Some Preppers /Survivalist Denial of Heatwaves & the Implications of this Denial.

“A heat-period is defined as day(s) on which a Level 3 Heat Health Alert is issued and/or day(s) when the mean Central England Temperature is greater than 20°C; between June and August 2022, there were five heat-periods that met this criterion.” Source: MET Office.

I have watched a number of Preppers YouTuber channels for some years and note that they are developing their own homegrown weather forecasting, ignoring severe heat events, and “poopooing” the accepted science of meteorology & empirical data. They believe that the above temperature of 20°C is too low, though fail to provide any indication as to why.

The problem lies in data. The failure to grasp the data, understanding mean temperature, and the fact that aggregated data produces a monthly mean which is lower than 20°C. Average temperature for the UK for June, July, August & September 1961-2020 is between 14-18°C so therefore 20°C is the anomaly & marker for a heatwave. The suggestion that ti’s is too cool fails to take humidity into account.

Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20210129233611/https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cetml1659on.dat

The climate of the UK has always been characterised as unsettled and predominantly rainy. The weather is the Englishmans favourite topic for discussion- Cold, wet & windy. Therefore this would indicate there is is a high level of airborne moisture. While the weather is cool the airborne moisture is hardly noticeable. Add some additional heat to the mean and quickly we enter the realm of the unbearable and dangerous.

The Dangers of Dismissing the Warnings

I think that Preppers would prefer a heatwave to be classed as 30°C or over. But failure to understand humidity & the increased carrying capacity of moisture in the atmosphere brought on by warmer air. It’s either a failure to understand or flat out denial of science or both.

Setting the bar higher is a mistake. It would not take into account situations like south facing gardens, other natural and man-made environments, which become heat traps. Temperatures in heat traps can be 5-7° higher than the forecast & actual air temperature. Couple higher temperatures with humidity & sun traps can become “thermal kill zones”

Learn About & Understand Wet-Bulb Temperatures & the Impacts on life.

https://protestandsurviveblog.wordpress.com/2023/09/06/why-severe-heat-is-more-dangerous-han-severe-cold/

Why Severe Heat is More Dangerous Than Severe Cold

The Age of Fire

The Northern Boreal Forests are on fire, there are wildfire across southern Europe, Tenerife, South America & Hawaii.

These fires are driven by climate change, global heating and now declared by the UN as Global Boiling.

The increased heating of the planet is driven by population growth, mass consumption, overshoot and the increased burning of Fossil Fuels. We know⁸ but they suppressed the information in exchange for profit & extinction.

I know some preppers will read this and just say it’s bullshit and then interchange weather with climate and say things like the climate and weather change all the time. The 1st problem is that weather is not climate and the second is that for the last 8- 10,000 years the climate has been stable with minor fluctuations caused by Milankovich cycles, El Nino & La Ninia & volcanic events. It has been at least 12,000 years since the last earth impact event which affected the global climate, possibly ending the last ice age. Climate change normally takes place over geologic time.

Today we are in abrupt and irreversible climate change. Its onset now is rapid & this is what is driving the 6th mass extinction. Glaciers and icesheets across the glove are melting at astonishing and alarming rates. This is catastrophic for some species like Emperor Penguins now, and mostof the rest of all life on earth.

“Emperor penguin colonies experienced unprecedented breeding failure in a region of Antarctica where there was total sea ice loss in 2022. The discovery supports predictions that over 90% of emperor penguin colonies will be quasi-extinct by the end of the century, based on current global warming trends”

Loss of sea ice causes catastrophic breeding failure for emperor penguins

The Dangers of High Temperatures & Humidity for Humans, Other Animals & Agriculture

Rising temperatures are impacting harvests and making agriculture futures uncertain.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/3/3/034007?gclid=CjwKCAjwoqGnBhAcEiwAwK-OkWOny8icr5XubTv5JVJ-otU20gUFt-kjvAR-vh0w8nVemtG_-OzlnhoCrIsQAvD_BwE

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/01/climate-crisis-global-heating-food-farming-agriculture

know, it’s a left wing paper, but the right wing press don’t want you to know that climate change is a problem, that it could result in famine, drought, pandemic, mass internal and external refgees and civilisation collapse.

Periods of severe heat turn nature into a tinder box. Putting plants under stress severe stress. The Northern Boreal Forests are burning!Inceased temperature have thawed the permafrost. The Boreal Forets fires are destroying the last great wildernesses. The last of earth’s great carbon sinks is losing its carbon.

We were told 1.5°C was catastrophic, could will likely be at 1.5-1.8 by 2024. Will the story now be 1.5 is tolerable, 2°C is where we are aiming to stop. Proff James E Hansen is probably the best authority on where earth is headed: Global Warming in the Pipeline for Earth.

Forest animals are dieing in their 1000s in these forest fires.

Human mortality from Severe Heat

“The actual death is often caused by a heart attack or organ failure.

Lee says she’s heard that people might even be filled with euphoria near the end stages of hyperthermia, like those who experience hypothermia—a loss of body heat.

For some, this process happens quickly—sometimes within two or three hours. That’s part of what makes it so lethal: You can go from feeling bothered by the heat to dead in 90 minutes.”

https://www.wweek.com/news/2021/07/14/whats-it-like-to-die-from-the-heat/#:~:text=The%20actual%20death%20is%20ofte n,within%20two%20or%20three%20hours

When the combination of heat and humidity mean a person or animal can no longer cool down naturally like sweating, death is quick to follow unless you can find a way to cool down.

