ABSTRACT
In the Cold War, how-to guides preparing people for the nuclear fallout gave a new shape to the apocalypse of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. As the end of the world was no longer just a myth but a ‘man-made’ risk to be managed, the visual representations of ‘the End’ became institutional, illustrative, didactic, accessible and close to home. The apocalypse came dressed up in a ‘safety suit’ in the form of a guidebook. Survival manuals and toolkits have permeated popular culture for many decades through self-help literature and DIY movements, but they have become entirely mainstream in the age of climate change. As tips in bullet points suggest changes in how customers eat, travel, live, dress and partake in civil society, they also propose strategies to cope with climate change distress. These guides turn preoccupations for the future into action plans and simple illustrations through the mixed repertoire of achievable goals and apocalyptic warnings. This chapter presents a critical interrogation of these how-to guides by (a) framing them in the contexts of the survival guide manuals from the Cold War up to very recently; and (b) exploring their function and relevance for climate change activism by looking at the different strategies they propose for avoiding the apocalypse.
