Famine and collapse coming to a planet near you

An important article from scientific American, or somewhere where they spliced it all into one page making it a little more readable.

the content in just a few works amounts to
too damn many of us, consuming to damn much stuff, destroying to much damn land, using too damn much water, with too little damn time to fix it. happy day everyone!Recommend this Post

Top Doomer Accessories

I often see lists of things people like, best electronics or the best cars but what about us doomers? What are the best things we should own to be well prepared?

Now I'm not talking about having a weeks worth of food or 10 candles for an emergency because I expect you to already have the basics, rather I'm talking about more substantial items that would be of great advantages for either powering down or in an emergency. I know this is not necessarily the definitive list but more of way of arguing with myself and with you on how to best utilize my meagre resources and prioritize my doomer centric purchases.

Solar oven

I’ve actually have one of these and think it’s a great tool for cooking small breads, casseroles, roasts, even boiling and sterilizing water but as my current yard is not consistently sunny enough I don't get to use it except at the cottage. The Peak Oil Hausfrau says this is her favourite appliance and has a number of useful posts on oven use I'd recommend you read. There are several types of solar cookers made; some are simple reflectors, some have back up gas heating or are very portable, mine is the Global Sun Oven pictured here which ran about $320 with shipping, tax and dollar exchange. While slower than a real oven this useful toy is absolutely free to use and is also carbon guilt free. Depending on your location this might be only a three season product but fuel saved in one season will mean more available later.

Berkley water filter

Whether it’s for constant use, seasonal concerns about your ground water or even to drink roof runoff in an emergency the Berkley Water Filter family is the Cadillac of free standing home water systems. These systems range in size and flow allowing you to get a good match for your personal usage and your budget. For long term use I would suggest getting several sets of spare filter up front and then repurchases them each time you change them out. This will give you the most use in case supply disruptions should occur as some point

A Quality Grain mill






Wheat's long term storability and nutrition makes it a common find in most doomer's pantries but since most of us don’t want to pound it with a stick or grind it between two stones a good quality grain mill such as the heavy duty Diamant Grain Mill or the more modest but highly rated Country Living Grain Mill is a must. A Grain mill is a tool that could be used several times a week if not daily so it does not pay to cut corners and buy the cheapest thing you can find. Most mills have spare part kits available which you may or may not need but certainly buy a spare set of burrs(the part that actually grinds).

A Pressure Canner

Unless you have guaranteed access to fresh meat and/or a working freezer with a stable power source you control you will eventually need to preserve low acid items such as meat, fish, and veggies.
I swear my Grandmother use to do carrots and beans without pressure canner and no one died but what do I know? Government health agencies say high pressure canning is the only safe way to can low acid stuff, high acid things like jellies, tomatoes, chutneys etc do not need a pressure canner.

A Smoker

A smoker is an ideal way to preserve meat by making hams, sausage or even smoking fish but since many of the commercial smokers look to be propane or electric powered I think I’d be looking to make my own wood/charcoal fired smoker. Or perhaps you'd rather buy the Big Green Egg


A Still

Alcohol is now and always has been one of mans great escapes. With your own still not only can one make potable alcohol but you can also produce fuel for a modified engine, medicinal alcohol for sterilizing wounds and equipment, or for making tinctures, tonics, pain killers like Laudanum. A small still with a hopper or basket allows you to strip essential oils from herbs and plants for medicine, flavourings, or scents. Finally alcohol is a great preservative for such things as seasonal fruit or Admiral Nelson if you’ve got one laying about. There are many sites dedicated to building your own or you can purchase them here, or here.
check local laws I did not suggest that you do anything illegal


A treadle sewing machine

An old singer or its contemporary’s with all the parts and bobbins in tact are ideal for basic sewing and should be a no brainer addition to the doomers home. More recently the Janome made a model called the 712T(and probably others) which fit into the old singer treadle tables and had many of the more modern sewing machine features. Old treadles are a dime a dozen on the used market but because some people think they are collectible they may ask far too much for them, many also are incomplete. Some like my Grandmother's looked original but had suffered an electric conversion and some of the original pieces missing. Look carefully to assure you get both a structurally sound table and a working sewing machine. If you end up with a spare treadle and no sewing machine I've seen some great plans for a treadle powered hobby lathe.

A modest solar recharging system


While it would be great to be totally off the grid with enough power to live life exactly like we live now that is not financial viable for the majority of people. However a modest solar recharging system
consisting of enough solar cells to charge a laptop, cell phones or batteries for flashlights, lanterns small small appliances or toys can add a little safety and normalcy to a tough situation without breaking the bank

Water capture system

Every doomer needs a water system that not only fills rail barrels or a cistern for the garden but one that allows you divert water to tanks for indoor use during droughts. Roof run of is certainly fine for laundry and flushing and if you prefilter for sediment would be quite drinkable after passing through your Berkely water filter, or boiling it in the sun oven. Do both if your paranoid.

