Solidarity Prepping: Preparing For Climate Change

This Post is ultra-optimistic: Originally published 6 September 2023, I was more optimistic

This is a condensed version of the basic adaptations required for climate change survival as outlined in the Climate Safe Villages Forums. It is being adopted as part of the Solidarity Prepping flavour of preparedness for anyone worried about a climate-driven biodiversity crisis.

Climate Safe Villages is a survival-preparation concept for individuals and communities to survive climate change. Ideally, large urban populations should organise into smaller networked groups of about 100 people/families; this way, everyone can know & recognise each other. These are called hubs or local hub communities.

Solidarity Prepping is written by a former road protester, anarchist pacifist, nature-loving, tree-hugging hippie, and survival-skills and preparedness practitioner. Climate Dad type.

This is a global crisis & we are now “in a fight for our lives”, Dr Peter Carter, IPCC Reviewer.

Solidarity Preppers:

Don’t need Cammo or Military gear.

High Level of Skills and Minimalist Preparedness gear.

We agree that our predicament, the cause, and the immediate need is to cut all emissions now and restore nature at scale, even if we fail and die doing so.

We are tolerant and anti-culture-wars and populist intolerant ideologies.

Slidarity Prepping gives and supports Skills-Share-Shops providing expertise & independent advice on essential climate-change survival ideas below, plus much more.

A. The local hub communities encourage all their members and local citizens to start growing organic gardens everywhere to ensure an adequate and reliable food supply. Every home or building rooftop in urban areas will need a big garden to survive the worst of what is coming. Hydroponics and aquaponics will also help build food security in urban areas and areas with r limited land. You won’t be able to produce every food item you want, but if you produce a surplus in your gardens, you should bottle/preserve some for leaner times of the year and share it.

B. The local Solidarity Prepping Community needs to secure its energy system against extreme climate consequences. Encouraging members to get solar and/or wind on their property is a basic step. The community could adopt solar thermal to heat thermal stores for low-level communal heating and soil heating to support year-round food production.

C. The local Solidarity Prepping Community should quickly move to protect its drinking water and sewage systems against intensified rain bombs, river and lake flooding, sea level rise, and other extreme climate consequences. Home or business water capture, rainwater harvesting and water filtration systems are a good start. These don’t have to be expensive buried systems; old olive import barrels work, and MDPE food-grade barrels with airtight lids do too: 2200 litres is 10 barrels, about a 2 sqm footprint.

D. Climate change and rapidly approaching climate disasters that will affect many of these communities far faster than they are prepared for. Between 2023, when this was written, and now late 2026, we have seen glacial outburst floods and ferocious storms.

E. Each time we think we have adapted to something new from the Climate Casino, we have to readapt.

Unfortunately, with this stay-where-you-are local urban, suburban, and rural model, if you are not already in a climate-safer area, there will come a point when it will no longer be safe for your group to remain in some urban, suburban or rural area. Every stay-where-you-are urban, suburban, and rural satellite model should consider this possibility carefully and plan for it, and its timetable, well in advance.

F. Suppose you buy fertile land as a temporary or long-term eco-community emergency backup and “bug-out” space. In addition, this emergency bug-out land would need to be pre-stocked with everything your eco-community would need to survive for months, or even years. You would also need the means to transport and defend everything you need at that new eco-community bug-out location. The painful truth is that unless you already live in a climate-change-safer location, you will probably be forced to move at some point if you want to survive.

Urban and suburban Solidarity Prepping Communities may not be able to grow as much food as rural, land-based Communities because urban and suburban members’ land is likely not connected and contiguous. But urban and suburban members can get creative and, through networking, sharing, and trading, accomplish much of the necessary climate change preparation and adaptation. (Totally utopian bollocks)

G. We need to be experimental with our gardening, and possibly Agriculture. We may need to significantly change our diet and entire agricultural base, or we will starve because of climate change’s impact on agriculture. Solidarity Prepping dreams of taking down the fences. This is what cooperative neighbourhoods could look like. But could they grow enough food? I photoshopped this picture several years ago when I thought it was possible. This picture was Photoshopped. This is an old idea, at least from the 1960s.

H. Those of us who can afford it should be taking on emergency supplies while building deep, rich, regenerated, carbon-capturing soils. In ours and our neighbours’ gardens. Make friends with a local tree surgeon. You can make soil with woodchip. Local authorities’ parks departments have tons of woodchip; this could be a massive carbon capture opportunity. I build my soil with woodchip. Ian Tohurst swears by woodchip.

You will be on your own; you need community to do this & in with a sincere and inclusive philosophy.

Hiding alone in a bunker will drive you mad. No end in sight, a miserable existence.