How To Survive The End Of The World is a 2013 docudrama series created by National Geographic in which experts discuss extreme hypothetical disasters and how we could survive them. It first premiered on December 10, 2013 with the episode titled "Zombie Earth." Five more episodes were produced from 2013-2014 with the final episode being "Flooded Earth" that premiered on July 20, 2014.
Tropes found generally throughout the series include:
- Apocalypse How: Ranging from Class 1 to Class 4 though Humanity survives in one form or another.
- Artistic License: Downplayed. Whist possible all of these disasters are extrodinarily unlikely to happen within the near future.
- Crapsack World: Frozen Earth and Hell on Earth by virtue of humanity being reduced to subterrainian habitats or nomadic scavengers respectively.
- Cosmic Horror Story: Scenarios involving stuff from outside of the solar system.
- Monumental Damage: Episodes featuring physical destruction
- Natural Disaster Cascade: Most of these start off small with it gradually getting worse and worse.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: The ending to each episodes go over how humanity ulitmately persevered throughout the catastrophe.
- Storyboarding the Apocalypse: Experts discuss what would happen during these scenarios and how we could adapt to them
Tropes specific to each episode:
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Zombie Earth
- Apocalypse How: A potential Class 3B only for the ultimate outcome to be a Class 1 verging on Class 2.
- Zombie Apocalypse: What the episode is named after as well as the behaviour of those infected with the modified rabies strain.
Flooded Earth
- All for Nothing: The EU (or whats left of it) proposes to create a Dam around the city of Madrid, Spain to protect it from the flood. Whilst it does hold against the water, they didn't take into account larger pieces of the accretion disc impacting the now global ocean and the resulting tsunamis that destroy the dam alongside the last bastion of dry land on Earth.
- Apocalypse How: Class 1, with a real threat of Class 2 verging on Class 3 before it ultimately ends up as Class 1
- City on the Water: Humanity adapts and survives the global flood by living on floating cities scattered across the global ocean, they also manage to survive the tsunamis by using a design based off certain boats.
- Detonation Moon: A 1,000km cometnote from outside the solar system **obliterates** The Moon and spreads remains of it and the comet into a ring system/accretion disc around Earth.
- Monumental Damage: The Gateway Arch in St Louis is destroyed due a semi-truck colliding with it and exploding as a result of the city being flooded.
- The Great Flood: As a result of the Comet's debris entering the atmosphere, vapourising and then condensing as rain for 300 years, most, if not all, dry land of Earth is completely submerged. And unlike most stories invoking this trope, the Earth remains flooded for the rest of it's existence.
- When It Rains, It Pours: An extreme example considering that the rain caused by the accretion disc does not stop for 300 years until the entire Earth is flooded.
