5 ms·

Ask HN: How are you preparing for worsening climate change?

4 points by codingclaws 3y ago

For example, it seems like a good idea to buy masks, air filtration systems and maybe even a power generator. Are you trying to improve your horticulture skills? What other ideas do you have?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
RetroTechie 3y ago
Like jimmytucson, I've been preparing (somewhat) not for climate change, but for social / economic upheaval which may result from well.. anything. Including climate change related, like food or fuel shortages. But it's also in line with a general direction my life is going: become more self-reliant, moving away from big masses of people, enjoying life @ a slower pace, reduce environmental footprint, etc. Like: -Obtain materials & practice with collecting rainwater as drinking water. -Keep at least several weeks (drinking/cooking) water & a month or more food stored. No special 'prepper' items, just the food you normally buy. And in my case, not using fridge/freezer for that. -Same for fuel. -Solar panel (some power generation for any type of off-grid situation). Plus batteries (~800 Wh here) for storing that energy. Smaller batteries (AA, 18650 etc) for things like flashlights or a portable radio: all rechargeable. Don't count on running all your appliances (unless your whole roof is covered in solar panels). But when AC goes out, having some power for low power devices (eg. phone, flashlights, portable radio) is very very much better than having no way to power those. -Some gear for low(er) power computing. Probably not a big concern if things get really bad. But useful in any off-grid situation. -Keep some cash on hand @ all times. Basically I'm not too scared about Mad Max scenarios. More like making sure I'm ahead of the curve when riots break out, or supply chains break down. When other people would be looting supermarkets for stuff like bottled water, batteries or toilet paper, being able to hang back & sit it out for a month or more, gives a lot of peace of mind. That in itself is worth the prep work. So (imho) you shouldn't prepare for specific scenario's. Just make sure you have basics like water, food, fuel & (a bit of) power covered for a while when supplies of those break down. Tailored to your situation. A few weeks is a lot of 'lead time' to make other arrangements. And avoids having to fight people over last items on store shelves. Other things to keep in mind: cooking, temporary shelter (tent, car, boat, ..), transport, sanitation, medicines / first aid kit, hand tools to build/mod/improvise stuff. Should things get even worse: I have grown my own food @ various times. That's not rocket science.
throw9away6 3y ago
Make more money generational wealth and don’t worry about it. Climate change basically just means it will cost more to buy your way out of societies problems. Like the fire on Maui, you need to be prepared and pay more for the metal roof, backup power and keep growth away from your house. That’s how you prepare for climate change there. In Florida you hurricane proof your house and make sure your builder doesn’t cheat you. In Arizona you might need to store water during the dry season. In California you generate your own power for brownouts. Every Region has a different threat from climate change that you can buy your way out of it just costs more than some people will be able to afford
atleastoptimal 3y ago
singularity will hit before climate disaster
logicalmonster 3y ago
I think a reasonable amount of planning and preparation for emergencies is wise. There will always be a possibility for floods, fires, storms, accidents, electrical systems going down, trains loaded with chemicals crashing, riots and civil unrest, wars, etc that makes having some survival resources on hand a wise thing. There are some people who place false hope in government to always be there to save them in an emergency. That said, I strongly believe that the panic felt in some corners specifically about climate change is laughably overstated compared to what its nearly imperceptible impact on peoples' lives will actually be. The current climate change predictions are as accurate as the decades worth of other failed environmental predictions I lived through. Live Life. Find love. Make babies. Make money. Touch grass. Make art. Don't sacrifice your life to even more induced fear.
- muzani 3y ago
  It's imperceptible in the same way covid was. People spend billions of dollars on mitigating it. Some people spend their life efforts on it. The predictions would ideally fail, and that's because people take them seriously. It's fine for you to not take action, as long as someone does. Singapore props up the land around their area to prevent rising sea levels. Not everyone can do this. Indonesia chooses to migrate their capital city away from Jakarta. It affects some professions - fossil fuels companies will have to become energy companies. As long as the larger organizations consider it a priority, I think we'll be fine. But in many places, they do not, and that's where we have to take action. Like someone said on a meteor thread, if a meteor was going to hit Houston, most people will just ignore the warning.
