I'd echo this. Sadly. I've been doing research into hydroponic farms and how to build them. Grow my own food in basements. How to build a disaster shelter. All the things the doomsday preppers do. My internet ads are now on par with QAnon conspiracies and how to survive the apocalypse. It's depressing. It's demoralizing. It's real.
It's kind of bizarre that "prepping" (I prefer "preparedness" and fortunately like gardening anyway) is associated with the right when we have sober-minded scientists literally saying civilization stands a very good chance of collapsing. I think a lot of people "believe" in climate change, but relatively few people _believe_ in it, if that makes sense. It's coming.
"Prepping" became a "lifestyle", which means that it has become dominated by companies looking to peddle things to people whose judgment has been clouded by fear. There are ways to prepare for a climate-induced collapse of civilization, but stockpiling guns and MREs in a bomb-proof bunker will only suffice as a survival aid as long as there are people out who are actually prepared with agricultural know-how and tools (with the idea being, presumably, that you use your guns to threaten them to give you food (foolishly assuming that the farmers don't also have guns)).
Is this "winter is coming", "the end is near" tone helpful? I'm not necessarily saying it's outright false, but look, there've been past times where the end truly felt near, but we managed to overcome it... Again, we might not this time, but why should we bet against us? Does anyone want to be the lone survivor in the post-apocalypse? Sorry if overreacting.
No need to be sorry. It's really depressing, obviously I hope I'm actually wrong.
I find it useful because we might, in fact, overcome this, but for now we seem to be on track for 3+C of warming within my kids' lifetimes, wet bulb temperatures making a decent chunk of the Earth uninhabitable (even naked healthy people will die sitting in the shade), the loss of the majority of insects we need for pollination, sea level rise giving us millions of homeless people, wars breaking out over access to resources, increasing ocean acidity and anoxia threatening sea life, accelerating self-reinforcing carbon emissions (hotter weather melting permafrost releasing methane making weather hotter, ice sheets melting reducing albedo making Earth warmer and melting more ice) etc. and all of those put together don't make me optimistic.
Unfortunately the problem with "we managed to overcome it" is that everyone who didn't manage to overcome is not around to comment. I certainly aim to be someone who "manages to overcome it" but that won't happen by being ignorant of the dangers we face and failing to adjust my life in ways that maximize the probability of this.
I don't think you'd be the lone survivor in the post-apocalypse, short of going full Venus the planet will sustain _some_ life, including humans, hopefully. Where there are groups of people, or most other mammals I'd venture. there is at least the possibility of joy.
IPCC working group 1 is putting out a draft report Monday, let's see what they say.
Yeah, I hear you, but in this case I'm not attacking the left or the right here. I'm simply saying "prepping" as in "preparedness" for impending doomsday (not armageddon) where climate change has forced us all to rethink the modern life. Non-political. Survival.
I think the difference is right wing "preppers" are more individualistic. For them it's about saving themselves and their immediate family. The left acknowledges that we live in a society. And the real power to prevent happens at a societal level. So their energy is focused more on fixing government and through high leverage policy changes instead.
You should spend a moment looking at survivalist magazines
from the early 1980s. Lots and lots of doom (mostly Soviet) for tolerably good reason. Basically exotic gun porn (not such a bad thing, but realize that's what it is) and fun hobby projects.
Truth is, everything turned out somewhat fine.
I can definitely see planning for a sketchy future, plan for the worst and all that, but I'd say that the average person's biggest risk is simply staying employed for an entire career. The sub-average is in constant trouble with LEOs, ex-wives, has poor health lifestyle choices, but you have relatively good control over that.
Why would you grow your food in the basement? There’s no sunlight in your basement. Build a hydroponic greenhouse, maybe, but if society fails to the point where you need to be growing your own food, why do you expect to have the electricity necessary to grow food in a basement?
(I’m skeptical on the hydroponics as a long term thing as well - traditional farming remains in the dirt for a reason, it’s much more practical - but the basement stands out more.)
Basement because I have more room, can channel solar/wind energy into low-power LED grow lights when the skies may be dark. Or utilize generators to power 100w lamps. It's also out of sight so no fear of neighbors trying to ransack my garden. I don't have a large yard for a greenhouse, but I do have 1,000sqft of unfinished basement.
Are those wind and solar on your own property, that you can rely on them if the day arrives when an every-man-for-himself subsistence-farming operation is necessary to survive?
If you're using generators burning fossil fuels to power lamps to grow food, that's an incredibly expensive way to do it. And if you're using "100W light bulbs" I'm not even sure what you're doing — is this traditional white light bulb or what? I sure hope not, but most grow lights aren't bulb-shaped and tend to come in larger wattages as a 600W LED grow-light panel is usually rated for about a 2'x2' area, which is not really a lot of food; you'd be looking at 9KW for your whole basement.
Yes, on my property. I already have a 100w led grow light panel. You should look into them. They are super efficient on power. IGTFARM, Groplanner, there’s quite a few on the market.
