Readers reply: with governments asking us to stockpile, can we learn anything from disaster films?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts This week’s question: if I get a dumbphone, how will I cope in a smartphone world?

As I was building pyramids of loo roll and tinned beans in response to the government’s Be Ready campaign , launched this week, I got to thinking about what other aspects of modern life might help us to get through an emergency. Specifically, our extensive back catalogue of disaster movies, TV series and the like. We’ve imagined catastrophes hitting the human race in so many ways, with so many different outcomes. Are there any useful tips we can take from our library of entertaining, effects-laden…