  - junofan 3y ago
    I dunno, the places that spent the least on COVID had the best outcomes. Seems the predictions might’ve just been wrong. We should be careful before spending $12 tn as we did with COVID.
    - muzani 3y ago
      Correlation != causation. It's something we can figure out from calculations. The reason it was a crisis was because of overcrowded hospitals. Even with the lockdowns, we had critically ill people being treated on the floor. There's death counts and there were people who would have just died if they weren't put to sleep. The places that spent the least were likely the areas that didn't have old people or had a good density of health services to people. I'm surprised this isn't just a straightforward analogy; I thought everyone lost plenty of friends and family to COVID. Statista puts the death toll at 6.8 million even with the measures we had in place.
ted_bunny 3y ago
Meet your damn neighbors! Know who has what skills. Collaborate on things, like a community garden. If the shit hits the fan, people are often scared and think they're on their own. But if the framework for a mutual aid network is already in place, it's that much less time to "get resilient" together.
muzani 3y ago
There's a map of areas that would be flooded by rising sea levels: https://www.therakyatpost.com/living/2019/11/06/9-msian-cities-will-be-underwater-by-2050-due-to-rising-sea-levels/ https://www.therakyatpost.com/living/2019/11/06/9-msian-citi... These are coincidentally the same areas that get flooded every other year. Some are very developed areas. The city council gets blamed for flash floods. But I don't expect a bunch of bureaucrats to be able to fight off Mr Nimbus. So when we bought a house, we made sure to avoid these areas. I don't think we're the only ones. The areas on higher ground were more expensive, even the less developed ones. I expect land prices to shoot up over the next 50 years as people get displaced from major cities.
solardev 3y ago
Just want to throw out a link to a good wiki for this sort of thing: https://www.appropedia.org/Welcome_to_Appropedia https://www.appropedia.org/Welcome_to_Appropedia It focuses on DIY, low-tech sustainability stuff at the household/neighborhood/village level. It's not really a prepper site, more of a bunch of "why not" projects that can help improve local sustainability, resilience, and community -- worth doing even if the world doesn't go to shit. Some of it (like photovoltaics, aka solar power) depend on industrialized processes and electronics, while others like rocket stoves, rainwater catchment, sand filters for water cleaning, and passive cooling/heating just need basic everyday materials.
jimmytucson 3y ago
In Jan/Feb of 2020, I spent a lot of time "preparing" for the Coronavirus: - I built a pantry and stocked it with foods for storage. Beans and cheerios and powdered milk, etc. It turns out that in addition to these, I eat perishable foods, so I routinely had to go to the grocery store anyway. And while I was there, I bought regular milk, because eww. - I bought a bunch of 5-gallon carboys and filled them up with water in case, y'know, the apocalypse. Never had a water problem (thankfully). - I stocked up on bleach, masks, and other PPE. And of course it turned out the bleach wasn't super useful because the virus spread mainly through the air. The masks were the only effective prep I made, but then I felt extremely bad about hoarding them from healthcare workers and old people and ended up giving them away. My point is, there's a wide range of scenarios between public health crisis and full-blown Mad Max. Not preparing for a specific one of these is preparing for none of them, and preparing for a specific one is not preparing for all the others.
mutant_glofish 3y ago
There's a whole subculture called survivalism (or prepping) [1] dedicated to that kind of thing. You may want to look that up. You also may be interested in the article "Doomsday planning for less crazy folk". [2] It has been previously discussed on HN [3], and it's also been expanded into a book titled "Practical Doomsday". [4] I'm personally advocating for tighter border controls. It has the immediate effect of helping with stagnating real wages, and might also help with the contingent problem of climate migrants. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivalism [2]: https://archive.is/iuL1A https://archive.is/iuL1A [3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15110850 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15110850 [4]: https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/prep/ https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/prep/

4 points by codingclaws 3y ago

For example, it seems like a good idea to buy masks, air filtration systems and maybe even a power generator. Are you trying to improve your horticulture skills? What other ideas do you have?