When the temperature exceed 27°C with high humidity the body loses the ability to sweat. Sweating is how th body cools itself.

A combination of heat and humidity is known as a wet bulb temperature. The charts below may be downloaded and kept for future reference. It’s important to be able to measure temperature & humidity accurately.

Stay ahead of the curve.. -/+2° accuracy

https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/overlay=temp/orthographic=-1.58,47.06,2377/loc=-1.355,52.101https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/overlay=temp/orthographic=-1.58,47.06,2377/loc=-1.355,52.101

Stay hydrated, drink iced drinks, stay out of the Sun, get into a cool paddling pool, get your clothes wet, take things slow, avoid alcohol and use hydration electrolytes.

Stay safe.

Severe cold can be coped with, with clothing and fire. Severe heat is a struggle for life.

Collapse of civilisation is not going to be a joyride, so how can you prep for it?

Whether we like it or not, civilisation collapse is here. It has already started. Almost every previous civilisation has collapsed due to environmental collapse. This civilisation is no different.

Climate change and habitat loss for humans on a global scale, this is a global civilisation. Through the use of fossil fuels, we have warmed the planet out of the Ice Age & into the era of a Hothouse Earth. The heat is only just beginning 2 40°C days in the UK in 2022, unusually warm winter & changed weather systems. Spontaneous wildfires will be a more common feature of our daily lives. As we saw in the summer, it can be devastating in urban areas.

Prepping for climate change is no different from prepping for any other period of long-term hardship. Our grandparents learned quickly during the war how to survive rationing. We may be looking at no food or prohibitively expensive food in the very near future. So, stockpiling some foods for hard times isn’t a bad idea. I am not interested in discussing what you should stockpile. There are plenty of people talking about that on YouTube,for example, Canadian Prepper – I ignore his news bulletins, I don’t expect to survive a nuclear attack, nor do I want to. I would be wary of any prepper who are in denial about climate change. They really don’t have their finger on the pulse of existential threat. Canadian Prepper has interviewed Guy McPhearson.

Guy McPhearson, professor of evolutionary biology and author of many peer reviewed papers, is of the opinion that the type of skills and lifestyle needed to survive climate change is not for him. He used to own a homestead farm. He is talking about the collapse of agriculture caused by runaway heating. The chain reactions of the human population collapse will mean that no one will be making nuclear power plants safe, and the meltdown of multiple nuclear power plants hes says will strip away that protective ozone, which will likely end all life on earth. Guy Mcphearson has a YouTube channel – he is depressingly honest.

I agree that it is unlikely that there will be humans on earth in 2100. But there might be. The question is this: What will they be eating?

Paradigm Shift.

Industrial civilisation is in a deep state of collapse, and yet many British preppers are still dependent on their cars, they shun electric vehicles, bicycles & even e-bikes. This attitude is deeply flawed. Dependence on a vehicle in a SHTF will probably mean you are stuck in traffic with everyone else & look sorted, so you are immediately a target.

Canadian Prepper was questioned by his fans about his ethnicity & he took a genetic test & was found to be part native American, part African American, part European. Skin colour shouldn’t be an issue. But it is. I have been asked by British preppers about my spear throwing abilities? It’s one of those stupid jokes that racists make. They think they are ever so original & funny. Yes, it is deeply offensive. When it comes to outdoor skills where you are from, your ethnicity or skin colour are irrelevant. Whether you can survive and pass those skills on is far more important. Oh, and on the subject of spear throwing that peculiar pronged stick you saw me carrying is an Atlatl dart thrower. Insult me by all means. Just don’t turn your back on me, an atlatl dart can be as fast as a rifle bullet, can cause catastrophic internal dammage, and this has been scientifically proven.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2328823-prehistoric-dart-throwing-atlatl-weapon-even-more-deadly-than-thought/

The modern urbanised human is going to face multiple challenges all at once: Sporadic sanitation, unsafe water, and the collapse of agriculture, as well as no electricity and gas supply. Let’s add to that severe heating and unpredictable weather, flooding, bush fires, sea level rise, severe storms & winds that can damage buildings.

Stockpiling food and water won’t be enough. This is a crisis to which there is no end. Humans don’t need industrialism to survive they need nature, and yet industrialism is destroying nature faster than it can replenish itself. The paradigm shift occurs when humans realise that they are part of nature in the same way that indigenous people have always seen themselves as part of nature and its caretakers.

Prepping needs to be a multicultural inclusive activity. The more people who are prepping for collapse, the better the chances of a just & equitable collapse. The super rich Silicone Valley billionaires are headed for New Zealand bunkers while worrying whether their special forces mercenaries will turn on them. No doubt, the billionaires expect it all to be over in a few years, and they can carry on trashing the planet. Mercenaries steal their food and seal them in there!

Self reindigenisation is the paradigm shift

Either we learn to adapt to the loss of growing grain at scale, or we die very quickly.

While climate change may not be survivable, I would rather die trying to be the most natural and best human I can be for the planet than carty on along the business as usual planetary destruction route.

This blog is about the skills and minimal gear you will likely need to navigate civilisation collapse