PREPARING FOR THE LONG EMERGENCY

“What we can all do is dramatically
reduce our own energy consumption!”

Facing the Future: Working Through the Process

  • Shock
  • Denial
  • Anger
  • Bargaining
  • Depression/despair
  • Acceptance
  • Action

Personal Preparedness Basics

  • Education/awareness (see books, videos, websites)
  • Emergency preparedness
  • Energy back-up
  • Physical, emotional, spiritual fitness
  • Money
  • Skills development

PowerDown Strategies

  • Deconsumption/downscaling
  • Energy efficiency/local alternatives
  • Eat locally/grow food
  • Transportation alternatives
  • Prepare to help others

Books

  • The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and other Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century (James Howard Kunstler)
  • PowerDown: Options and Actions for a Post Carbon World (Richard Heinberg)
  • The Party’s Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies (Richard Heinberg)
  • Relocalize Now! Getting Ready for Climate Change and the End of Cheap Oil (Julian Darley)
  • High Noon for Natural Gas: The New Energy Crisis (Julian Darley)
  • Blood and Oil (Michael T. Klare)
  • Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability (David Holmgren)
  • Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy (Matthew Simmons)
  • Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (Jared Diamond)
  • The Growth Illusion (Richard Douthwaite)
  • The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (Michael Pollan)
  • Oil Crisis (Colin J. Campbell)
  • Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert’s Peak (Kenneth Deffeyes)
  • The Oil Depletion Protocol: A Plan to Avert Wars, Terrorism and Economic Collapse (Colin Campbell, Richard Heinberg)

Videos

  • An Inconvenient Truth
  • The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream
  • The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
  • The Future of Food
  • Transforming Energy
  • Kilowatt Ours: A Plan to Re-Energize America
  • Independent America: The Two-Lane Search for Mom & Pop
  • The Real Dirt on Farmer John
  • Dr. Albert Bartlett (GOING LOCAL! Conference, Boulder, Jan. 14, 2006)

Key Websites

Community Relocalization Advocacy and Activism

  • Join the BVR Working Group
  • Support the EAT LOCAL! campaign
  • Buy first from locally-owned independent businesses
  • Promote and participate in CSAs
  • Get to know local farmers/growers, volunteer
  • Support the Farmer’s Market
  • Encourage restaurants to use more local food
  • Work with grocers to promote local food
  • Volunteer for food gleaning
  • Grow as much of your own food as possible
  • Promote neighborhood garden and greenhouse development
  • Speak to local groups about relocalizing food
  • Adopt the 250-mile diet
  • Join community dialogues (e.g., People’s Café)
  • Hold house parties
  • Hold neighborhood gatherings
  • Write letters to editor for local publications
  • Support outreach activities (tabling, logistics, flyering)
  • Become a speaker
  • Participate in BVR’s strategic relocalization planning process

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