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

RetroTechie 3y ago

Like jimmytucson, I've been preparing (somewhat) not for climate change, but for social / economic upheaval which may result from well.. anything. Including climate change related, like food or fuel shortages. But it's also in line with a general direction my life is going: become more self-reliant, moving away from big masses of people, enjoying life @ a slower pace, reduce environmental footprint, etc. Like: -Obtain materials & practice with collecting rainwater as drinking water. -Keep at least several weeks (drinking/cooking) water & a month or more food stored. No special 'prepper' items, just the food you normally buy. And in my case, not using fridge/freezer for that. -Same for fuel. -Solar panel (some power generation for any type of off-grid situation). Plus batteries (~800 Wh here) for storing that energy. Smaller batteries (AA, 18650 etc) for things like flashlights or a portable radio: all rechargeable. Don't count on running all your appliances (unless your whole roof is covered in solar panels). But when AC goes out, having some power for low power devices (eg. phone, flashlights, portable radio) is very very much better than having no way to power those. -Some gear for low(er) power computing. Probably not a big concern if things get really bad. But useful in any off-grid situation. -Keep some cash on hand @ all times. Basically I'm not too scared about Mad Max scenarios. More like making sure I'm ahead of the curve when riots break out, or supply chains break down. When other people would be looting supermarkets for stuff like bottled water, batteries or toilet paper, being able to hang back & sit it out for a month or more, gives a lot of peace of mind. That in itself is worth the prep work. So (imho) you shouldn't prepare for specific scenario's. Just make sure you have basics like water, food, fuel & (a bit of) power covered for a while when supplies of those break down. Tailored to your situation. A few weeks is a lot of 'lead time' to make other arrangements. And avoids having to fight people over last items on store shelves. Other things to keep in mind: cooking, temporary shelter (tent, car, boat, ..), transport, sanitation, medicines / first aid kit, hand tools to build/mod/improvise stuff. Should things get even worse: I have grown my own food @ various times. That's not rocket science.

throw9away6 3y ago

Make more money generational wealth and don’t worry about it. Climate change basically just means it will cost more to buy your way out of societies problems. Like the fire on Maui, you need to be prepared and pay more for the metal roof, backup power and keep growth away from your house. That’s how you prepare for climate change there. In Florida you hurricane proof your house and make sure your builder doesn’t cheat you. In Arizona you might need to store water during the dry season. In California you generate your own power for brownouts. Every Region has a different threat from climate change that you can buy your way out of it just costs more than some people will be able to afford

atleastoptimal 3y ago

singularity will hit before climate disaster

logicalmonster 3y ago

I think a reasonable amount of planning and preparation for emergencies is wise. There will always be a possibility for floods, fires, storms, accidents, electrical systems going down, trains loaded with chemicals crashing, riots and civil unrest, wars, etc that makes having some survival resources on hand a wise thing. There are some people who place false hope in government to always be there to save them in an emergency. That said, I strongly believe that the panic felt in some corners specifically about climate change is laughably overstated compared to what its nearly imperceptible impact on peoples' lives will actually be. The current climate change predictions are as accurate as the decades worth of other failed environmental predictions I lived through. Live Life. Find love. Make babies. Make money. Touch grass. Make art. Don't sacrifice your life to even more induced fear.

