Claire

All Hallows Eve is a time when the veil between the worlds of life and death is thin. The ghosts walk; the ghouls lurk. Make a small offering of a sweet treat and you may be safe. Whether there are actually dangers or just tricksy little golems Hallowe’en and All Saint’s Day mark the beginning of the season of death. 

Winter in the northern hemisphere was literally the season of death in pre-industrial times. It wasn't just a metaphor for the changing seasons. Death was a more frequent visitor when staying warm was a challenge; the seasonal changes meant predictable food shortages; and fire was both a comfort and a hazard.

Life was more precarious; anything could tip the balance. The “flu” was deadly influenza and even catching a chill could be life threatening. The very old and the very young were specially at risk but anyone who was frail or sickly was likely to die in the coldest darkest time of the year.

There is a wisdom to the historical practice of collective mourning rituals and acknowledging death at a set time and a place. It lets us experience the fullness of grief and loss and share our pain with those around us. And very importantly lets us set it aside as much as possible for the rest of the year and carry on as best we can. 

Learning to deal with grief is likely to be a very important aspect of adapting to the slowly shifting realities that shape our lives. The next several generations are likely to be characterized by periodic population contraction events. Which in plain language and simple human terms it means mass death and widespread suffering.

In Reinventing Collapse (2008 New Society Publishers) Dimitri Orlov describes social and economic fallout from the historic dissolution of the USSR and speculates on the potential for similar events in the West. Fluent in Russian and familiar with the culture Orlov a (former) Russian ex-pat was uniquely placed to observe and he traveled extensively in the former Soviet Union in the decade that followed its collapse. The book is well worth reading. It contains many useful insights. 

One that struck me was the skyrocketing rates of alcoholism and suicide among men from middle age to retirement who were pushed out of their jobs and, in losing their careers and status, were the most vulnerable to losing the self-worth, meaning, and purpose in  their lives. (Women may be at less risk in these circumstances because they are more likely to find meaning in social and family connections.)

I fully expect that the current obliteration of whole swaths of jobs in the PMC will have a similar result. Less that 50 years ago the same pattern played out here in North America when working class jobs in manufacturing  were “off-shored” to the poor world where wages were significantly lower and there were no pesky OSH regulations or environmental protections. 

The increases in alcoholism, addiction, homelessness, suicide and death among the people affected was dramatic. The service industry jobs that were left could not actually provide a livelihoods for those who were displaced but the damage done and the mass suffering it caused was obscured and ignored. 

The economy was still growing; prosperity for the rest of us was increasing; and the devastation of a huge segment of the population was rendered almost invisible. If the social fallout from the profit driven policies of our feckless political and economic elites was noticed at all, the blame was squarely placed on those who suffered the most.

The impact of this economic sleight of hand wasn’t limited to the tragic and still unresolved impoverishment of the people who were heartlessly thrown under the bus in the rich world. The lack of environmental and safety standards in the poor parts of the world caused many ecological disasters with catastrophic human consequences. 

In 1984 in the worst of these 45 tons of deadly gas spewed out of the Union Carbide chemical plant over the city of Bhopal in India. Nearly 20,000 people were killed and more than half a million were injured. A pittance of compensation was eventually paid but neither the corporation responsible nor the government have ever bothered to clean up the 400+ tons of chemical waste that still contaminates the site. To this day, although they are mostly forgotten even by environmentalists, the people of Bhopol continue to suffer chronic health problems and disproportionally high birth defects. 

It’s all ancient history but for those of us who do remember the similarities to what is happening here and now are hard to miss. This time it’s the information workers and managers being eliminated; it’s data centres not chemical plants causing the ecological destruction; and all the devastating consequences to land and people will be happening here not conveniently “over there.” 

We are entering the season of death. 

And how will we fare? 

Will we find our own fears getting in the way of compassion for those who are suffering? Or will we tolerate people reduced to living in vans and RV parking in our neighbourhoods? 

Will we blame and despise those who lose the will to live and let themselves be swept away? Or recognize that alcoholism and addiction are the result of the wanton destruction of peoples lives not the cause? 

Will we do what we can to ease the suffering of those around us? Learn to accept the inevitability of death? Find ways to make space to acknowledge grief and loss?

Or succumb to the charlatans who will play on our fears telling us they can make it better if we hate the right people or give up our rights and our power? 

Time will tell.

We’re talking about reducing energy demands and costs in our homes this time and that means we’re gong to have to talk about conservation. 

It’s been 45 years since conservation has been promoted in any real way by the environmental movement. It’s almost unbelievable that a concept that has so much potential for achieving all our goals from reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions to preserving wilderness and biodiversity to limiting resource depletion and pollution has been so neglected. 

Conservation got a brief mention for a few years in the late 1970’s. Carter’s Address to the Nation on Energy in 1977 represents a “road not taken” that could have made a real difference to our current predicament and the future staring us down.

Then the Alaskan North slope oil and the North Sea oil fields were tapped and Regan won the White house. In 1980 it was “Morning in America again.” The  chance for a sane response to the oil crisis and a controlled transition into a low carbon economy disappeared. Regan’s message was “party on.” Conservation was out.

Since then a few lone voices have been raised in the name of conservation. Most notably Amory Lovins co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute consistently talked and wrote about the US’s potential for becoming “the Saudi Arabia of nega-barrels.” Sadly none of his work gained the recognition it deserved or the traction that might have made a difference. 

His point, and it’s a good one, is that Westerners, particularly those of us in North America, waste so much energy that we could easily reduce our consumption drastically without dramatically changing how we live.

Our extravagant use of energy is a hidden buffer. Conservation is the way to turn that buffer into lasting resilience. 

Keeping comfortable at home without cranking the thermostat is a considerably bigger topic than dressing to stay warm. Much more could be said about using clothing as a method of regulating body temperature too, but we all have bodies that operate in the same way and clothing can be easily changed and adjusted to meet our changing physical and social needs. Housing and heating infrastructure is much more varied and difficult to adjust. 

In North America most of our housing stock was built during the energy glut of the last 50 years. Houses have gotten bigger while household size has decreased. Orientation has more to do with street grids than any consideration of weather, natural light, or prevailing winds. Climate considerations are virtually non-existent and houses suitable to California have been built all over the cold temperate zones. 

Most modern homes are energy sinks. Open plan layouts, cathedral ceilings, and minimalist aesthetics that favour large expanses of unadorned windows are the antithesis of energy efficiency. These things, like impractical clothing, are intended to declare a degree of wealth indifferent to energy constraints. 

