Mass displacement & climate refugees
Rising seas, droughts, and violent weather are already forcing millions to flee; displacement will become more common.
Plan for both perspectives: as someone who may need to relocate and as someone who may receive displaced individuals. Keep copies of your ID, medical records, and essential documents in waterproof, mobile formats (USB, laminated print, cloud backup if possible). Learn the basics of temporary shelter setup, mobile hygiene, and travel safety across borders or unfamiliar areas.
Preparedness must include coordination between local communities, municipalities, and international actors to manage large-scale movement.
Surviving & adapting to ecosystem collapse
Collapse of local ecosystems can lead to food shortages, biodiversity loss, polluted water, and disease outbreaks.
Adapt by learning to live within local ecological limits: reduce consumption, support regeneration, and steward remaining natural resources. Involve yourself in rewilding, permaculture, and seed-saving networks to rebuild natural abundance from the soil up. Understand how invasive species, soil degradation, or monoculture practices weaken ecological resilience. Avoid contributing.
Use collapse as a catalyst for shifting toward reciprocal, nature-based living; our survival depends on ecological health.
Nuclear & chemical disaster preparedness
Though rare, nuclear accidents or attacks, and industrial chemical spills pose immediate, high-stakes threats.
Have potassium iodide tablets in your emergency kit if you live near nuclear facilities (take only on official guidance). Know how to “shelter in place”: seal windows and doors, turn off ventilation, and stay inside for at least 24–48 hours. Learn about designated zones and procedures for nuclear incidents if you live in or near potentially dangerous areas. For chemical spills, avoid low-lying areas (gases may settle), evacuate uphill/upwind, and cover your mouth/nose with cloth if no mask is available.
Living in a post-industrial world
If modern infrastructure becomes unreliable or collapses, we must shift from industrial dependence to self-reliance and community autonomy.
Learn pre-industrial skills: fire-making, herbal medicine, fermentation, animal husbandry, tool repair, and hand-powered technologies. Reconnect with old knowledge and oral traditions; many contain adaptive wisdom forgotten by modern systems.
Energy descent does not mean misery; it means rediscovering slower, more meaningful rhythms and creative solutions. Our ancestors lived without fossil fuels, we can too, but we must begin learning now.