Ask Lemmy

Preparing?

I mean, if there is a 'collapse', what use will there be to stock pile some food/medications? If those are not stolen by raiders (aka other people believing they ought to survive... a side note to those of our American friends who worship the holy gun: no, you won't own enough bullets to shoot them all). Those stocks they will only last so long, right? Then, what?

It's even simpler in my very personal situation: I'm alive today thx to constant medications. Stop the inflow of those medications and I will last a couple years at most (dixit the same doctors that have been keeping me running for many years now). And that is in the best conditions, which probably won't be what we will all be experimenting.

So, I prepare by being fine with knowing things and I will end. Which they will, even without any collapse. And by knowing other things will replace them, with or without that odd human species that once ruled the planet.

On the short term, as my humble way to try reduce the risk of such a sad collapse happening, I do my best to reduce the resources I consume, and by encouraging people (me included) to rediscover there is an alternative path to self-destruction through constant anger and hate against the other(s)... and against oneself.

If something happens I will try my best to die at the first blast. I am too old and tired and blasee for any apocalypse.

Plans are already in place. I'm gonna kick back, watch Blast from the Past, and kiss my ass goodbye while I get good and drunk/messed up. It's the same thing I do during storm season. I've started from literal nothing too many times. I refuse to do it again.

Learning skills

First thing to understand is global collapse isn't an event. It's a slow process that unfolds over years, or more likely, decades. We are already seeing it happening, but since it's not like the movies most of us don't recognize it.

The second thing is that baring some major instant catastrophe you aren't going to see hordes of displaced people fighting for your potatoes. It takes real desperation to pack a bag, leave all the rest of your things, leave your home, and walk far away hoping it'll be better somewhere else. Even now people stay in some of the most dangerous and unhospitable places.

So, odds are you'll have time to set up a garden, set up a rainwater collection system, maybe get some solar panels. Whatever you want to do to prepare for what you expect is coming, you can probably do it. One guiding principle in this is try to minimize your external dependencies. If you can feed yourself and live comfortably without a big shopping trip every week you are doing better than most. Independence from utilities is more difficult, but doable if you want to put the effort and money into it. Another principle is learn useful skills. Learn how to build things, fix things, buildings, cars, electric motors, etc. Most people jump to protecting yourself from bandits. Do you live in a high-crime area? If so maybe move. If not, take some reasonable self-defense precautions. You aren't going to fight off an army or even a coordinated gang, so just don't worry about it too much. Basically, live in an area where you get along with your neighbors and you help each other out. Bonus points if they are self-sufficient too.

I mean, you can't predict what's going to happen, so just try to insulate yourself from whatever system shocks might appear. You'll need to adapt as the years go by and things get worse. Good luck. :-)

Know your neighbors, befriend your neighbors, when the collapse happens you'll need food in your gardens sure, but you'll need your neighbors to think you're more than a spare pantry when their food gets low, even better if you like each other enough to form a real community thats more defendable and resilient than any single household could be

By living my best life now while I can.

Collapse, a world war, apocalypse etc? Fuck that I'm out.

Been learning to garden for a few years. This year I'm focusing on perennials, specifically heirloom species that were staple food crops prior to the modern industrial era.

Turns out pretty much every non native plant in North America is a food crop. These plants often have superiour nutritional content as well as being more drought resistant, hardy, and ecologically sustainable.

A few to google.

Bambara 'Beans' - West African Staple for 300 years. All 9 amino acids. Bio available B12. Grows like legumes. Nitrogen fixer

Bamboo - Edible varieties have lots of fiber and potassium, some protein and low fat.

Old King Henry - Edible shoots like asparagus, edible leaves like spinach, edible grainlike seeds similar to quinoa

Skirret - clumping root vegetable that looks like carrots. Has higher carb density than carrots.

Comfrey - Top Tier mulch/fertilizer.

Clover - Edible nitrogen fixer

Dandelions - Edible nitrogen fixer

Cat Tails - Indigenous, all parts are edible, winter survival crop.

Ashitaba - apparently this plant has insane nutritional benefits for the body and originates from an Okinawan island with the longes average lifspan in the world.

by making peace with death

What kind of global collapse? Nuclear meltdown? You can't prepare for that you just get evaporated in less than 5 seconds so at least you will not suffer too much.

I always see some truly naive optimism in threads like these. Global collapse means shipping is dead, which means every city is in a state of famine.

Pick your closest city, split the population in 4 for each cardinal direction and run some rough estimates on how many will be walking near your door. That's ignoring all the people in your own town that don't have gardens.

I know I have close to a million people coming my way, and someone's going to kill me for my little dozen potatoes. You can't fight off that many people with a handful of neighbors. It also takes a shit load of gardening to keep a family of 4 alive.

If your plan doesn't involve getting the fuck out of dodge and having a cache of food somewhere remote (with a cottage or small cabin if you live in a winter region), it will fail.

If you can’t do the long term stuff others have been mentioning here is a bit more short term stuff:

• Make sure you have bottled water. Ideally a few weeks worth per person in your household. Remember that cooking uses water too.
• Medication for as long a period as you can reasonably cover for the people in your household
• potassium iodine tablets to protect the thyroid in case of nuclear fallout
• Canned food
• remember your pets need stuff too if you have them
• in case there is an infant involved baby formula, diapers and other baby needs

More long term:

• look into MeshCore or meshtastic for communication
• radio with a hand crank + spare batteries
• medkit with bandages, tourniquet, etc. Also learn how to use it.
• we have 3 ways of heating our house: fireplace, electric and gas. I’m sure that won’t be possible for everyone but the point is diversification where possible.

Truthfully? You can’t.

I don't. I'm not egotistical enough to think the world will collapse or that if it did I'd have any ability to survive it.

If there is a mass die off then I'm dying too.

Looking up closest shop for arms. Will likely be visiting places to test things out.

What kind of collapse?

Set up a meshcore repeater

First of all, even the odds a bit by keeping the knowledge of how to survive to yourself.

Accept that death is a natural part of life and hope you are gone before shit really gets worse

Buy seeds for staple crops and learn basic farming techniques. You just need a handful of potatoes to make a lot more potatoes, and humans can subsist on potatoes almost indefinitely.

Post angsty shit on the internet.

I mean I'm barely alive with depression... guess I'll just die and hope to get reincarnated to a better world next time (if there even is such a thing as "next time")

You assume people know what you mean. I think you cannot just say „collapse“ without stating what exactly is collapsing and how. That would obviously change the direction of preparation. I’m not prepping but I’m electricity independent and i plan to use meshtastic because I think it’s fun. At least that would help in case of a communication network collapse. Not that I care about that.