Moreover most of our heating systems focus on heating the air which is the least effective way to stay warm. Your furnace has to work harder to maintain an air temperature high enough for you to feel comfortable and keep on working to maintain that temperature for the whole room or even the whole house.

Quite honestly if you are in this kind of house the best thing to do may be to move. Downsizing into a house or apt. that is actually suitable size for your family size is one of the best most effective collapse strategies.

If you live in northern Europe the chances are your house or apartment was built to conserve heat. Most of the housing stock there was built well before the energy glut. Weatherizing may be the main challenge in an old building but the chances are it’s better set up to actively manage the heat.

If you are renting, live in an apt., or shared accommodations you may not pay for utilities directly but one way or another you still pay. If costs go up your housing costs will soon reflect that change. Some of this will still apply and learning and practicing conservation techniques builds your permanent resilience.

Investment Ahead

There will be some costs here. If you focus on DIY and use it as an opportunity to develop your skills it can be done on a shoestring budget. Making sure your furnace or heater(s) are operating at peak efficiency; weatherizing to reduce the heat loss; and finding the ways and means to stay comfortable at lower temperatures is an investment in developing long lasting resilience. 

You may want to use this as an opportunity to think about your expectations. Unrealistic expectations are the challenge of our time. We have all been raised with life and lifestyle expectations that are unsustainable. 

The assumptions generated in the era of growth will not serve you now. Circumstances have changed. The economy is contracting. Hanging on to the expectations of the past may be the biggest barrier to a successful adaptation.

If it’s crunch time for you, you may need to sacrifice aesthetics to accomplish as much of this as you can on a limited or non-existent budget. Think about what you’d be willing to do in an obvious survival situation like a winter power outage. I’m not suggesting you build a blanket tent in the living room but don’t let your concerns about aesthetics and prestige prevent you from hanging thrift store blankets in your windows and doorways. But I’m getting ahead of myself …

First things first. 

Do the maintenance on your furnace or existing heat source. Clean or change your furnace filters. Vacuum around your radiators or baseboard units. Search the internet for maintenance tips. If your budget extends to scheduling a professional maintenance or inspection, great. That’s probably a worthwhile investment especially if you aren’t confident about DIY. 

Reduce heat loss. 

This is especially important if your system relies on convection to heat the air.¹ Heat flows from areas of highest concentration to areas of lowest concentration. Hot air rises and spills into unheated rooms. If those rooms are unoccupied you’re wasting heat and your system is working harder at more cost.

Close the vents or turn down the baseboard heaters and close the doors to unoccupied rooms. If you don’t have doors between rooms hang up curtains or blankets to close them off. Japanese door panels Noren are amazingly efficient and elegant and can be hung in the doorways using tension rods.

If you are opening and closing the furnace vents it will take longer to warm up the space you want to use. Supplementing with an electric space heater you can move from room to room helps. Electric heaters can warm up a room very quickly although they are less efficient at keeping the room warm.  

Cover the Gaps

Doors and windows are holes in the building envelop and are by definition places where heat will be lost. Minimizing heat loss from these gaps is a an excellent return on investment.

Installing door sweeps and weather stripping and hanging curtains requires a modicum of skill with tools.² More temporary and removable solutions like door snakes (a rolled up towel will do) and tension rods that can be fit into the window and door frames to hold curtains might be a better option if you’re renting.

Covering the windows frame and all is better. Curtains that lie flat against the window frame all around are better than expensive draperies that stand out from the wall and leave gaps at the top, bottom, and sides. Cornices and valances were a common feature of interior decor in the 1950s and 60s because they close the gap at the top and stop cycle of warm air rising behind the curtains and cooling against the window.

Asian style roll down blinds are fairly affordable and they are surprisingly effective because they lay flat against the window frame all around.

Making curtains and noren are easy projects even for beginning sewers.³ Sewing is a skill well worth acquiring and thrift stores and charity shops are chockablock with textiles of all kinds. Finding something suitable for making curtains shouldn’t be hard.(Good quality sewing machines from the era before electronics turn up fairly often too.)

The key point here is “Never let perfect get in the way of good.” Even if you can afford to buy new curtains, the point of all of this is to decrease your energy demands whether it’s the energy needed to make new stuff or the energy that shows up on your fuel bill.

This also applies to the numerous plastic products intended to be applied to the windows and removed seasonally. They can’t really be considered part of a collapse strategy. The annual plastic waste; the seasonal chore; and the inoperable windows are definite downsides but you may need to use them this year while you are getting more permanent solutions in place.

Search for leaks

Use a stick of incense to check for leaks around windows and doors. The smoke will show even the tiniest drafts. Chalking to seal up the gaps isn’t difficult or expensive and it’s a critical step especially if your curtains don’t cover the entire frame. Check the power outlets and switch plates on the outside walls too. Foam gaskets for switch plates and power outlets are inexpensive and easily installed. 

Heat yourself not the room

There are many ways to keep yourself warm without heating the whole house. The permaculture principle is “Every important function is supported by many elements.” You want to develop as many different ways to stay warm and to warm up quickly if you become chilled as you can. Resilient systems include redundancies and backups.

Keeping a big thermos of tea or broth going for a quick hot drink is a good practice. A pot of soup in a slow cooker or instant pot or hot rice in a rice cooker4 is another way of insuring you can warm up quickly from the inside out. Staying comfortable and active in a cooler house is much easier if your body is well fuelled. 

Staying active is important. It’s tempting to just cozy up in a nest of blankets when the house is cold but your body will generate its own heat if you’re moving and you’ll sleep better at night too. 

Focus on the non-electric options as much as you can. 

There are a whole array of electric gadgets for heating yourself and your spot on the market but the tech bros want data centres everywhere and electricity prices are also going to spike. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent too. Brownouts and blackouts are likely to become more common as economic contraction bites down.

Instead of a heating pad use a hot water bottle and a lap blanket.5 A hot water bottle wrapped in a small towel in your lap or at your back will stay warm for several hours. Refill it and tuck into your bed 10 or 15 minutes before you are ready to climb in.

Skip the electric foot warmer. A second hot water bottle at your feet will do the same job. Slippers and socks that come up over your ankles will keep your feet warm without hobbling you. If you need an extra blast put a sprinkle of cayenne into each slipper but wear the socks too so it doesn’t irritate your skin.

The Japanese kotatsu can be adapted to any kind of table or desk if you have enough quilts or blankets. If you have an electric space heater you can direct the heat into it using a length of dryer duct or tubing. 