muzani 3y ago
It's imperceptible in the same way covid was. People spend billions of dollars on mitigating it. Some people spend their life efforts on it. The predictions would ideally fail, and that's because people take them seriously. It's fine for you to not take action, as long as someone does. Singapore props up the land around their area to prevent rising sea levels. Not everyone can do this. Indonesia chooses to migrate their capital city away from Jakarta. It affects some professions - fossil fuels companies will have to become energy companies. As long as the larger organizations consider it a priority, I think we'll be fine. But in many places, they do not, and that's where we have to take action. Like someone said on a meteor thread, if a meteor was going to hit Houston, most people will just ignore the warning.
- junofan 3y ago
  I dunno, the places that spent the least on COVID had the best outcomes. Seems the predictions might’ve just been wrong. We should be careful before spending $12 tn as we did with COVID.
  - muzani 3y ago
    Correlation != causation. It's something we can figure out from calculations. The reason it was a crisis was because of overcrowded hospitals. Even with the lockdowns, we had critically ill people being treated on the floor. There's death counts and there were people who would have just died if they weren't put to sleep. The places that spent the least were likely the areas that didn't have old people or had a good density of health services to people. I'm surprised this isn't just a straightforward analogy; I thought everyone lost plenty of friends and family to COVID. Statista puts the death toll at 6.8 million even with the measures we had in place.

ted_bunny 3y ago

Meet your damn neighbors! Know who has what skills. Collaborate on things, like a community garden. If the shit hits the fan, people are often scared and think they're on their own. But if the framework for a mutual aid network is already in place, it's that much less time to "get resilient" together.

muzani 3y ago

There's a map of areas that would be flooded by rising sea levels: https://www.therakyatpost.com/living/2019/11/06/9-msian-cities-will-be-underwater-by-2050-due-to-rising-sea-levels/ https://www.therakyatpost.com/living/2019/11/06/9-msian-citi... These are coincidentally the same areas that get flooded every other year. Some are very developed areas. The city council gets blamed for flash floods. But I don't expect a bunch of bureaucrats to be able to fight off Mr Nimbus. So when we bought a house, we made sure to avoid these areas. I don't think we're the only ones. The areas on higher ground were more expensive, even the less developed ones. I expect land prices to shoot up over the next 50 years as people get displaced from major cities.

solardev 3y ago

Just want to throw out a link to a good wiki for this sort of thing: https://www.appropedia.org/Welcome_to_Appropedia https://www.appropedia.org/Welcome_to_Appropedia It focuses on DIY, low-tech sustainability stuff at the household/neighborhood/village level. It's not really a prepper site, more of a bunch of "why not" projects that can help improve local sustainability, resilience, and community -- worth doing even if the world doesn't go to shit. Some of it (like photovoltaics, aka solar power) depend on industrialized processes and electronics, while others like rocket stoves, rainwater catchment, sand filters for water cleaning, and passive cooling/heating just need basic everyday materials.

jimmytucson 3y ago

In Jan/Feb of 2020, I spent a lot of time "preparing" for the Coronavirus: - I built a pantry and stocked it with foods for storage. Beans and cheerios and powdered milk, etc. It turns out that in addition to these, I eat perishable foods, so I routinely had to go to the grocery store anyway. And while I was there, I bought regular milk, because eww. - I bought a bunch of 5-gallon carboys and filled them up with water in case, y'know, the apocalypse. Never had a water problem (thankfully). - I stocked up on bleach, masks, and other PPE. And of course it turned out the bleach wasn't super useful because the virus spread mainly through the air. The masks were the only effective prep I made, but then I felt extremely bad about hoarding them from healthcare workers and old people and ended up giving them away. My point is, there's a wide range of scenarios between public health crisis and full-blown Mad Max. Not preparing for a specific one of these is preparing for none of them, and preparing for a specific one is not preparing for all the others.

mutant_glofish 3y ago

There's a whole subculture called survivalism (or prepping) [1] dedicated to that kind of thing. You may want to look that up. You also may be interested in the article "Doomsday planning for less crazy folk". [2] It has been previously discussed on HN [3], and it's also been expanded into a book titled "Practical Doomsday". [4] I'm personally advocating for tighter border controls. It has the immediate effect of helping with stagnating real wages, and might also help with the contingent problem of climate migrants. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivalism [2]: https://archive.is/iuL1A https://archive.is/iuL1A [3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15110850 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15110850 [4]: https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/prep/ https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/prep/