How can we find the key to reconnect to Reality? Part 2

Direct Action to connect to the Reality quickly approaching – becoming a “Prepper”

If you’ve read part 1 of this reflection you know that we’re about to turn the vague idea that we must “let go” thinking that our current worldview adequately describes the “real world” and to stop hoping that our current technological civilization will survive in any way close to its present form. If you haven’t accepted these two perspectives you may find what follows as either pessimistic or unhelpful or plain delusional. If that’s the case, that’s OK – we all have different life experiences that bring us to different places. Even if that described you what follows may jar enough to start asking different kinds of questions.

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

These ideas on what to do to react with Reality presume that normal world we inhabit is already “gone” in this way: The penny of collapse has been dropped but it has not quite landed for most of us. We are in this period of pause where the news of collapse and disasters worldwide is mostly something that happens to other people and in other places – until it hits you. And even then, when disaster strikes you personally – as it did for my wife and I this past summer as we were driving to Jasper to enjoy our vacation and heard on the news as we were driving towards Jasper and heard it was on fire… even then we could only think: “Oh dear! How terrible! When will Jasper be rebuilt so life can get back to “normal”. It probable that something similar is happening to my cousin right now as she had been in Asheville, North Carolina when it was walloped by Hurricane Helen with high winds anbd several feet of rainfall – a disaster that killed over 100 in just that state, flooded most of the town, stopped the town water from flowing, cut out cell phone coverage and blocked most roads so that people could not flee to safety. Of course the ecological and social collapse quickly enveloping us is much more than a localized fire or flood – its a global shift in the entire Earth system that is disrupting all life on Earth. Of course we imagine that we are the most adaptable and able to survive this shift – but it is probable that we are actually the most fragile part of the biosphere as we are now totally reliant of complex supply chains and technologies that have made us less and less capable of managing on our own. What follows are only EXAMPLES of what you can do and ideas for readings, etc. There is nothing special or ‘holy’ about these lists – they are just there to get you exploring

Step 1 – Talk with person who has experienced Trauma/Disaster/Loss or Visit a “Sacrifice Zone”

a. learn the sad history of the mercury poisoning of Grassy Narrows Reservation in northwestern Ontario. Bettery yet – donate to their cause or visit the reservation or participate in the marches they have in Toronto to pressure the government to do something significant. https://freegrassy.net/

b. find a person in your circle who has grieved about the death of a close family member or friend or a person who has lost everything and have a long conversation.

c. help out in a disaster zone – be it fire or flood or hurricane or freezing rain.

Step 2 – Read “Prepper” material

a. Prepping For Collapse: The Complete Prepper’s Guide to Surviving the Collapse of Civilization. And Beyon

Traditional prepping shows its limitations in that it assumes that the disaster will have an end. You just need to survive long enough for someone to come to the rescue, for the situation to stabilize, and for normal social function and order to be restored… But what if none of those things happen? What if the crisis becomes the new reality forever, the new “normal?” [ref.1]

b. Beyond Collapse [ref.2]

The idea of this book on the other hand is simple: Get you up to speed on some basic bits to stay alive and

rebuild a working society. I want to get you started in gathering needed provisions (and references) to survive a

collapse and its immediate aftermath, but then give you a series of resources that you can refer to, in order to

help you along after the dust settles.

Step 3 – Don’t Live in a Climate Danger Zone or a HUGE city

a. As many of our homes/buildings are built in flood plains or locations where forest firest are inevitable or inm areas of storm surge or in hurricane/tornado zones the only solution to avoid disaster is to move. Rather than seeing this as a gamble its now the smart bet to see that certain locations have a 100% chance of disaster… sometime. It also means, and this is only an example of how “paranoid” you now need to be to be “rational” – that if you live in a low lying area where a sump pump is needed – even if there is no history of flooding – you should at a minimum have a triple backup system so that when [not if] the power goes out your home/apartment is not flooded.

b. talk with friends/family who live in a danger zone and help them prepare. For example, it could be as simple as this: I helped a family member by a high quality portable HEPA filter system for their home as they live in a high risk of fire/smoke region of western Canada. That way their lungs will not be permanently damages by the smoke that has been there for weeks a a time in the past and WILL return in the future.

c. Living in a huge city like Toronto is, according to some, going to be a high risk in the future, because if there is a power outage or some other disaster you are competing with millions. Read ref. 7 to get a sense of what I mean: “Population growth and distribution, especially increased population density ad urbanization, increases vulnerability to disasters.”

Step 4 – Food

a. Have a 3 month to 1 year food supply. I had once thought this was extreme but after learning that there is only a 3 day food supply in every city and that the Mormons have a rule that all members are recommended by their President [ie. Pope] to have a 1 year food cache. [ref.4]

b. Eat organic or local Amish or grow your food as the chemicals in much of our food is toxic or lack essential minerals. Here is an example of what I mean. PFAs [forever chemicals] have now been found in farmland in concentrations so high that this land is no longer allowed to be used to grow food or even grass for cows.

“A main source of the contamination is the sludge from city septic systems spread over the farmland as fertilizer. No one generating sewage or managing sludge in Maine at that time realized the material contained per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a vast class of synthetic chemicals that can disrupt hormonal, immune and reproductive systems, and can increase the risk of various cancers. What seemed at the time like an economical solution to sludge disposal became a monumentally costly environmental threat, with repercussions extending far into the future. “[ref.3]

As for minerals: “In the last sixty years, there has been an alarming decline in food quality and a decrease in

a wide variety of nutritionally essential minerals and nutraceutical compounds in imperative fruits,

vegetables, and food crops. The potential causes behind the decline in the nutritional quality of

foods have been identified worldwide as chaotic mineral nutrient application, the preference for less

nutritious cultivars/crops, the use of high-yielding varieties, and agronomic issues associated with a

shift from natural farming to chemical farming.” [ref.5] In other words, to stay healthy we need to either grow as much of your own food as possible or buy from a local farmer who enriches the soil to keep these essential minerals in the food.

c. Have your own garden with a greenhouse for winter vegies. The “guru” for this Eliot Coleman, from Maine. See Ref.9

Step 4 – When the Power Goes out

a. Our modern life comes to a stop without power. You can count on the grid having more failures, even as we become and more dependent upon it. Living in a microgrid system if first choice [ref.6] but if that is not possible the MINIMUM you should do is have a back up power system of some kind to run your essentials and alternative heat/light sources. If you are in the country you need power for water – so you need an alternative to that too – I installed a manual hand pump in the basement that works in an emergency as the water table is very high where I live.

b. Live off grid or in Earthship. Living off grid is only possible those those living in the country – which is a small fraction of our population but if you are young and thinking long term is a realistic option. The technology to live off grid has never been better but if you want to go “all in” try making an Earthship. [ref.8]