Instead of an electric blanket get a thick quilt for the bed. A down comforter (or sleeping bag) is best. People who do all weather camping use down sleeping bags because it’s the  warmest lightest option. It’s the loft that matters. Extra blankets go under the quilt if you need them. 

While we are on beds: the curtained four poster isn’t just a bit of fluff for fairy tale princesses. It’s intended to keep the body heat you generate while sleeping from dissipating into the room. Rigging up that blanket tent over your bed may be worth considering.

Active Adaptation

All of this requires more active participation in the heating and ventilation of your house. Rooms that have been sealed up will need to be aired on warm sunny days. Vents and baseboard heaters must be turned off and on when you move from room to room. The curtains on sun facing windows should be opened during the day for the solar gain and closed once the sun has passed.

It’s much more convenient to set the thermostat for easy comfort and walk away. And that’s an important point. A significant portion of the energy we use is for convenience and comfort not for well being and survival. Staying ahead of the collapse means being willing to sacrifice those before it becomes inescapable.  

Pro-Active Adaptation

If this winter proves to be milder than usual the energy shortages and price hikes may not land as predicted. If it’s not crunch time for you, you may feel like you can take more time to think things through and craft a more elegant response. 

Unfortunately the rush is on for many other people and that means resources will be snapped up and prices even in the charity shops will rise. 

The point, of “Collapse Now ….” is that reducing your needs saves you money and  preserves your financial buffer. It also reduces “rush” for everyone else. Reducing your demand means there is more to go around. It means the fuel price hikes may be less extreme and that people who are already feeling the pinch will be able to continue to get the resources they need for longer. Most of all it means that when the next energy crunch comes you'll be ready.

1 You may want to review some of the basics of how heat moves to make sure you are clear on how your system works and the interventions that will give the best results. (https://sciencenotes.org/heat-transfer-conduction-convection-radiation/)

2 If I can do these things almost anyone can. They really don’t take much skill at all and building up your skills is a key aspect of developing permanent resilience.

3 For those who are more skilled or more ambitious there are great resources for making your own curtains and draperies online and books like this one show up reasonably often in thrift stores.

4 The non-electric version is a hay box.
 
5 I’m not going to get into “lap-dogs” or “three dog nights.” Sharing body heat with other people or animals is probably the most ancient way to stay warm but this is much too long already. 

Links of interest 

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2024/12/how-to-build-an-electrically-heated-table/

https://ikeahackers.net/2012/01/japaneseswedish-kotatsu-made-in-australia-for-canadian-conditions.html

In the second part of his series on collapse, Richard Martin identifies the two factors that determine how much the failures of our disintegrating industrial systems will affect you. 

The first is about your dependance on the system and the second is how well you are able to buffer the effects of system failure. Martin points your ability to buffer is limited and will eventually be exhausted. As he says “The wealthy feel it last. They don’t feel it least.” 

This is the foundational truth behind “Collapse now and avoid the rush.”¹ 

Unfortunately, it seems the rush may be on for many of us in the northern hemisphere. The seasons are changing and winter is coming. People who follow international affairs and global energy supply chains are talking about fuel and food shortages and price spikes. 

Figuring out how to stay warm this winter without having to resort to maxing out your credit cards to pay the fuel bills may be a challenge.

Learning how to maintain a comfortable body temperature without cranking up the thermostat isn’t rocket science; and, even if the crisis doesn’t land or you are lucky enough to have a good financial buffer, spending some time thinking it through gives us a real life example of using our adaptive superpowers strategically. 

Being prepared, taking responsibility for yourself, doing what you can with what you have, will keep you warmer, save you money, and give you lasting resilience.

Clothing is the most fundamental part of our adaptive tool kit. It’s one of the most basic innovations in our wide range of cultural adaptations.²  

How and why we ended up without fur is a mystery. There is some speculation that we spent some of our evolutionary history being semi-aquatic.³  But whether or not that’s true, using clothing to expand our range of possible habitats is uniquely human.

Clothing has been used as a primary method of regulating body temperature by people in hot and cold climates around the world and throughout history. 

Using clothing to adapt to climate change is so automatic, so basic, so human, that discovering that the medieval cold period ⁴ drove the shift to heavier fabric and more layers,⁵ which drove the agriculture revolution and the technical innovations that made Britain a leading wool producer⁶ and, arguably, started it on the path to becoming a global superpower, almost comes as a shock. 

We use clothes for so many things. They declare our social status, announce our affiliation with our particular subculture, and express our individuality. We still use them to protect us from the weather and from workplace hazards. But once we get inside, we strip off our hats and gloves and scarves and crank up the heat to stay warm.

In the last few generations of cheap abundant energy we seem to have largely forgotten about the most basic aspect of clothing functionality. Deliberately using it to trap your body heat and slow down its dissipation into the room may feel like a new idea. A lost skill set.

Focusing on this particular functional aspect of clothing doesn’t mean giving up on style, or comfort, or anything else your clothes do for you. But attachment to the social-cultural functions clothing provides, status and social perception, can limit your ability to adapt.

Fashion, especially high fashion, is often deliberately impractical. Clothing that is blatantly non-functional is a way of signalling wealth and leisure. 

Fortunately displays of conspicuous consumption have given way to “quiet luxury.” And, as I write this, the trend for cosplaying real workers by wearing works shirts and Carhartt jeans or overalls is still strong. It should be possible to adopt a functional clothing style without attracting any attention at all.⁷ 

The basics are simple. Dress in layers to trap your body heat; reinforce the key points of heat loss; and use your accessories to adjust your body temperature as your activity level changes. 

Anyone who has spent time outdoors camping, hiking, or doing winter sports, will find this familiar. Dressing to stay warm indoors starts with the same basic strategy.

The base layer, next to your body should be something that breathes and is easily laundered.8 Its main function is to wick moisture and sweat away from your body and let it evaporate. Its other function is to protect your other layers from you. 

Cotton and other fabrics that hold onto moisture should be avoided if possible. They can end up chilly and damp next to your skin.“Cotton kills” is a mantra among outdoor sports enthusiasts.

The mid layer, or layers, provide insulation to trap your body heat and prevent it from dissipating into the room. A loose fitting tightly woven outer layer that traps more air around you helps keep the heat in. 

