One thing I always look at in post-apocalyptic literature is how they treat transportation: notably, are people still driving cars and how long can they do so and under what conditions?

Entering our current oil crunch, I think it’s obvious how fragile the ecosystem around cars are, but just letting the car sit unused and untreated for as little as a month can start to introduce\ problems. The idea that you can just pop into a car that’s been abandoned for 3 years, pull the keys out from behind the visor, and start driving is unrealistic.

  • Best: The Postman. We’re back to walking and riding horses.

  • Good: The Last of Us, Season 1. People walk or ride horses, when our heroes DO find a working truck, it is treated as the jackpot it is–and I think it even had a spare gas tank in the back to maximize distance traveled to harvest gasoline. Realistically, gas as a fuel for fires would be a valuable enough commodity that it would have been scavenged, but they need to do some traveling and high speed dragons are not available in this genre (Reign of Fire aside).

  • Worst: Jericho. Nuclear explosions in the US pretty much wreck everything and despite the town of Jericho being completely isolated, people just drive their pickup trucks around all seasons long without comment. Horses and bicycles are maddeningly present but rarely used. I think the show thought American audiences could accept a premise where the federal government collapses after multiple nuclear strikes, but not where people in Kansas got off oil dependency–that would be too out there.

  • someguy3@lemmy.world
    31·
    22 hours ago

    ??? You don’t need infinite grass to feed a horse. It grows. They roam.

    Humans need to plant specific species that we can digest, and then process it so that we can digest those parts because we can’t eat the whole thing, and then cook it. We can’t just eat it raw in the field. This is nowhere near the same. I can’t even.

    You do know wild horses exist right?

    *I think I’m just gonna leave it at that.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
      52·
      22 hours ago

      Nice mansplaining, city person. I’m from a farming family, and live in a rural area that has all these things.

      You need a certain amount of pasture land (and fodder during the winter). If you don’t have enough, the grass runs out - that’s called overgrazing.

      (And because I’ve had this kind of argument on Lemmy before, imma point out that the animals you eat probably ate staple crops. On this continent, at least, we grain-finish everything)

      We can’t just eat it raw in the field. This is nowhere near the same. I can’t even.

      No, you gather it, pull off the seeds, and if you want to avoid a lot of chewing, grind it a bit. I’m sure all ready from your local bakery it seems like magic, but it’s not.

      • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.worksOP
        2·
        7 hours ago

        ou need a certain amount of pasture land (and fodder during the winter). If you don’t have enough, the grass runs out - that’s called overgrazing.

        Access to land is rarely an issue in the post-apocolypse.

        Horse shoes are technology from 600 AD, easy enough to replicate and obviously not necessary.

        The first cavalry was fielded 4,000 years ago–that we know of. I think we can scrape together the technology, especially in fair climates.

        And, yes, you do have to feed horses. Thank you for that information.