zombies and climate

[Wyldwraith]

Not so sure about truly "natural" disasters, BUT, when the remnants of the military go all scorched earth on the hordes, metric tons of them would be destroyed in the infernos of cities burning unchecked after being ignited by thermobaric bombs and the like. Hell, even reactors melting down, or the 10,000 high-hazard dams built above major cities and floodplains now occupied by huge swathes of suburbia would take them out. When a 50 foot high wall of mud, debris the size of cars being carried along like they were toys and water hits you, it doesn't matter if you're already dead. Either A) The force of the water/debris slamming into the zombies will shatter every bone in their bodies, rendering them still-active, but 90% non-functional slabs of shredded flesh and shattered bone infecting the water supply for huge geographical regions, or B) the flood/mudslide traps the more undamaged "surviving"/structurally intact ghouls beneath/between immovable masses of debris in natural depressions that act as catchnets for the larger debris-masses as the water rushes past. The collapse of the infrastructure supporting civilization from the absence of human maintenance efforts will do more damage in the end to the zombie hordes than anything but massive hurricanes, lambars and maybe the odd volcanic eruption. Of course, whose to say what effect the radiation proliferating by wind and water from melted-down nuclear reactors would have on whatever factor is animating the dead, ditto fallout from surgical nuke strikes on large zombie concentrations. Any discussion of undead decay via any factor inevitably breaks down into asking the basic question. What's making them move around post-death and eat live people? Know that, and you can make some educated guesses on what effect scavengers and enhanced decomposition factors like insects, microbes and hostile environments might have. I mean, if its as simple as some weird virus jump-starting basic nervous system functions, that could imply all but the hard-core scavengers with adaptations allowing them to consume the most rotted, pathogen and parasite-infested carrion without harm would leave them alone. As to natural predators. Look at how many of them really don't seem to like chewing on people once we roll over and die from their attack? Bears kill bunches of people, but only during VERY lean years does even partial consumption of more than a few incidental mouthfuls occur. We're just not that calorie-rich, especially once we get REALLY decomposed. Hyenas, buzzards, flies and crocodilians would all probably be able to happily munch of zombies if a virus is behind them. If they're radioactive in origin, that pretty much rules out bacteria and SOME viruses (plus viruses dont have much to do with rot), and depending on the nature of and intensity of the radiation, might rapidly kill off populations of potential scavengers. Cadavers hot with high rad-counts of beta or gamma radiation would definitely be lethal to many scavengers.

[hadrian0117]

In marshes and swamps they'd probably decompose fairly quickly, given the large amount of insects and bacteria that feed on flesh. Romero never addressed this, but Max Brooks did in the Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. All scavangers from bacteria to buzzards avoid z-flesh; this also explains where they decompose so slowly.

[EvilNed]

Romero never addressed this, but Max Brooks did in the Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. All scavangers from bacteria to buzzards avoid z-flesh; this also explains where they decompose so slowly. Right, but I don't really "buy" that theory. I think it's sort of a cop-out.