A rugged bike and trailer



Eventually getting around or shopping will no longer take place in a car and a durable bike for all members of your household is very important as is at least one trailer for hauling what ever it is you need to move from place to place. If age, health, mobility is an issue they make adult trikes with a good size cargo basket on them or get an electric assist bike

A real first aid kit

I'm not talking one of those crappy 3 band aids and a safety pin things the car emergency clubs give you as a premium but a real high end kit supplemented with a good assortment of painkillers, antihistamines, antidiarrheals, antibiotic creams, calamine etc as well as a complete backup set of any prescribed medicine you use that is regularly rotated to keep fresh. I’m not a first aid expert but a couple hundred dollars is minimum to get a relatively complete kit.

Now I can probably think of many other things I think doomer should own or could find useful but what do you think? And before someone starts on me about this, lets leave a discussion on guns and firepower to another day, ok?

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Dilbert writer is channeling me

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Green Drag Racing

I'm not a gear head and don't waste my time on any motor sports but seeing a converted electric Datsun kick internal combustion ass is a good thing

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Four Seasons of Green

For a year or two I have been reading the occasion article at Riot 4 Austerity about a challenge where participants attempt to reduce their emissions by 90% in order to prove that Americans can limit themselves to what their fair share of the worlds emission should be if we are to limit the damage caused by global warming. The challenge is extreme yet a large a number of people have taken it up with well over 60 people contributing to the site alone and probably very many more taking the challenge in silence.


What these people are trying to achieve shatters the western norm and should be an example for all of us to contemplate if not emulate, that said no matter how admirable their actions seem it's always somewhat distant and abstract because they are not someone I know or someone who is local.

Well tonight I was at a presentation by Mike Nickerson in promotion of his new book Life, Money and Illusion (Living on Earth as if we want to stay) and was introduced to Tara Mae Hillyer who like the Rioters has created her own one year challenge called Four Seasons of Green. The description of her challenge is such

The journey of a suburban family taking the challenge to reduce their carbon footprint by becoming environmentally responsible for their own waste and bi-products as well as socially accountable through their consumer habits.

5 goals are to be reached through this year of ‘greening’.

1. To eliminate the chemical products ingested and applied topically (food-pesticide/herbicide, body care products)
2. To allow Zero chemicals to go down drains (sink, tub, dishwasher, washing machine)
3. To engage 100% Social Conscious Buying Habits in the Family
4. To increase Family’s Awareness of Global Social Justice Issues
5. To get off the electric/gas grid while remaining in a suburban environment

The project launches in January 2009. Each member of the family will maintain a monthly video blog in addition to interviewing local community members, politicians and activists on sustainability, environmental responsibility and social justice. Through the website for this project the public can follow the process of this transition; the difficulties, successes and support from other citizens. Each month video updates and video ‘how to’ guides will be posted. Upon the completion of the project at the end of 2009 a documentary film will be produced.

Tara's goals are defined somewhat differently than the Rioters yet she still challenges us all to look at what we consume and its cost to our health, the planet and the poor saps half a world away who make all this crap for us.

I would recommend that my readers, especially those that live in York Region look in on Tara's site and encourage her in this difficult challenge

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Debaptism, what will they think of next?

Have you ever wanted to offend your overly religious, in your face In-laws? Have you ever wanted to get back at your mother for those endless Sunday sermons you were forced to sit through? Well the National Secular Society in the U.K. has just the thing for you!



So if someone else made a decision to indoctrinate you as a child into a faith you don't believe in, you now have the option of proclaiming your release with the purchase of your very own Certificate of Debaptism.

Now I don’t really get the point of buying a certificate when your words should be sufficient to set you free, if you feel the need. But considering that some people are willing to attached weights to themselves in an attempt to recreate a foreskin just to correct a past decision made on their behalf, I suppose there must be a market for this service beyond just annoying people. Mind you annoying people is usually enough for me, but I generally don't pay for the privilege!

Mmmmm, I’m often so ashamed of us as a species I wonder if I can get a certificate removing myself from the human race? Maybe I should design one and charge other people for it?

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Being your own seed bank

I’ve been shouting at everyone for about 2 years to get off their asses and start gardening as a defence against poverty and food shortages brought on by peak oil and financial crisis. During this time I realized several things

1. A very small portion of the population gardens for food

2. A very small portion of the population know much about food or how it’s produced; an extreme example is here.

3. Of those who do garden many use hybrid seeds which do not breed true and should not or can not have their seeds harvested and saved from season to season. This makes you reliant on seed companies who essentially control the food supply.