Easy care fabrics⁹ for both your inner and outer layers are ideal. You’ll obviously be changing the inner layer frequently. Your mid layer will stay clean and fresh much longer than you might think if you have a good base layer. A good outer layer will protect it from external sources of dirt and stains. And the last thing you want to do is spend your energy savings on increased laundry costs.¹⁰

A down vest, especially one that covers your whole torso is an ideal mid layer especially in addition to a sweater or thick shirt. Something long keeps more of you warm; vests maintain the full range of motion for your arms; and down is a great insulator that doesn’t add weight.

Swapping out your outer layer depending on your activity is a good idea. Something that lets you move if you are up and around doing things and something big and cozy like a “snuggie”  when you want to curl up and watch a movie. 

Snuggies are a modern take on the medieval robe. In pre-industrial times robes, “house” coats, and cloaks (a personal blanket), were a standard part of any wardrobe. Something loose and wide at the bottom and closed at the neck and wrists will trap more warm air near your body. If you overheat opening the neck allow the excess to vent.

Accessories also have significant functional value. Key points of heat loss are your head, neck, hands, and ankles. Your kidney area, lower back, is also a vulnerable spot. Making sure all your layers are well tucked in or wearing something long will solve that.

Wearing hats or some kind of head covering indoors and out was common for both men and women in the pre-industrial era even at night. High collars and some way of wrapping the neck was also normal. Men’s ties are a vestigial accessory. Wearing them is still common especially for certain classes and occasions but we’ve forgotten why.

Using your accessories, hats, scarves and neckies, fingerless gloves or hand warmers, even leg warmers or gaiters, will complete your ensemble and keep those key points covered. They’ll keep you warmer and they can be removed or adjusted if the temperature or your activity level changes.

Slippers that come up over your ankles are better than those that just cover your toes but thick long socks will also do the job.

Finding a balance between having adequate insulation and maintaining your ease of movement can be tricky. You can easily end up looking and feeling like the Michelin Man;  weighed down and too bulky to move. 

The point is start now and experiment with your clothes. Figure out how to make it work. If you have money to invest in a few key items that will pull it all together that’s great but this is not an excuse for more shopping. 

Learning to use your clothing to regulate your body temperature is intended to save you money and preserve whatever buffer you may still have.

Next: Staying Warm Part 2 Hacks for home and office. 

1 “Collapse now and avoid the rush.” is a slogan put forth by John Michael Greer. https://ecosophia.net/ Your best chance of having a controlled descent into a more energy constrained future is to choose to reduce your dependance on global systems and uncertain supplies as quickly as possible.

2 Cultural adaptations are things we do to adjust to our circumstances in contrast to physical adaptations that involve changes to our anatomy and physiology. Changing our cultural practices gives us a unique flexibility and a much quicker response to changing circumstance. 

3 https://umaincertaantropologia.org/2020/04/14/did-human-evolution-include-a-semi-aquatic-phase-the-scientist/

4 https://www.britannica.com/science/Holocene-Epoch/Medieval-Cool-Period

5 https://historyweblog.com/2017/09/how-fashion-adapted-to-climate-change-in-the-little-ice-age/

6 Like most things, it’s complicated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_English_wool_trade

7 Maybe we need to establish a new visible subculture group. People who say FTS and dress to proudly declare their commitment to a personal energy descent.

8 8 Synthetics are oil based and therefore water resistant. Which makes washing out sweat and body odours difficult even with harsh detergents and hot water. Synthetic base layers and exercise gear can quickly acquire a permanent stench.

9 Wool absolutely qualifies as “easy care.” The one flaw in this infographic(https://loomandfiber.com/blog/what-is-fleece-made-from/#fleece-vs-wool-the-ultimate-comparison) that is that it misses the fact that wool rarely needs to be washed. It’s naturally odour and stain resistant and can usually be maintained very easily by airing, brushing, and spot cleaning when needed.

10 Aprons, shop coats or overalls, and other protective items that are either light-weight or don’t get cleaned are useful for keeping heavier clothing out of the laundry for longer.

Links of Interest

https://www.traditioninaction.org/Cultural/C042_Warm.htm

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/02/restoring-the-old-way-of-warming-heating-people-not-places/

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/02/insulation-first-the-body-then-the-home/

There is a pressing need for people with many kinds of practical skill in society as a whole. This list was partly inspired by Quy Ma’s post The Eight Load-Bearing Humans Every Civilization Needs (https://quyma.substack.com/p/the-eight-load-bearing-humans-every). 

Ma points out that when a civilization becomes top heavy, as ours has, there is an inevitable period of “correction” where the “derivative” sector starts shrinking because the “load bearing” foundation isn’t there to support it. This is certainly where we find ourselves. His point and mine is that we all need to start developing skills that are “load bearing.” 

Switching perspective to write a list of load bearing skills for the individual or household inevitably brings some roles into focus and erases others. For example Ma includes Farmer but not Cook. (I’ve written about growing food here, here, and here so we’ll leave Gardener out of it for now.) He includes Builder but not Tinker.

A Tinker repairs equipment, or tools. Tinkering is improv and bricolage. Tinkering keeps things going when replacement isn’t an option. Tinkering is an expression of the same basic human curiosity about how things work that has driven scientific discoveries and technological advances since the technology was about knowing which rocks to bang together. 

Being willing to tinker with stuff, to take it apart, see how it works, and try to figure out if it’s repairable² isn’t a marketable job skill. It isn’t something that will keep a civilization going. But it can save you money, keep things out of the landfill, and may turn out to be valuable to your friends and neighbours. 

Some of the roles on Ma’s list remain but are almost unrecognizable at this smaller scale. The Judge, an official with years of training in a civilization, becomes the informal mediator or arbitrator. It’s similar function with an almost completely different skill set. A mediator doesn’t need years of study devoted to jurisprudence and case law. Doesn’t even need to be a professional.³

Gardening. (turns out I could leave it out after all.) Gardening may not be a must for every household but it gets maximum points for increasing resilience. 

Cooking and food processing. Cooking is the most visible load bearing role at the household level. It’s something everyone should be able to do to some extent. Cooking is the quintessential human skill.⁴ It’s another one that gets maximum points for saving money and increasing resilience. 

It gets extra points because it also includes brewing and baking, both of which have excellent potential for micro-enterprises or neighbourhood exchange networks.

Primary health care and first aid. Using tools and working with your hands makes occasional bumps and bruises and cuts and scrapes unavoidable. Everyone one should be able to deal with simple injuries, know a few remedies for minor ailments, and be to take care of someone who is under the weather. 

Someone who has real skills in this area is an invaluable addition to any household or group. This one gets major points for being useful in all kinds of circumstances and irreplaceable in emergencies. 

