Be Prepared
Or: why I grow food and might actually sorta want to learn Guns.
This March marks five years since I’ve been on an airplane. There are many reasons for that, the pandemic, of course, being a major one. I also started developing anxiety about flying once we had a kid in tow. Flying with little kids is just truly awful. I was once the kind of person who packed only a carry-on for a two week honeymoon in South America, so the sheer amount of crap involved with traveling with a kid really does me in.
But, as I’ve written about before, it’s also about climate change. Flying is the most carbon-intensive thing any one individual can do, and a single flight can wipe out a year’s worth of good climate deeds, like driving an EV or eating vegetarian. I’m under no illusions that forgoing flying, or any other individual decision, will turn the tide of our planet-searing economy. That said, I’m also under no illusions that our planet-searing economy won’t just continue to soldier on without dramatic action to change it, particularly from those of us who consume the majority of the planet’s resources.
It’s a paradox, isn’t it? Climate change is an enormous, systemic problem that won’t be solved by individual choices and behavior change; and yet, the system won’t be changed without an enormous effort made by many individuals choosing to cause that change. It’s madness to expect a human-made system to change without the humans who made the system (especially us wealthy Western folks) to change.
And to be real, voting and marching hasn’t worked. I know we’ve had some “wins” under Biden, but they’re not nearly enough and will be immediately reversed when Orange Mussolini takes the presidency again. Plus, powerful global industries don’t care if we “Vote Blue” and march in the streets if we’re still consuming their products.
I often think about the concept of “luxury emissions,” as Andreas Malm lays out in his excellent book, How to Blow Up a Pipeline (which is really a manifesto on why to blow up a pipeline, not how). He discusses the importance of abating our luxury emissions - those fossil fuel guzzling things we do that are solely for our luxury, pleasure, and convenience, not for survival (I recognize there’s an argument that pleasure is necessary for survival, and I agree. But, it’s probably not the kind of pleasure where we must sip Mai Tais on a beach in Hawaii or we’ll die…). That’s why he happily supports slashing the tires of Range Rovers and sabotaging private jets.
I used to travel a lot (long ago - before kids), and I enjoyed it. But the climate crisis is upon us. It’s not a future problem, it’s a now problem. It’s immediate, it’s urgent, and we’re headed in a very bad direction. Even if we stopped emitting all carbon dioxide today, we’d still continue to see the planet warm for years because there’s a lag between emissions and warming. Once that lag is over, elevated temperatures will persist for centuries because carbon dioxide stays in the air for 300-1000 years.
So no matter what we do, at this point, we’re looking at a planet that will be hotter than anything humans have ever experienced. Which means everything we do now matters. A lot. Even a fraction of a degree of warming we can prevent could save millions of lives and an unknown number of species. Speaking of, don’t get me started on how little we know about what happens to the web of life as we continue to fuel (pun intended!) an extinction event - happening right now - on par with the biggest extinction events in Earth’s history. It’s like a game of planetary Jenga - at some point, and we really don’t know when, we’re gonna pull out the brick that causes the whole thing to come crashing down.
So, if I can reduce my luxury emissions, I’m gonna do it. If we can spend our disposable income on a heat pump or an induction oven (both of which we’ve done) instead of a trip to Europe, I’m in. And besides, it’s good for my mental health to know that at least I, someone who deeply cares about this issue, am willing to make some dramatic changes to treat it with the urgency it requires. And honestly, it really hasn’t felt like much of a sacrifice.
But it’s not just about reducing luxury emissions; it’s also about being prepared. I’ve been thinking a lot about preparedness in the past few years. Not so much in the individualistic, prepper with a bunker full of canned food sense, but in the sense of community preparedness and psychological preparedness. In the sense of facing up to reality and figuring out how we’re gonna respond to it.
Margaret Killjoy wrote something recently that stuck with me. She said:
“Winter is my favorite season, and I will miss it. Winter begins on the solstice. The sun and its light return to the world at the same time as the cold sets in. It’s not darkest just before sunrise, but it is coldest.
