it a large army. Unfortunately, this time, the invaders will come from the world’s first and second biggest populations. Watch out, Vlad — India’s coming for an extended visit, and your army is going to be busy fending off China!. In addition, we must not forget the Middle East. Most of it is already very hot, and very well armed. The Stans to their north are already very Islamic. Expect an influx. Also, the leaders of the Saudis are both royal and ruthless, and unlikely to settle for a little cottage in Uzbekistan. More likely they will want the Presidential Palace, and the perks thereof. Oh, and Israel will also want to some — and they have nukes.
2) Canada As for Canada, well, it is north of the world leaders in cognitive dissonance. They will not see any connection between what they want and what a lot of Mexicans, Syrians, and assorted others have wanted from them over the years. They will be coming over the border tanks first, and if Canada blows the bridges, the army will just make an end run around Lake Superior. Too bad, Canada. I just wonder how the U.S. will keep the Mexicans from following them into the Yukon.
3) Automobiles. Why? NO ROADS! Travel in the Northlands has always been limited to aircraft and the occasional dogsled, and while some industry leader might manage to have an assembly plant for ATVs disassembled and shipped to Alaska, I don’t see a lot of people driving 50 miles cross country every day to get to work. Nor do I foresee anyone digging up 20,000 miles of asphalt to drag north.
4) Pets. Sure, we’ll bring some animals up north with us. However, every animal we save and feed will have to pull its weight. Goats are the trifecta, giving milk, wool, and eventually meat, and the standard by which all other survivors of the mass extinction will be judged. Which means if you’re planning on taking your Bishon with you, it better be because you’ve got a great recipe for dog.
5) Wealth. We will do our best to save what we can from museums and universities, and individuals will carry what they can. However, much of our infrastructure is immovable, and there is not a lot of building materials. An unfortunate fact of history is that most of it happened fairly close to the equator, which is the section of Earth that’s about to become uninhabitable. A special emergency effort might (hopefully will) dismantle a few key factories and facilities, but there’s going to be lean pickings for quite a while. You will et what you need, and no more.
6) Grandma. Care for the overly aged, and the differently-abled, has always been reserved for rich cultures, which we will no longer be for a long time. The left and right alike will weep over euthanasia, but it will become a part of life. For the survivors, anyway.
7) Candy. No chocolate, no coffee, no sugar cane, no hard to grow crops, little to no honey or fruit. No grapes for wine. Grains will be saved for bread, not beer. Your grandkids will forget what fun was like.
8) Urban Life. Anchorage is a city — except to those living in Manhattan. With its population of about 300,000, it ranks way down on the list of biggest urban spreads, yet it will almost certainly become the West’s new capital. Certainly it will beat out rivals like Dawson City and Yellowknife, both of whom still have saloons, and possibly sheriffs.
9) The Oil Industry. See #2 above.Yes, they will drill in Alaska, and Exxon will manage to get taxpayer dollars dollars to pay for construction of a refinery, but the demand will no longer be there. No cars, and oil profits have always depended upon the needs of the millions of private vehicles that exists now.
10) Capitalism (as we know it). We are going to have a state of emergency that will last into our grandchildren’s lifetimes, which means the government will be running things. OK, so it will be socialism. That’s what you get for destroying the environment, capitalists. Meanwhile, don’t expect the government to be made up of the 1% and their lackeys. That shit works during good times, but nobody is going to tolerate them way up north. Planned Obsolescence, the key to the mass production system and industry as we know it, will be untenable. Things will have to be made to last, and last, and last.
11) Survivalists. The weekend warriors and right wing gun nuts are about to learn the difference between a weekend and a decade, and between a wannabe militiaman and a real one. Their pleas for Twinkies and sex toys will not work this time. Those that decide to live out in their own communities will be allowed to. The survivors who crawl back afterwards will pitch in or be pitched out.
12) Professional sports. If the Anchorage Huskies are going to play the Yellowknife Polar Bears, it will have to be at Overwatch or Warcraft. There will be no touring teams with private planes or stadiums for the duration of the emergency, which will be lasting for generations.
13) Tourism and Resorts. Visit sunny Reykjavik! Yeah, no. I don’t think so. The beaches will be flooded, the hotels abandoned.
14) The 1%. The ultra-rich are not rocket scientists. Some are computer scientists, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that the trust fund babies, whose education stopped with their MBAs, are showing little or no understanding of the problems they are about to encounter. Some are looking at uploading their minds to the Cloud. I doubt they’ve given much thought to how to keep the Cloud from evaporating when the power grids go down.. Some are looking at New Zealand. The current environment of NZ is listed as sub-tropical to temperate, which in the future will mean Mad Max movie to lifeless. They will have to move underground, giving NZ another reason to call itself the Hobbit Capital of the World. Some are looking at The Moon and Mars, which would leave them spending the rest of their lives at the scout camp from hell. All of these cases have one thing in common — they will not be anywhere near us.
This is merely the tip of the quickly melting iceberg, of course, but if you shove this list under a few noses, maybe we can still avoid the worst catastrophe in history.