Ask HN: How to prepare for climate change events
14 comments
As I see it, this is closely related to the wildfire preparedness promoted by the FireWise organization (Firewise.org takes you to http://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Fire-causes-and-risks/W... ).
I’m on the FireWise Committe for my HOA, and I’m trying to make various improvements around our house on an intermittent but ongoing basis. This is one of those things where you can almost always improve in some area.
I’m on the FireWise Committe for my HOA, and I’m trying to make various improvements around our house on an intermittent but ongoing basis. This is one of those things where you can almost always improve in some area.
You could look at some prepper forums/sites.
I guess it depends on what you think will happen. If you think heat will be an issue where you are, then probably look at passive cooling. Off grid power, water, and sanitation could be good if you think there will grid overload/interruption. Gardening can be a great idea without these fears too. If you start now, then it could be easier to scale if you had to.
On the note of food prices, is it really due to burning fields? Where I'm at it has been due to inflation and temporary covid supply chain issues.
I guess it depends on what you think will happen. If you think heat will be an issue where you are, then probably look at passive cooling. Off grid power, water, and sanitation could be good if you think there will grid overload/interruption. Gardening can be a great idea without these fears too. If you start now, then it could be easier to scale if you had to.
On the note of food prices, is it really due to burning fields? Where I'm at it has been due to inflation and temporary covid supply chain issues.
Get to know your neighbors would be my one piece of advice. Barring really horrible disasters (which may be coming, but I'll probably be dead), you'll still be involved in a social fabric, and strengthening that will make everything else less difficult.
As sibling comment mentioned, prepper sites have all kinds of lists and whatnot, but it really depends on your assessment of how bad the situation will be.
As sibling comment mentioned, prepper sites have all kinds of lists and whatnot, but it really depends on your assessment of how bad the situation will be.
You're more likely to have to deal with weather in the short term, as others have said, get to know your neighbors. Perhaps join or start a community network. (Network of people, not computers)
David Pogue (formerly of the New York Times, and sometimes host of Nova) recently released a book literally titled “How to prepare for climate change”
[1] https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/How-to-Prepare-for-Cl...
[1] https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/How-to-Prepare-for-Cl...
If you are looking to buy a house for your family to live in for next 20 years or so, pay attention to the topography of the places you are interested in.
Find out areas more prone to flooding and stay away from them.
Similarly, find our average air quality levels over the span of last few years.
Having a safe place to stay put for longer times will be crucial in case of a drastic climate event.
Find out areas more prone to flooding and stay away from them.
Similarly, find our average air quality levels over the span of last few years.
Having a safe place to stay put for longer times will be crucial in case of a drastic climate event.
Flooding is a big one to avoid, as it comes in many forms.
Direct flooding may be easish to avoid because of flood plain maps, although changes in the environment elsewhere may change flood risks and may not always be reflected in the flood maps. Paying attention to elevation and sloping/drainage is important. If your house is even with the street, and your street floods, your house did too; if your house is up a couple or ten feet above the street, there's a lot more water needed to flood. If your house is below the street, your driveway is an invitation for water coming down the street into your house.
But beyond that, if you're on or near a significant hill, landslide as a result of flooding or saturation is an issue to consider.
Trees + flooding + wind often equals fallen trees; you want some room around your house for those to fall without hitting your house, if possible.
Consider the paths utilities takes and roads take as well. Flooded roads can become impassible by car. Aboveground utilities are impacted by tree falls, but underground utilities are difficult and time consuming to repair if land movement or rushing water cause trouble.
Direct flooding may be easish to avoid because of flood plain maps, although changes in the environment elsewhere may change flood risks and may not always be reflected in the flood maps. Paying attention to elevation and sloping/drainage is important. If your house is even with the street, and your street floods, your house did too; if your house is up a couple or ten feet above the street, there's a lot more water needed to flood. If your house is below the street, your driveway is an invitation for water coming down the street into your house.
But beyond that, if you're on or near a significant hill, landslide as a result of flooding or saturation is an issue to consider.
Trees + flooding + wind often equals fallen trees; you want some room around your house for those to fall without hitting your house, if possible.
Consider the paths utilities takes and roads take as well. Flooded roads can become impassible by car. Aboveground utilities are impacted by tree falls, but underground utilities are difficult and time consuming to repair if land movement or rushing water cause trouble.
This is obviously a massive, unanswerable, difficult question. (It's also a great question, in my opinion!) I'll just throw some thoughts out there, from my US-centric point of view:
The way I think about climate change and collapse is that, at least in the near-term, doesn't look like The Day After Tomorrow. It looks like more blackouts, more storms, bigger wildfires, more potholes in the street, higher food prices, etc. A bunch of small things piling up, sometimes slowly and sometimes fast. It looks like trying to convince your grandma not to move back into the house that got flooded in the last storm, or your local hardware store running out of N95s.