We are going to start this fight for a better world, or perhaps a better end-of-the-world. We’re going to start that fight and things are going to get worse before they get better. It doesn’t mean that the fighting is useless. Just that there’s a lag between cause and effect.”
I can’t help but look at the interwoven threads of the climate crisis and ecosystem collapse, the refugee crisis, rising food prices and global agricultural collapse, the attendant geopolitical instability as these things become more widespread, and the rise of violent fascist regimes around the world - and think, welp… the world as we know it is about to change dramatically. And from where I’m standing, it looks like it’ll be for the worse. At least for a while.
In the U.S., Biden continues to dig himself into such a deep pit there’s almost no getting out of it. And the DNC appears unwilling to concede that he’s a shit candidate that will almost certainly lose in November, ushering in the era of American fascism. Meanwhile, right-wing, religious extremist politicians and judges are gaining and exercising more and more power across the country. The “embryos are babies” and “you can shoot unhoused people” and “trans people are illegal” and “drill baby drill” crowd. They’re not just threatening people’s freedom and rights, but literally threatening people’s lives.
I’m not sure most regular ‘ol folks just living their lives realize that this right-wing regime is flanked by well-armed militias ready for battle. One is, of course, the domestic U.S. police force, hyper-militarized and infiltrated with white supremacists affiliated with armed domestic terrorist groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys. Our domestic law enforcement isn’t about serving and protecting the people, it’s about maintaining order and protecting the interests of the state, often by any means necessary, including state-sanctioned killing. This tie between law enforcement and right-wing armed militias is no coincidence. It’s a strategy. Many of these groups are not only ready and willing to fight, but they, in fact, welcome a civil war (don’t believe me? still think our political institutions will save us? Read this, this and this, for starters).
Folks, now is not the time for American exceptionalism. We’re becoming increasingly fascist, xenophobic, polarized, and pathologically plagued by societal violence, in a world that’s becoming more and more unstable politically, economically, and ecologically.
It’s a recipe for disaster.
So how do we prepare? Well, law degrees and business degrees and Powerpoint skills won’t be terribly helpful. What can help is learning valuable, tangible skills, and getting to know your community so you can share skills and figure out together how to stay safe.
I’ll admit, I have very few useful skills. A downside of years spent studying writing and law, I suppose. I’m also, like, super introverted (if you know me, you know). So being in community with my community is a struggle sometimes (I’m working on it…). But I love plants and being outside. So years ago I made the conscious decision to not just garden for the enjoyment of it (though that’s a bonus), but to learn how to grow food and save seeds. To learn about native plants to better understand the ecoregion I live in. To learn about medicinal and edible wild plants. I’m still very much an amateur when it comes to all of this. But at least now I have some useful field guides to pack in my Go Bag if needed. It’s fun to learn, but it’s also useful in a pinch.
I have visions of the front and backyards of all the houses on my block turning into little farms, full of veggies and herbs and fruit trees, chicken coops and rain barrels. Cute! And also, not a bad way to survive together!
Skilled at woodworking? Fabulous! Building things will be useful. Are you an electrician or a mechanic? Amazing! Supply chains will break down and we’ll need folks to fix stuff. Are you a doctor, nurse, or EMT? Boy do we need you! Know how to hunt and field dress a deer? Cool! Will you teach me? And my kids, while we’re at it (I mean, when they’re a bit older than 4 and 7)? Know your way around a gun and you’re a decent person who’s not a nutjob? Welcome aboard! Can you teach me Guns, too? Because, see above: violent armed right-wing militias.
I know, I know. You think this all sounds crazy. But to have your eyes open to our ecological and political realities and not be alarmed, and not feel like you might want to at least be a little prepared for what may be coming, well… to me, that’s crazy.
I obviously don’t really know what will happen in the future. But I do know that empires fall. That actions, and inaction, have consequences. That, as Octavia Butler says: “The only lasting truth is change.” And it sure seems like the times they are a-changin’.
We can’t avoid it, but we can get through it by being prepared and starting now to build the world we want to live in on the other side.