> we all have reason to be very, very concerned
What are you going to do about it? Armed revolution? Hoard enough food to ensure that you survive a few months longer than the rest of humanity?
What are you going to do about it? Armed revolution? Hoard enough food to ensure that you survive a few months longer than the rest of humanity?
You don't need to be a doomsday prepper to be prepared. And you don't need a complete collapse of society for things to get uncomfortable for you.
You should have at least 3 days of food and water, as well as other essential supplies (blankets, first aid kit, radio) in a bag or convenient location, ready to go in an emergency.
During the “great storm” we had in London where we had like maybe 5” of snow fall and everything stopped working I had people seriously complaining and telling war stories about going hungry because they couldn’t get food delivered...
Like seriously any small scale natural disaster or even a local utilities outage can cause issues to so many unprepared people it’s not even funny.
I keep some basic canned / dry food enough for about a week for 2 people, 20 liters of bottled water and several high capacity charged chargers and I live in W2 London.
I believe that they're discouraged because they tend to do more harm than good when applying a gauze and pressure is sufficient. People tend to go overkill.
However, there are situations where they save lives. This is why simply having first aid supplies isn't sufficient, but actually knowing what to do is essential as well.
Things to consider:
- Disruptions to communications.
- Disruptions in emergency police/fire/ems response
- Gasoline and diesel gone in 24 hours (or worse... I was on a coastal island where a hurricane suddenly turned -- all gas was sold within 6 hours of the hurricane warning!)
- Electricity disruption
- Mass transit shutdown
- Shutdown this of highways and other roads.
Basically, there’s a 72 hour “oh shit” phase (priority: your safety), 4-10 days of the new normal formulating (priority: protect your property), and then the new normal (deal with consequences, if any).
How to prepare depends on risk. If you live in a floodplain or on the coast, you should have a clue about how you’re going to need to think about a couple of weeks post flood or hurricane. In other places, it’s probably good to think about what to do when a snowstorm knocks out power for a week.
Of course I have no idea what to do because why the heck would you think about that unless you were an actual doomsday prepper?
Likely outcomes at that stage is gigantic food crisis and the catastrophe that would follow so you'd need to store quite alot of bags of rice to get through that.
This is my thinking too. Not just for you though, you need to be able to feed a self sustaining community (probably 100 or more people). Considered also taking some technological stores too. Water tech, refined metal stocks, manual and lower tech power tools. Maybe even some spare solar panels, inverters, battery electrolytes.
Though I haven't thought deeply enough to actually work out any timescales for the size of stocks required. Picking the right climate is probably the most important part though. Even if there is great change, some places are still going to be more arable than others, and surely that is at least partially predictable.
May I suggest taking up a lifestyle at this time and more or less in the place you are - assuming you're not in some jam-packed city where all hope is lost the moment society does break down for some time (New Orleans during Katarina is a good example of what will happen)? If you do live in such a place and will not consider to move out of it this won't work but if you have some space around you which you can call your own it makes sense to start using it in a productive way by growing something useful.
Dig a well if you can, a dug well is more reliable than a deep-drilled one as you can get water when the power fails (which it does quite often where I live out in the Swedish countryside thanks to storms or careless snow plough drivers and such).
If you don't live in a forested area you can start planting trees on less productive or hard to till soil, you'll need between 2 and 4 hectares to keep a house with around 200m2 of living area warmed to today's standards, less if you make the wise decision to lower them a bit. This does assume you have a wood-burning stove and cooking stove, of course - get those and use them regularly. Plant some fruit trees, berry bushes, a plot of potatoes (which you'll have to move around year after year as you should not grow potatoes in soil which carried them the year before or the one before that), root vegetables, easy stuff. For fun and profit you can add hops which will allow you to brew beer if you can get hold of barley - you could grow it yourself but it takes a lot of land and is a lot of work if you do everything by hand. Just make sure to think in practical terms, you're not trying to relive some Swiss Family Robinson fantasy but trying to live in a way which makes you and yours less dependent on the intricate workings of society, irrespective of whether any doomsday-scenario ever comes to pass or not. The less dependent you are of the trappings of 'modern' live, the less you'll suffer for the loss of such.
I saved the best bit for the end: you'll most likely be happier in the here and now by becoming more self-reliant and less dependent on 'modern' society and its... lures. That does not mean you have to become a Luddite or back-to-the-land hippy, it just means you won't feel lost by not being part of the herd which follows the latest craze, sports the latest gizmos and relishes in the latest fad. It also means you won't need to think about 'prepping' anymore, just like people who cycle to work won't need to think about going to the gym to get some exercise as they made it part of their normal life.
I hear what you're saying; However, it's mostly pointless. Climate change will eat up survivalists and off the grid types just like everyone else. What will you do when antibiotics are no longer available or your crops fail due to fire or drought (more likely now)?
Not really hating on your approach or comment, I just think people would be better off writing their senate representatives about addressing climate change or attending a peaceful rally rather than hedging their bets on going bush to survive the apocalypse.
I find i fascinating that I produce the best tasting peas in my garden, and it all originated from a small pea my son got from school. If I give a single pea to a modern person in the city, they most likely wouldn't have any idea of what to do with it.
Unfortunately, most people do live in cities where this is just out of the question. I also live in a city where arable land nearby is only borderline arable. Exactly the kind of place which is most exposed to most kinds of climate variability.
It sounds cliche, but in order to hunt a tahr, you have to think like a tahr. Once you learn their habits they're fairly easy to find and easy enough to shoot.
There's really big numbers up some of the valleys too. I've seen mobs of up to 30 before, and they just tend to stand there like idiots while you're shooting at them.
And hopefully one that doesn't rely on external inputs, and has a water supply that's not affected by climate change.
Learning how to farm it is essentially equivalent to currently farming it, or if not, then you need a few years of supplies to make it over the startup transient. With no reliable external input.
Push comes to shove, the only law will be "might makes right", so the only way to prepare for the worst is to be able to defend your assets. Being someone or friends with someone who has access to advanced weapons seems like a minimum requirement, but most important is to have a very wide social network with valuable skills to fall back on and start trading with.
Optimal average temperature for rice growing is 23-26C [0]. Current annual average temperature in, say, Japan is 16C.
A remote place with access to water and fertile soil, a lot of weapons and you're all set.
I know I'd be in trouble.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/rice-grown-in-...
https://deepgreenresistance.org/images/decisive-ecological-w...