4. If something happens and many people decide they want or need to garden for survival the available seed supply for local gardeners will be hopelessly insufficient to meet the publics demand. Such an event might require several years of gearing up by smaller seed companies and seed saving gardeners to meet demand for open pollinated seeds.

5. As rightly brought up in the comments, saving your own seed allows you to collect seeds from those particular plants that are best adapting or climatizing to your local climate and soil. Eventually, several plant generations later I will have a local plant regardless of where it originated or where I purchased the seed.

These revelations caused me to begin buying seeds, not just seeds I needed for a particular years gardening plans and not even the seeds of things I like to eat best but just seeds. The point of this is not some attempt to get the entire collection like an 8 year old with hockey cards. The point is to build up a personal seed bank that contains a good variety of different vegetables, herbs (medicinal and culinary) as well as oil and fibre plants just in case they were ever needed.

All the seeds I buy are open pollinated so I can save their seeds for future years and most are heritage crops which were selected for taste rather than durability in shipping like the tasteless shit we get from the grocery store most of the year.

My first purchase was a collection from AAOOB foods of 34 varieties of veggies, herbs and fruit in a 2 gallon plastic pail ready to freeze for long term storage, this kind of purchase is an easy, nearly anyone can do, food insurance policy. Even if you can’t freeze them they will still remain viable for several years in a cool dry environment, stick them on a shelf in the basement.

Since then, I’ve found this company which offers what looks to be a better deal with more varieties, the only issue is they don’t break down the kits so you know what varieties of seeds you are getting ahead of time, still 60 varieties from 25 vegetable types all open pollinated for $90 US is a damn good deal as is the 275 varieties from 30 vegetable types for $375. Even better these kits have southern and northern variations to ensure you get plants suitable for your climate. A kit like this would make you a micro seed bank able to freeze for long terms storage for your personal use or to disperse to others in case of need.


I’ve also purchased individual seeds packages of heritage crops with the intention of using my limited garden space and growing out a selection of them each year in rotation to increase the amount of seed I’m storing. For example this year I will plant Ardwyna paste tomatoes, a bean variety called Orca, Bronze Amaranth, Kamut, Potimarron squash and hulless barley called Faust.

In each case I’ll only plant a few grams or maybe an ounce of each species but by only planting 1 variety of each species to avoid crosspollination and using proper seed saving techniques I can probably increase my hoard of seed in these varieties by 15-50 fold, an ounce become pounds, a gram an ounce, and I’ll still be able to eat from these plants crops. Each year I will rotate to different varieties in order to increase them as well and to replace and refresh the vitality of seeds that have been frozen for too many years.

At some point I’ll be able to share my seeds with other gardeners or if I get a bigger plot of land perhaps I can even start my own online seed store. In either case I’m increasing the supply of seeds for myself and others and just as important, I’m preserving the genetics of heritage crops that are being squeezed out by often sterile or genetically unstable hybrids. Do you honestly think that in a time of food crisis that large seed companies like Monsanto won’t screw us over by buying and killing heritage seed companies so that you will be forced to buy new sterile seed from them each and every year at a new and inflated price?

Provided you are not surrounded by other gardeners who will pollute your genetics everyone should try seed saving. If you do have fellow gardeners too close perhaps you can agree to sow the same types of plant, or offer to grow beans for both of you while they grow tomatoes for both of you. This would allow you to garden yet maintain the isolation of species required to breed your seed true.

A network of people working together locally could maintain and increase a wide variety of seeds and trade back and forth. They could also support local community gardens with seeds or make seed packages for distribution to people frequenting food banks. A return to local food is probably in our future but it’s not going to happen without some help from individuals taking part in saving and increasing the quantity of open pollinated seeds. If you don't garden consider doing so. If you do garden make it count!


While far from complete or adequate (I’m currently light on root crops and medicinals) the green Assassin Seed Bank currently contains

Bronze Amaranth

Barley - Faust

Beans- all dry bean or multi use varieties.
Orca
Candy
Mitla Black Tepary
Nez Perce
Jacob’s Cattle
True red cranberry
Good Mother Stallard

Corn-
Blue Jade
Strawberry Popcorn
Stowell’s Evergreen

Carrots- I forget

Cucumber – Bushy

Flax – a fibre variety

Kamut- Polish Wheat

Opium poppies- you never know if modern medicine will survive the coming chaos, pain abatement or euthanasia may be up to you. Seeds are so good in baking, if you don’t need to pass random drug tests.

Parsnip - Harris Model

Squash-
Potimarron
Long Island Cheese

Sugar beets – I even have the instructions to make molasses and sugar from them.

Sunberry- I have no clue what a sunberry is but figured I’d give it a try

Tomato -
Ardwyna paste

Tomatillos-

Wheat – Hard White Spring


I've purchased most of my seeds from Salt Springs Seeds, Seed Savers Exchange or Richter’s Herbs

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