Mediator, arbitrator, negotiator. Building real skills is not just about working with your hands. These are the invisible skills of helping people work things out. Working together is one of our most important superpowers. The basic skills, the willingness to listen to others and consider their ideas, values, interests, and needs, seem to be in short supply right now. 

The mediator is essential for maintaining a harmonious household. These skills become even more valuable as the social circle gets bigger. Major points, and extra points too, because being able to mediate, to help people settle disputes, or to negotiate agreements is also likely to become even more valuable as things unravel. 

Tinker, as described above, may not be an essential role in every household but it is certainly a domestic art not a job. Repairing, and restoring the tools and equipment needed to keep the household functioning and following a “make do and mend” ethic gets points for saving money, reducing consumption, and increasing resilience. 

Bonus points because being able to gather the component parts or pieces of equipment and reassemble them to create a functional item is something that will become more valuable as scarcity industrialism gives way to the salvage economy.⁵ And more points because it scales up from household to your larger social circle. It’s a skill can be traded for goods or services you aren’t able to provide for yourself.

Teacher/Storyteller. I’ve combined these because storytelling is one of the main teaching skills. Even in households where there are no children sharing information, ideas, and methods of doing things is a normal part of making things work. Teaching gets extra, extra bonus points because many of the skills on this list aren’t common anymore. Teaching and spreading them is super important. 

You don’t have to be an expert to share your skill with someone else. Sometimes the people who have only recently acquired a skill are the best teachers. Trying to teach someone else is also the best way to anchor a new skill and make sure you’ve really got it. 

Looking at the three types of capital might be useful here. 

Human Capital is the complete collection of skills available in a group people. Your current skills are your own personal human capital. Any new skill you add adds to your personal skill set. If more people in the group acquire these skills the collective human capital increases and the group becomes more resilient.

Social Capital is a measure of the bonds of trust and mutual aid that build up in a group over time. It is the willingness of the people in the group to help each other without any immediate pay back. The give and take between people who know and trust each other. Your personal human capital, your existing skill set, can be used to build up both the collective human capital and the social capital.⁵

The first step is, of course, learning to do these things for yourself and your family. They all give you more flexibility and contribute to your ability to thrive in a contracting economy. Ideally any skill that saves you money now and remains useful as your circumstances change should be on this list.

These same skills may be useful to the folks around you. You can’t do everything and interdependence is strength. A skill you can share, or something you can produce that people actually need or want, gives you a basis for building networks of exchange and mutual support with your friends and neighbours.

Social Capital is important and will become more important as political and economic instability increases. A future worth having includes strong social bonds and thriving communities. That means being able to offer help when someone needs it and having people you can call on when it’s your turn. 

Skill sharing has been a proven strategy for human groups since the dawn of time. These skills, the same ones that have been used by individuals, households, and groups since we first started to become human, are the very ones we’ve let slip away over the last 2 or 3 generations. 

They need to be revived and shared if we are to thrive in a contracting economy. 

1 According to David Holmgren our current pattern of very small households is one of the biggest obstacles to creating self reliant systems of production. https://holmgren.com.au/

2 Much of our stuff isn’t repairable or requires extensively trained experts to do the repairs. The stop gap is to have back-up systems and redundancies that allow work arounds if needed. 

3 I’m well aware that Mediator is a real “load bearing” job. Hiring a mediator is a great alternative to going through the courts for the big problems. I’m talking about the skill of defusing ordinary minor conflicts and easing the friction that comes about when people are trying to live and work together.

4 In the book “Catching Fire: how cooking made us human” the Richard Wrangham makes a compelling case that learning to cook and eating cooked food actually drove the physical changes that split us apart from Chimps and Bonobos close to three million years ago. (Wrangham RW. Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. Basic Books; 2009.)

5 The third category are skills that build your eco-literacy, specifically the knowledge and awareness of the ecosystem around you and skills needed to make the restoration of our Natural Capital possible.

Even without human intervention ecosystems go through dynamic cycles of destruction and renewal. Succession describes the identifiable stages of growth in regeneration that begins with the pioneer stage after the disturbance and ends with the climax system. The climax system, the long lasting stable ecosystem, that is established at the end of the process may be very different from the one that was there before the disturbance.

Given enough time any area with sufficient rainfall and soil structure will develop in a series of identifiable stages from bare earth to climax forest. In areas where there isn’t sufficient rainfall the succession will be arrested at the stage the available rain can support. Soil is not the limiting factor. Soil can always be improved. Most of what grows in the early stages of the succession are plants that actively rebuild soil.

There are 3 stages. The first is the Pioneer stage. In a Primary Succession that starts with bare rock or gravel the pioneer stage starts with lichens growing on the rock. These fascinating life forms produce acids that etch the rock and slowly, slowly produce tiny amounts of soil. Depending on conditions deeply rooted weeds that are able to get their nutrients from the deeper layers of subsoil may appear. These are referred to as dynamic accumulators. 

Dynamic accumulators typically have deep tap roots and large above ground parts with big leaves. They bring minerals up from below¹ and as they die back and decompose all that mineral rich biomass feeds and enriches the soil. Eventually small annual plants will start to grow where the bits of soil accumulate. As soil develops annual weeds and flowers will take over and eventually some grasses and perennials will be added to the mix. 

In a Secondary Succession like a forest fire or a disturbance that doesn’t take the system all the way back to bare rock the succession starts with annual flowers and weeds that grow up quickly to cover the territory. Nature has a "no bare earth” policy. These plants spread rapidly to protect the bare soil from sun², wind and rain. Their time is brief. They grow fast, produce a zillion seeds, and die back. Their biomass builds the soil and their seeds remain in a soil “seed-bank” reserve ready to grow again next time there is a disturbance.

In the second phase of the Pioneer stage the grasses and perennials begin to take over. Nitrogen fixing plants are the best equipped to thrive in poor soil and they form the bulk of the mix in these early stages. They share their nitrogen with the plants around them while they are growing and release it into the soil when they die or are cut back. Their biomass feeds the soil biome and enriches the soil. In places where this is all the annual rainfall can support grasses will eventually dominate the mix and the climax system will be prairie grasslands. In areas where there is more rain they will hold the territory until the soil can support larger perennial herbs and shrubs. 

As the soil continues to build up shrubs will begin to grow and eventually take over. These are also likely to be nitrogen fixers because once again these kind of plants are the best able to survive and thrive in poor soil. This is the second stage, normally it is the Intermediate period between the pioneer stage and the final climax system. However once again the annual rainfall may be just enough to support a climax system of scrub land and the succession will stabilize here.

