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.
18 comments
[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 74.7 ms ] threadI 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.
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.
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.
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.
Besides that - recycling and avoiding single-use plastics as much as possible.