What are you preparing for?

Posted: July 3, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: 1. Philosophy, 6. Personal Training, 7. Physical Security | Tags: , | Comments Off on What are you preparing for?

Specifically, I am preparing my family and home for the following scenarios. Some are much more likely to happen than others.

1. Earthquake, volcanic eruption, severe winter storm, environmental meltdown
We live on a (currently inactive) fault line. We live near an overdue volcano. We lose electricity 1/2 dozen times each winter. The longest outage recently was 11 days in late December / early January. It was darn cold. But “environmental meltdown”? Isn’t that a bit dramatic? Watch this recent series from ABC and decide for yourself: Earth 2100: Civilization at Crossroads. Additional videos and more thoughtful commentary are here.

2. Terrorist attack (nuclear, biological, chemical)
Before 9/11 happened I would have given this a 1% chance of happening. But given that my day job revolves around importing Fair Trade products from Pakistan, a known terrorist-harboring country that is not remotely stable, my gut tells me the percentage likelihood of something else bad (bad like on the 9/11 scale of bad) happening during my lifetime is quite high. Especially since I live near a heavily trafficked West Coast port in the US.

3. Economic meltdown
Whether it is the Peak Oil theory (yes, I know there are lots of folks who think this is nonsense) or a US financial system meltdown (hey, that just happened!), this could lead to limited transportation + limited cash + looting. Lots of other folks go into the details of who, how, and why. It’s worth researching for yourself.

4. Home invasion (short-term burglary)
This is more than just a casual concern. While we live in a very safe town and neighborhood, once I had children my protective instincts and radar for this went *way* up. If you walk down the fairly logical path of any of the above scenarios, whoever *is* prepared (e.g. you have water and food for your family and neighbors) is likely going to become a target, particularly from those outside your neighbors and community.

Why opt out?

Posted: July 3, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: 1. Philosophy | Tags: , | Comments Off on Why opt out?

I’ve been going down this path for the past three months. Here’s my thought process to date on the frequent question of “Why did you start thinking about this?” that I get from close friends when they ask me about my current project load…

All of this falls into a broad category of what you might call “emergency preparedness”. I actually had a family member involved in an EP company for a decade, so you would think this might have occurred to me earlier, but no.

What is motivating me? Positive, solution-seeking thinking/planning in these areas:

1. My kids
As soon as we began having children, my instincts went way up in terms of protection, provision, and training. I want to raise well-rounded, positive-outlook children that are equipped to help others and change the world for the better. IMO, that takes *alot* of work.

2. The movements of Green + Peak Oil + Go Local + Beyond Organic
Although everything “green” is sexy these days – usually leading to shallow change, unfortunately – there is actually quite a bit of authentic change happening. I’m a big believer in “technology as savior”, although I’m skeptical we can catch up with our environment before a major correction happens (read: worldwide plague, ocean level rising). History tells us these corrections do happen.

However, we are seeing some exciting technologically-based solutions coming to market. Rapid, significant improvements annually in alternative energy such as solar, wind, and geothermal are happening right now. Witness the re-birth of the oil wildcatter T. Boone Pickens as a wind farm proponent and investor.

One of my organizations is heavily involved in these movements, so I get to see a fair number of inside peaks at these positive innovations.

3. Fair Trade movement
I’ve been involved in this “Fair Trade” experiment to correct our unsustainable economic model for the past six years (I’m currently on the winning end of that unsustainable model, thankfully). Witness China + Russia + India all vying for our spot as Last Standing Superpower. Research movements like Fair Trade Towns and Transition Towns that are trying to get our US cities off their oil dependency and unjust (and thus unsustainable) economic systems that we’ve built over the past couple hundred years.

4. My personal health
I am nearing 40 years old. I catch the flu/allergies 2-3X per season despite eating and drinking quite healthily. So I am reminded daily of my desire to get away from toxic, unnatural products and the system that creates them.

5. My personality as a Planner and Networker
I’ve been described as a “geek with people skills”. I enjoy and thrive on meeting other people and networking via high quality conversations. My desire is to see true lasting positive change on a local, regional, national, and international level. Both my day jobs focus on the international aspect. These personal efforts documented here will focus on the local and regional aspects.

In short, I’m a dork for preparedness, I’ve just never applied it to potential emergencies before. What kind of emergencies? Next post…

What do you mean by opt out?

Posted: June 29, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: 1. Philosophy | Tags: , | Comments Off on What do you mean by opt out?

By opting out, I’m proposing an en masse exodus of thoughtful, positive, grounded people from the US-centric world view that consuming more and more is our God-given right.

Specifically, I’m pursuing a significantly different priority list than most (95%) of my colleagues. Going beyond just opting out of fast food with toxic, addictive hits of fat and sugar. Beyond just opting out of mindless hours in front of reality tv shows.
This blog will document our failures and successes as we move through this radically (to me) different task list. The top-level to-do list in my family’s journey towards greater resilience includes these topics:


Do we have all the answers? Certainly not. I don’t think I even have handful of them. But I’ll let you know what we find in my research, what we actually enact, and whether it works or not.

Opt Out En Masse

Posted: June 29, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: 1. Philosophy | Tags: , | Comments Off on Opt Out En Masse

Welcome to one family’s (awkward, groping, often mis-stepped) path towards self-reliance. In an age of Peak Oil, in the decline of the American Empire, in the rise of the Eco + Organic + Fair Trade + Local movements, this is one North American journey towards true sustainability. To re-purpose grass farmer Joel Salatin‘s words:

“We ask for too much salvation by legislation. All we need to do is empower individuals with the right philosophy and the right information to opt out en masse.”

Your thoughts, observations, and questions are most welcome here. But be cool in the comments; I’m fast on the delete button for trolls.

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