In the very short term, it seems clear that we're likely to see continued issues with air quality, extreme weather events, and infrastructure issues. Several other people have mentioned getting to know your neighbors, and I think that's an excellent idea (plus it's nice to know your neighbors, climate aside).
For myself, I also have a few things I keep around that help me stay relaxed and prepared for temporary lapses in some of the systems we rely upon. Most of this is very basic emergency preparedness stuff and doesn't get close to "prepper" sorts of things:
- N95 masks and respirators (were useful in the pandemic, but I originally had them bc of the west coast wildfires... which recently blanketed the entire country in their smoke, so it's not just a west coast thing, really.)
- Air purifier, similarly for air quality issues, whether from wildfires or regular ol' pollution.
- Several gallons of bottled water and non-perishable snacks, for storms and blackouts.
- A few big bags of rice and beans, some canned food.
- A toolkit, a bike,... general useful stuff for fixing and repairing stuff for when you can't just order new parts or tools online.
- Sizable first-aid kit and basic medications. Having an epi-pen and antibiotics on hand is very valuable, although both are tricky to get hold of.
I also think that getting involved in mutual aid and community groups can be really rewarding and give you a sense of what things might look like when the world gets even trickier than it is today. Americans have a lot of end-of-world type fantasies that involve guns, SUVs plowing through crowds of rabble, etc. Those are self-fulfilling fantasies in some ways (if you run around being threatening or violent, you will find yourself surrounded by angry people), but even with those kinds of guys roaming around, the reality of disasters is that they bring people together. My goal is to have people I can rely upon to help me, but also to be over-prepared so that I can support people around me and be an asset to my family and neighborhood.
Some links & resources I like: [David Holmgren](https://holmgren.com.au/crash-demand/) and his book RetroSuburbia; [resilience.org](https://www.resilience.org/); [Transition Towns](https://transitionnetwork.org/); Gayle Tverberg's [Our Finite World](https://ourfiniteworld.com/2021/02/03/where-energy-modeling-...) blog.
The way I think about climate change and collapse is that, at least in the near-term, doesn't look like The Day After Tomorrow. It looks like more blackouts, more storms, bigger wildfires, more potholes in the street, higher food prices, etc. A bunch of small things piling up, sometimes slowly and sometimes fast. It looks like trying to convince your grandma not to move back into the house that got flooded in the last storm, or your local hardware store running out of N95s.
In the very short term, it seems clear that we're likely to see continued issues with air quality, extreme weather events, and infrastructure issues. Several other people have mentioned getting to know your neighbors, and I think that's an excellent idea (plus it's nice to know your neighbors, climate aside).
For myself, I also have a few things I keep around that help me stay relaxed and prepared for temporary lapses in some of the systems we rely upon. Most of this is very basic emergency preparedness stuff and doesn't get close to "prepper" sorts of things:
- N95 masks and respirators (were useful in the pandemic, but I originally had them bc of the west coast wildfires... which recently blanketed the entire country in their smoke, so it's not just a west coast thing, really.)
- Air purifier, similarly for air quality issues, whether from wildfires or regular ol' pollution.
- Several gallons of bottled water and non-perishable snacks, for storms and blackouts.
- A few big bags of rice and beans, some canned food.
- A toolkit, a bike,... general useful stuff for fixing and repairing stuff for when you can't just order new parts or tools online.
- Sizable first-aid kit and basic medications. Having an epi-pen and antibiotics on hand is very valuable, although both are tricky to get hold of.
I also think that getting involved in mutual aid and community groups can be really rewarding and give you a sense of what things might look like when the world gets even trickier than it is today. Americans have a lot of end-of-world type fantasies that involve guns, SUVs plowing through crowds of rabble, etc. Those are self-fulfilling fantasies in some ways (if you run around being threatening or violent, you will find yourself surrounded by angry people), but even with those kinds of guys roaming around, the reality of disasters is that they bring people together. My goal is to have people I can rely upon to help me, but also to be over-prepared so that I can support people around me and be an asset to my family and neighborhood.
Some links & resources I like: [David Holmgren](https://holmgren.com.au/crash-demand/) and his book RetroSuburbia; [resilience.org](https://www.resilience.org/); [Transition Towns](https://transitionnetwork.org/); Gayle Tverberg's [Our Finite World](https://ourfiniteworld.com/2021/02/03/where-energy-modeling-...) blog.
What about the expiry dates on all of the medication/food. You cannot just buy stuff in bulk and let it sit for 20 years waiting for the right time to use it.