Given enough rain larger shrubs will grow and if you look around carefully you will very likely find the saplings of the first fast growing shade tolerant trees that will form the canopy in the intermediate phase. These larger shrubs and pioneer trees will also have some way of producing their own nitrogen³ since once again these are the species that are best able to survive in poor soil conditions.

You may even find seedling of the climax tree species in the mix. They won’t grow much in the shade and poor soil conditions but they will sit there biding their time. They shoot up quickly in the gaps of the canopy once the pioneer trees of the intermediate stage begin to age out and fall. 

This pattern of regrowth is universal, The specific plants in the mix and how long it takes will vary of course depending on the bioregion, climate, and particulars of the site. The common features will be plants that can survive harsh conditions and actively improve the soil to make way for the next phase of the succession.

Human intervention can both speed up the process and hold the succession at whatever point we want it to remain. Weeds plague your veggie garden because gardening involves disturbing the soil and reseting the succession to “annuals” every year. If you have lawn to mow you are holding it at “grassland”⁴ In areas with enough rain it takes ongoing intervention (ie maintenance) to prevent perennial beds or pastureland from becoming scrubland and eventually forest.

The permaculture principles here is “Use only as much land as you can improve or maintain.” If you can’t improve it leave it alone. It will regenerate at its own pace into a mature system the available rain can support.

You can intervene to speed up the process and you can alter the mix to provide some food or plant materials for yourself. What you need to do depends on where the land is in the process and what is already growing there and what kind of a system the annual rainfall can support. Letting pastureland return to forest that includes a mix of humanly useful plants is very different from taking a patch of gravel and urbanite to the point where it can support herbs and flowers.

Work With Nature Not Against It. 

Slow the movement of water across the site and encourage infiltration. In gravel or bare rock you may need to add soil strategically.⁵ Otherwise use what is already growing to build up the soil. Cut it back if you need to make room for what you want to plant but leave the biomass on the site as mulch to increase water retention and reduce erosion. 

Add the plants you prefer but choose those that will easily survive and improve the soil (pioneer species). Your goal is to increase the level of organic matter and build up the soil’s capacity to hold water. Go in once a year or so⁶ and chop and drop the less desirable  plants (weeds aka pioneer species) to act as mulch and build more soil. Add more useful plants as you go and as the soil and rainfall can support them.

Have fun!

1 They can also be used to bio-accumulate heavy metals and rare earths. Growing and removing these types of plants can be used to detoxify contaminated industrial land. https://maanenviro.com/how-biomining-transforms-legacy-waste-into-valuable-resources/

2 In dry conditions UV from solar radiation can kill the life the surface layers of the soil including small exposed seeds. 

3 Even the pines that are the first trees in the succession in parts of N. Europe have been found to have a unique and until recently completely unknown method of producing nitrogen https://agroforestry.co.nz/modern-forest-gardening/nitrogen-fixation-in-pinus/

4 If you doubt this try not mowing for a while and see how quickly it stops being lawn.

5 Seed balls, a mix of rich soil and seeds with just enough clay to hold them together, can be distributed throughout the area. Seed combos that include dynamic accumulators to bring up minerals and produce lots of biomass, nitrogen fixers such as clover and vetch, and flowers that attract pollinators will jumpstart regeneration and give you something to work with.

6 In warm temperate and subtropical areas chop and drop annually after the rains come. In cold temperate areas doing the slash in late summer can give your preferred plants a bit more growing time before the weather cools off and the light levels drop.

Weaving ourselves back into the web of life as collaborators rather than controllers is not easy. The idea that we are somehow separate from or above the rest of the biosphere is deeply ingrained. It’s a core belief of Western Civilization and it has been reinforced over the last 3 centuries as tapping into the concentrated energy sources of fossil fuels has allowed us to insulate ourselves from the hazards of ordinary existence in the wild world. 

The special status we have assigned ourselves is not an idea that can easily dismissed. In the last several generations we have almost escaped natural selection.¹ We have effectively eliminated all our natural predators. Modern sanitation has dramatically reduced the communicable diseases that used to regularly cut down the oldest and youngest among us. Industrial medicine produces daily miracles of cures and repairs unimaginable to previous generations. 

The fact that industrial civilization is still completely imbedded in and dependant on the biosphere² isn’t easy to see. We are surrounded by the built environment and the sprinkling parks and green spaces within that environment are carefully manicured. The necessities of life are conveniently packaged and readily available at the nearest store or delivered to your door if you prefer. It easy to spend all of your time in a completely urban setting and live a full life untouched by the messiness of the natural world.

What’s more, even in decline, industrial civ still has a lot to offer in terms of convenience and comfort. Clinging to old belief systems is a natural response to uncertainty. Seeing the truth requires us to be willing to face up to the precarious nature of our situation. The good news is that the Long Descent³ is a slow uneven process and Grow Food Everywhere is one of the best things we can do to buffer the worst of it. 

Grow Food Everywhere is more than an adaptive response to stuttering supply chains fragile industrial food systems. The small steps we take in learning to feed ourselves may very well be the first stages of a succession that could completely reconfigure our interactions with the world around us. Grow Food Everywhere is the beginning of weaving ourselves back into the web.

Industrial Ag is inherently destructive. It displaces all the other plants and animals that inhabit the space. It poisons the air and water and exhausts the land. Industrial food production is an energy sink.⁴  It’s just as extractive as strip mining⁵ and clearcut logging and the scale is ming boggling. Turning all these resources into global commodities serves the few at the expense of everyone and everything else.

The alternative, Large Scale Extensive Systems (LSES) of production, are naturally human scale and local. They are essentially restoration projects that include foraging systems for human necessities (food-ibre-fuel). LSES can be used to restore the land and the waterways. They can provide for us and enrich the habitat for all the other creatures who share our space. It’s the difference between clear cutting and selective logging.⁵ Between cattle feedlots and wholistic range management.⁶ Between fish farms and clean vibrant estuaries that support wild fish stocks.⁷

These systems are spreading because they are successful. Producers on private land are embracing restoration and biodiversity because it is more productive and more profitable.⁸  As fabulous as this is it still doesn’t get us all the way. Grow Food Everywhere is about the reintegration of people into their ecosystem. Grow food everywhere strikes right at the heart of the “food as a commodity” paradigm.

