When Yellowstone Erupts, what is your plan?

[fix-the-spade]

It'll be fine.

The thick ash will land in a couple of weeks, the fine ash will not do a great deal once it's been spread about on the jetstream. You're a first world country, you can absorb the death of a few thousand in Wyoming without too many problems.

With any luck, the fine layer of ash around the upper atmosphere will help counteract global warming.

I'll watch the Republican potential candidates blame each other for it, and promise if they are elected, to remove all volcanic activity from the US.

But surely they would be too busy blaming it on Obama, the democrats and a lack of corporate development in Yellowstone to get as far as each other?
Assuming they accept that it has happened at all...

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

Hmmm...I live in the Scotland. I take it I'm still high up on the "You are fucked-o-meter"?
I guess I'll call my girlfriend, tell her I love her and then wait for death, not much you can do when a volcano erupts and unfortunately it's a natural disaster so my normal procedure for fixing problems (swearing at it and threatening it's family with a nail-bat) just wouldn't work here.

 

[Esotera]

Stock up on salt, proceed to kill about 1000 sheep in the field next to me, and build a harem & arms dealership and watch the money flow in.

In reality, I don't know whether it'd really affect me much. The government would probably step in with emergency provisions.

 

[Ekit]

Hopefully, Sweden is far enough away that it wouldn't be a problem.

 

[BoogityBoogityMan]

I don't think that's something we have to worry about in our lifetimes.

When it does happen though... wooo. Shit's gonna get real.

Well, it is a few million years overdue for its next eruption.

 

[Naeras]

Since I'm going to die anyways, I'll beat up some drug dealers and kill myself with the heroin I loot from them. Supposedly one of the most pleasing ways to die.

 

[Daverson]

Ash Showers? Another ice age? Mate, I live in Wales, any change in the weather here would be an improvement =p

 

[Vivi22]

Stock up on salt, proceed to kill about 1000 sheep in the field next to me, and build a harem & arms dealership and watch the money flow in.

In reality, I don't know whether it'd really affect me much. The government would probably step in with emergency provisions.

Because the US government has a really great track record with disaster relief...

Frankly, if people are expecting any government to be able to do anything other than collapse after a super volcano erupts I think they're probably being a bit too optimistic.

 

[Spaghetti]

Given that Dundee, UK is clowdy, cold and dreary most of the year, I don't think I'm going to notice the Ash Cloud fueled ice age that will probably envelop the Northern Hemisphere. It'll just be a normal Scottish day

 

[Esotera]

Stock up on salt, proceed to kill about 1000 sheep in the field next to me, and build a harem & arms dealership and watch the money flow in.

In reality, I don't know whether it'd really affect me much. The government would probably step in with emergency provisions.

Because the US government has a really great track record with disaster relief...

Frankly, if people are expecting any government to be able to do anything other than collapse after a super volcano erupts I think they're probably being a bit too optimistic.

I'm from the UK and live right next to a substantial millitary base, along with about 20 miles of agricultural land any way you go. So I'd be one of the lucky ones, probably. I also have extensive building materials, food supplies, and various tools, etc. I'm relatively prepared for any disaster.

 

[Joccaren]

Well, considering I love on the other side of the world, I'm not particularly sure that this will affect me at all, and if it manages to make it way over to one of the most southern parts of Australia, then I'm very much fucked.

Pretty much this. If it is going to make it to us though, we'll have at least 24 hours warning to prepare. It takes a long time to get from the US to Aus. A long long time...

 

[Scarim Coral]

I dunno, start living underground like Gollum? Maybe I should start investing a underground reseach of building a working house underground or at least a underground bunker.

 

[WolfThomas]

I live in Australia, with any luck the weather will improve for the better.

 

[Doitpow]

hate to be annoying and realistic here, but regardless of what you have seen on panorama or the history channel, "supervolcanos" are not that big of a deal.
It's not even a scientific term, but is generally used to refer to eruptions of VEI 6+. The most dramatic predictions of the yellowstone vocano are VEI 8.
VEI 8 eruptions have occured about a hundred times in the last millennium, and there was a VEI 7 in 1991.
Their effects ARE global and ARE severe. The 1991 eruption of pinatubo reduced the GMST by about 0.5 degrees for 3 years, and the Tambora explosion caused something called "the year without summer".
so famine, yes.
extinction of a few species, possibly.
Apocalypse, definitely not.

 

[Darkwhite]

Dunno if its been said now but be thankful people will finally stop going on about global warming...I know its a problem and whatnot but damn I wish people would stop with it.

 

[Vivi22]

I'm from the UK and live right next to a substantial millitary base, along with about 20 miles of agricultural land any way you go. So I'd be one of the lucky ones, probably. I also have extensive building materials, food supplies, and various tools, etc. I'm relatively prepared for any disaster.

The trouble as I understand it though is that an eruption of super volcano, start a new ice age proportions is probably going to mean that just about every country in the northern hemisphere is going to be affected to some degree. Even the UK may experience shorter growing seasons. And even minor changes in an ecosystem magnify into massive problems when they happen in a short time period. And it's my understanding that the last time Yellowstone erupted would have made Mount St. Helen's look like something of a firecracker, and it deposited ash in 11 states.

Even if the UK were largely untouched though, the effect on the world economy of the US ceasing to exist as it does today, and perhaps millions of people trying to flee to other regions means not many places would be ok at all. A lot of people would probably die, including those less directly affected.

 

[srm79]

Hmmm...I live in the Scotland. I take it I'm still high up on the "You are fucked-o-meter"?
I guess I'll call my girlfriend, tell her I love her and then wait for death, not much you can do when a volcano erupts and unfortunately it's a natural disaster so my normal procedure for fixing problems (swearing at it and threatening it's family with a nail-bat) just wouldn't work here.

Fuck that man. The sky will be a funky colour for a few years, but most of us outside North America won't have much more to deal with than that. One documentary I watched about this suggested that western Europe was worse affected by Chernobyl than it would be by this.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

It depends: If the thing erupts within the next 1 to 3 months than I'll still be in NW-D.C. and depending on which way the winds blow the giant ash cloud I'll be fucked thanks to the aforementioned ash-tainted water mentioned by the OP. If it erupts after that then I'll be in Georgia and not quite as fucked though still quite fucked depending upon wind direction etc.

I dunno, start living underground like Gollum? Maybe I should start investing a underground reseach of building a working house underground or at least a underground bunker.

If you have the money for it, you can always buy and live in a decommissioned missile silo. They're underground and apparently it is legal to buy and, live in one. Granted I get my information from Cracked so take that for what it's worth.

http://www.cracked.com/article_17278_6-incredible-real-world-supervillain-lairs.html

You want number 4