I guess for food you can just use it as you go and just refill what you used occasionally and keeping high levels of supply. But for medication I don't see other option than throwing it away when it expires?
I guess for food you can just use it as you go and just refill what you used occasionally and keeping high levels of supply. But for medication I don't see other option than throwing it away when it expires?
Expiration dates are maybe a hedge by the manufacturer? Our pediatrician said of some medication we had on hand that it’s probably good way past the printed date, maybe a bit less effective over time, and I’ve heard this about Aspirin, for example. What drugs actually break down quickly over time of kept in the recommended temperature range?
I believe that's mostly true, but, on the other hand, some drugs (notably antibiotics of the tetracyclines family) become quite dangerous as they degrade...
A few thoughts, after reading the other seven comments:
How long do you care about the lives you touch, and life on earth in general, surviving? If beyond your own, lobbying those who make regulations that guide the actions of many more than you is a priority. Relates to “build relationships with your neighbors”, on a grand scale. Start, however small, increasing the carbon content of your soil (anywhere you can, ehich might be by volunteering at a community garden) by composting food waste, cardboard, paper, yard waste, etc. I’ve had good results adding my urine to our compost and diluting it with water for the garden; adds N, saves housewater. Working towards recycling poop. I also add wood ashes for the K, and am practicing how to pyrolize rather than fully combust wood scraps. Promoting the health of microbes, invertebrates, insects, birds, small mammals, on up to beaver, deer, elk, cougars, and wolves (again, depends on location; maybe the most you see more of is birds and smaller) is helpful, as these animals eat and excrete on the land. More diverse plants will help more animals get by, and eventually some sort of forest landscape (including cacti as trees in deserts) will help provide shade and food and cleaner water. In the midwestern US, returning in part to the deep roots of prairie grasses and the beaver-engineered wetlands will help buffer against extreme weather.
To get to this “re-wilded” state we’ll need to reprioritize how we collectively convert energy. Want to keep burning hydrocarbons? Let’s do it in the interest of improving energy-conversion methods that don’t contribute so much to climate change.
Promoting the care of people that live nearby, downwind, and downstream from chemical plants, smelters, etc. is a way to help, too. See How to Save A Planet podcast for more.
See also:
All We Can Save, edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katherine K. Wilkinson
Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Eager (about beavers in North America)
And so many more authors trying to push for awareness and change that aligns more closely with values of stewardship and reciprocity rather than dominion and exploitation. I will die, I’m okay with that, and I care less about being remembered than about other people continuing a healthier human story for millennia to come.
How long do you care about the lives you touch, and life on earth in general, surviving? If beyond your own, lobbying those who make regulations that guide the actions of many more than you is a priority. Relates to “build relationships with your neighbors”, on a grand scale. Start, however small, increasing the carbon content of your soil (anywhere you can, ehich might be by volunteering at a community garden) by composting food waste, cardboard, paper, yard waste, etc. I’ve had good results adding my urine to our compost and diluting it with water for the garden; adds N, saves housewater. Working towards recycling poop. I also add wood ashes for the K, and am practicing how to pyrolize rather than fully combust wood scraps. Promoting the health of microbes, invertebrates, insects, birds, small mammals, on up to beaver, deer, elk, cougars, and wolves (again, depends on location; maybe the most you see more of is birds and smaller) is helpful, as these animals eat and excrete on the land. More diverse plants will help more animals get by, and eventually some sort of forest landscape (including cacti as trees in deserts) will help provide shade and food and cleaner water. In the midwestern US, returning in part to the deep roots of prairie grasses and the beaver-engineered wetlands will help buffer against extreme weather.
To get to this “re-wilded” state we’ll need to reprioritize how we collectively convert energy. Want to keep burning hydrocarbons? Let’s do it in the interest of improving energy-conversion methods that don’t contribute so much to climate change.
Promoting the care of people that live nearby, downwind, and downstream from chemical plants, smelters, etc. is a way to help, too. See How to Save A Planet podcast for more.
See also:
All We Can Save, edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katherine K. Wilkinson
Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Eager (about beavers in North America)
And so many more authors trying to push for awareness and change that aligns more closely with values of stewardship and reciprocity rather than dominion and exploitation. I will die, I’m okay with that, and I care less about being remembered than about other people continuing a healthier human story for millennia to come.
You could look at joining DGR (https://deepgreenresistance.org/), which is building a community to solve climate change by ending civilization. They have a good documentary on problems with "green" energy and agriculture you can watch to learn more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t71rS7067aY
The also offer training https://deepgreenresistance.org/training/
The also offer training https://deepgreenresistance.org/training/
Is learning to garden certain plants or practicing certain skills could be useful for this grim future?