Much has been written about the “Tragedy of the Commons”¹⁰ but I can’t think of a better way to describe being an equal partner in an ecosystem that supports a diversity species. Any intact ecosystem is a commons for the plants and animals that live there. It’s a shared space each individual of each species draws on for the necessities of life and where each contributes to the dynamic balance that keeps everything working. 

The Commons, the human commons we know about from medieval history, was a tightly controlled arrangement of traditional usage rights and hereditary obligations. Access was collectively managed and abuses were collectively punished. It worked imperfectly, as all human systems do, but adequately for 100’s of years. Medieval peasant worked fewer hours and had more holidays than modern cubical workers. They also ate better than most people in today’s wage class.  

Good Food Everywhere is a radical act. Weaving ourselves back into the web is  a fundamental change in our thinking. Considering ourselves equal partners means our needs are not paramount and neither should they be ignored. Restoration projects could produce food for people as well as habitat for wildlife. Unfortunately the idea of “pristine wilderness”¹¹ and “humans are separate” is just as deeply ingrained into the thinking of the environmentalists as anyone else.¹²

Even if there was widespread agreement that this is a viable way forward we cannot recreate the Commons. Social systems are emergent; they evolve over time. Grow Food Everywhere isn’t about recreating the Commons. It’s about making some of the small changes that might result in a commons emerging over the next several generations.

The small changes matter. Most of us are not farmers and don’t have access to the land needed for LSES projects. Micro-remediation projects and Small Scale Intensive System (SSIS) are the place to start.

Next Grow Food Everywhere: The First Steps in a Great Quest  

Permaculture Principles “Work with Nature Not Against It.” “Observe and Reflect.” “Start Small; Stay Close.”“Plant Seeds Where They Will Grow.” “Get A Yield.”

1 Natural Selection is individuals or groups who are more capable and better adapted to their environment outliving out reproducing those that are less capable and less effective in adapting. There are as many different successful adaptation as there are life forms in the ecosystem. The process is ongoing. Changes in the environment will impact which characteristics and behaviours are successful.

2 See https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/what-are-ecosystem-services for the  definition and scope of the ecosystem services we all rely on. See https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041624000123 for a synopsis of numerous studies that have tried to calculate the monetary value of these supports.

3 John Michael Greer The Long Descent (2008) First edition New Society Publishers; Tenth Anniversary Edition (2019) Founders House. Very prescient and still the best explanation of the slow stepwise pattern of a civilization coming apart.

4 It takes c.7 calories of fossil fuel energy to deliver one calorie of food to your plate. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Energy-expended-in-producing-and-delivering-one-food-calorie-Approximately-73-calories_fig1_303895662

5 An estimated 75 giga-tonnes of topsoil is dislodged from cropland every year. https://doi.org/10.1130/B25899.1 Every meal we eat costs about 10kg of soil.

6 Merv Wilkinson started selective logging on his property near Cedar BC in 1945. When he retired some time in the 1990’s the property had more and better quality timber on it than when he started. https://www.ecoforestry.ca/the-legacy-of-merv-wilkinson

7 Allan Savory https://savory.global/  https://www.holisticmanagement.org/

8 https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_barber_how_i_fell_in_love_with_a_fish

9 The fish “farm” in Dan Barber’s Ted talk is the largest private bird sanctuary in Southern Europe and apparently has a lucrative secondary income from bird watching tourism. There are also many potential secondary products in a selective logging operation: https://evs.institute/sustainable-natural-resource-management/value-of-non-timber-forest-products/

10 Everything we “know” about the commons and the tragedy of the commons has been told to us by the people who profited from its destruction.

11 We are mesmerized by the snapshot of places as they existed when we first found them. Restoration projects typically focus on trying to restore that picture and hold the ecosystem in a kind a stasis based on it.

12 It may be worth having the conversation about including our needs in restoration projects but don’t bust yourself. “Plant Seeds Where They Will Grow.” You are more likely to be successful in getting a food forest project or something similar going at your community garden.

This blog is about what we can do, as ordinary people in families and small groups, to create lives worth living; to build a future worth having; and to be a force for renewal and regeneration in our much depleted world. 

The project of this bog is a life quest, possibly the most important Grand Quest you will ever undertake. Like any quest there are skills to acquire, tools to choose and hone, companions to find and cultivate; goals to achieve, obstacles to overcome, and monsters* to defeat but it starts with exploring and getting to know your territory.

Every species has a range; an area where it can thrive. Every individual, mating pair, or family group, has a home territory within that range. Wherever you are you are part of the living earth and the bit that you inhabit is unique. Even if it’s an urban cityscape, your home territory, your stomping ground, is an ecosystem, an interrelationship of living and non-living factors that combine to create an interactive whole. 

Living in cities isn’t new. People have been living in cities for at least 6,000 years and recent archeology has raised the possibility that it might go back as far as 12,000 years** but spending most of our time indoors is one of the WEIRDest*** things we do. 

Getting out into your home territory, learning to navigate through it, watching its seasonal changes and immersing yourself in its beauty is the beginning of learning to interact in a positive way. It’s the start of becoming a beneficial influence, a force for renewal and regeneration. 

Getting outside is the first step in building up your awareness of your local ecosystem and reintegrating yourself into a world that is yours by right. Step outside in the morning and check the weather before you look at your phone. Take up walking. Make a “bucket list” of all the parks and green spaces you can get to and from in a day.

Surrounded as we are by the built environment, living and working indoors,  drawing on resources from all over the world that have been brought in to shops or delivered to our front door, we see ourselves as separate. We tell ourselves we are a part of nature but we don’t really feel it. We usually talk about nature as if it were an aging relative we should be more dutiful about visiting.

Getting outside reinforces the idea that we are part of the world. We have lived outside since we were wiggly microscopic cells who had just figured out how to hold onto our own water. Having shelter is normal and natural. Most creatures use or build some kind of shelter for themselves even if it’s only seasonal or a temporary protection for rearing their young. In fact you could describe the function of those first cell membranes as sheltering the interior works of the cell from the great body of water outside.

Our homes and the built environment are just an extreme elaboration of this pattern. Like many of the things humans do it’s not so different from what other creatures do we’ve just taken it to a whole new level.**** Our built environments bring the necessities of life indoors. Spending time outside seems optional but having shelter and spending all your time inside are two different things. 

Our bodies evolved for outdoor living. It’s been a normal part of our existence since the dawn of time. It’s only a couple of hundred years since electric lighting made shift work in factories possible. Less than 100 years since rural electrification made electric lights commonplace in homes. Less than two generations since the switch to florescent lighting and to LED’s. 

