4 ms·
Ask HN: How are you preparing for the effects of climate change?
From all available data and observations, the mean earth temperature is rapidly warming and causing significant changes to the amplitude of storms and weather events. Or, in the words of a park ranger I spoke with last summer, “It’s gonna be either droughts or floods from here on out.”
So, considering this future of rapidly increasing heat and unpredictability, how are you preparing? How are you arranging your ten year plan for work, finances, shelter, and family considering the realities before us?
Personally, I expect food prices to rise so I am growing a considerable garden and keeping chickens. I also have planted trees facing South to protect my home from the direct sunlight. I also plan on putting in solar panels and a heat pump in the next five years. I am curious how others who also realize what a pickle we are in are preparing.
- noud 3y agoI installed solar panels and AC.
- nirav72 3y agoLike most people , I'm not making a conscious effort to prepare. But, as a father of two teenage children - I occasionally tell them to enjoy certain foods now, as crop failures might make them rare or prohibitively expensive. Like bananas. A fruit that is very sensitive to the environment and difficult to store.
- leros 3y agoI am planning off my next home purchase to be somewhere that will fare better over the next 50 years
- jejeyyy77 3y agoJesus lol
- giantg2 3y agoThis is probably better asked on a prepper forumn. I have a garden, fruit trees, etc to save money already. I'm not doing anything specifically to address climate change risks. I assume extreme weather from climate change would be a bigger risk to the home garden than to professional farmers.
- mikewarot 3y agoThose trees are going to block the solar panels. If they're in series, blocking any one of the cuts your power for all of them. I'm fortunate in that I'm on a ridge, well above the average terrain, in an area (SE of Chicago) that is likely to remain the same as far as average conditions, given global climate change. We've got potable municipal Lake Michigan water. The trees around the house help keep it cool, but the alignment of our house makes it unfriendly to solar power. If I were younger, I'd get a ground sourced heat pump to cut the heating bills, and put up solar, despite the alignment of our home. The trees on the south side of the house would go.
- mcsniff 3y agoYou should expedite your plan. The faster you become self-reliance, the better. Consider this: You are only now planning for this, so either you are early, right on time, or late. Most people are behind the curve on just about everything, but now hear "billionaires are building bunkers". They are already too late, but they have money to make up for it. You don't. Go look at some traditional lifestyle and cultures such as Amish, Indigenous peoples, etc...who have been living sustainably for decades plus. Your entire mental model of life needs to change, not planting trees and having hobby chickens. HN is not the place for this type of discussion either, IMO.
- ActorNightly 3y agoIm "preparing" by living my life to the fullest and doing all the stuff that I can now in the case that shit goes down the drain later and pretty much nobody is going to have a s Realistically though, if things get bad enough, humans most likely have the engineering resources to fix it. The only thing that is stopping money being poured in to this now is its not economically viable.
- sk11001 3y agoI'm not preparing at all. I live in a city, no idea what I could even do that's not a complete waste of time and money.
- hiAndrewQuinn 3y agoWell, I moved to northern Finland from the United States about 3 years ago, but that was mostly not driven by climate change worries. Mostly.
- nextos 3y agoDid you enjoy the move?
- hiAndrewQuinn 3y agoTotally!
- swah 3y agoComing back from a funeral of a young collegue that suddenly felt bad and passed yesterday while playing soccer, I'm more in the camp of "less planning" right now...
- jhanoncomm 3y agoBeen to a young colleague funeral too I know that is hard, my condolences.
- vegetablepotpie 3y agoInsulation, to withstand hotter temperatures. Getting in touch with my neighbors, because if there’s a disaster, we’re the ones who will help each other out. Talking to my members of congress about this. If we can stay under 2C, a lot of things going to be easier.
- throwaway019254 3y agoJust moved to Canada. When it gets warmer I will move further to the north. Besides that - recycling and avoiding single-use plastics as much as possible.
- ajeet_dhaliwal 3y agoI'm not worried. Will adapt as needed or die. Editing to add, I don't mean to sound flippant but I believe it's hard to predict things very far out and adaptation/iteration is the way forward. The true 'heroes' are the researchers, scientists and engineers involved in solutions around energy.
- KomoD 3y agoI'm not, just living my life.