This is nothing in terms of evolutionary time. Even two centuries is less than a nanosecond. Not nearly enough to change the physical and mental adaptations that are older than humanity itself. 

Spending more time outside hits all the goals of the project of this blog. It’s good for your health***** and your sense of wellbeing which improves your quality of life and your resilience. It’s an opportunity meet and interact with your neighbours and start the long process of forging community bonds and building up social capital. (https://claire-58.dreamwidth.org/13016.html) It’s the first step in improving your eco-literacy and developing your systems thinking skills. 

You are part of an existing ecosystem. Getting to know it trains your brain and builds up your sense of place.****** Get outside everyday. Practice your observations skills. Look for patterns. Parks and waterways or any other places that lean more biological than built up are primary spots for increasing your ecological awareness. Try to identify the plants and birds that share your patch. Pay particular attention to stream and waterways. Life proliferates on the edges.

The permaculture mantra is “Start where you are; Use what you have; Do what you can.” Conservation societies, stream keepers groups, and community park boards are great ways to meet like minded people and begin the process of expanding your human connections.

Get out there!

** https://www.worldatlas.com/ancient-world/gobekli-tepe-the-12-000-year-old-site-that-shouldn-t-exist.html

*** https://www.scifidimensions.com/what-is-the-meaning-behind-w-e-i-r-d-world/

**** Our modern industrial cities are no less “natural” than a bird nest or a beaver dam. The habit of using language that excludes our built environment from the natural world subconsciously reinforces the idea that we are different, separate, and simultaneously more entitled (to treat “nature” as a vending machine that exists only to serve our needs) and less entitled (to participate fully in the web of life and make the changes to our environment that will allow us to thrive without being exploitative.)

***** There is a strong correlation between artificial lighting and chronic health problems. I’ve written about the effects of sunlight on immunity here: (https://claire-58.dreamwidth.org/7523.html)

****** Wendell Berry has spoken about the sense of place “For Love of Place: Reflections of an Agrarian Sage,” Great Transition Initiative (December 2018), https://greattransition.org/publication/for-love-of-place.

Others have also written and studied how our psyche is linked to our home  environments http://substack.com/home/post/p-194556619

This blog is about what we can do, as ordinary people in families and small groups, to create lives worth living; to build a future worth having; and to be a force for renewal and regeneration in our much depleted world. 

As I write the first few stones of what looks like the beginning of an avalanche are tumbling down. The fight over data centres is heating up. The “AI Future” may be a self-limiting fantasy but the attempted roll out promises to be an economic shift of seismic proportions. Data centres are being build or are being planned all over the continent and mass lay offs have already started in the government and corporate sectors. 

These changes are likely to reverberate throughout the system and have all kinds of unexpected consequences. The world we know is changing. The future is likely to be very different from the present and it may have very little resemblance to what’s being promised.

Looking to the past may seem like an odd choice in a world that is continually presenting us with new challenges, new conundrums, new social realities to navigate. Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein use the term “hyper-novelty” to describe the shifting cultural patterns and rapid technological advances that have almost outstripped our considerable ability to adapt.* 

It’s my firm belief that despite the all the novelty there are patterns of living and ways of being that are nearly universal in human societies. As Heying and Weinstein point out we are still the same species of anatomically modern humans that emerged 200 - 300,000 years ago. We still have the same basic anatomy, the same brain power, the same limitations, the same talents, and the same superpowers.

I’m not talking about returning to some fantasy version of an idyllic past. I’m suggesting that the patterns that have proven successful throughout our long history can be adapted to meeting your needs now and to give you some resilience in our rapidly deteriorating political economic system.

Each unique human culture throughout history and around the world has had certain fundamental commonalities based on our shared humanity and our shared needs for food, shelter, etc. These patterns have stood the test of time even as the details of cultural expression have changed.

None of these strategies are the exclusive property of any particular cultural group. They are human universals. They are things that work for humans because we are human. They may have fallen into disuse or disrepute in the West but they are still part of the range of human possibilities we all share.

For example in much of the West it is considered normal for young adults to leave their parental home and live independently, sometimes very far away from any family and their childhood friends. This trend is shifting slowly and with significant cultural resistance.

Many writers have decried the “failure to launch” as a social ill. The stereotype of the basement dwelling adult son is shameful to the son and suggests some vague deficiency on the part of the parents. If this describes your situation shake off the cultural disapproval and congratulate yourself. 

Multi-generational living is a good adaptive response to the astronomical cost of housing and the educational con that has resulted in a massive oversupply of technologically skilled people for the very jobs that are currently being made obsolete. You’re okay. It’s time to reinvent yourself.

Multigenerational living has been nearly universal** throughout history. It’s a proven pattern that is likely to be even more successful long term. According to David Holmgren our current pattern of very small households is one of the biggest obstacles to creating self reliant systems of production.***

It’s certain that early adopters will have an adaptive advantage as the dissolution of the bureaucratic management structures speeds up. It’s a solid successful strategy well worth considering even if the pace of change remains modest. The institutional supports for aging and childcare are already deteriorating. At the very least we should be able to shake off our cultural resistance and give those who choose to live this way some respect.  

In the following series of posts I will be looking at a variety of strategies and possibilities that can help guide your efforts to recreate yourself and begin to sow the seeds of a new culture. Some may seem easy. Some you may already be doing. Adaptation is as natural as breathing. Some may seem surprising or even unrealistic. Think about why. Drill down.

The overall strategy is to apply the permaculture principle “Work With Nature Not Against It” to our own lives and our own human nature. The point is to start using your superpowers consciously. 

The sand beneath your feet may already be shifting. Unfortunately there is no one certain way to respond. The future is emergent and adapting to the changes will be an ongoing process. We can’t see what will be successful. We will only see what has been successful in retrospect.

Pay attention and think about what you are seeing (Observe and Reflect). Choose the options that are the easiest (Make the Least Change for the Greatest Possible Benefit). Stay light on your feet and be ready to change your tactics (Accept Feedback from the System). 

The goal is to find ways to live well; to respond effectively to shifting conditions; to contribute to your community; and to tip the balance to the positive as the world around us changes.

* Heying and Weinstein The Hunter-Gatherers Guide to the 21st C (2021) Portfolio Publishing (Penguin Random House).

** Neolocal residence, the cultural expectation that a newly married couple will have their own separate home, was common in pre-industrial Britain. It’s thought that it delayed marriage and helped keep population levels steady in the island nations.

*** David Holmgren, co-founder of Permaculture. 

https://holmgren.com.au/