There are plenty of survivalist websites, and I’ve certainly thought about how to survive, but I’m madly in love with my techno-optimist husband, so we’re not going to do anything, and I’ll be front row in Oakland California even though it may mean a shorter lifespan.  Or not — cities may be the safest place for the first few years after the net energy cliff, a concentrated place to send aid to and house people in refugee camps.  Besides, I’m 62, and if my life ends at this point, that will free up resources for others.

No matter where you are, you’ll want to stockpile food and water — Germany recently recommended that people should have at least 10 days worth (2016 Reuters). Not just for collapse, but earthquake, hurricane, and other natural disasters, or when the electric grid is down.

And above all, stockpile worthwhile books of how to do stuff, and entertaining books so you have something to do when the electricity is out.

Where to Live

Given the popularity of concentration camps, involuntary conscription into armies, enslavement, civil war and chaos in other collapsing or war-torn nations, not only do you need to have useful skills, but where you live will play the biggest factor.

• John W. Day and Charles Hall. 2016. America’s Most Sustainable Cities and Regions: Surviving the 21st Century Megatrend. Springer (and my review of the article on which this book is based here).
• James H  Kunstler.  The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century.
• Gene Gerue.  How to find your ideal country home. A comprehensive guide.

Richard Heinberg has written several books worth reading:

1. The Oil Depletion Protocol : A Plan to Avert Oil Wars, Terrorism And Economic Collapse
2. Powerdown : Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World
3. The Party’s Over: Oil, war, and the Fate of Industrial Societies

Other ideas

Howard T. Odum. The Prosperous Way Down: Principles and Policies
Ted Trainer. The Alternative, Sustainable Society; the Simpler Way

Agriculture

I think we’re heading back to 90 percent farmers as it was before fossil fuels. Given that most of the land in the U.S. is owned by wealthy individuals, corporations, and the government (see Fellmeth 1973 Politics of Land), this probably means the future will be one of brutal feudalism.

And if you do go back to the land, you should understand why this movement failed the last time in my book review of Agnew’s Back from the Land: How Young Americans Went to Nature in the 1970s, and Why They Came Back.

Health

Lifespans doubled because of public health measures taken to treat water and sewage as explained in Laurie Garrett’s Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health.

One of the best books I’ve ever read for many reasons  is John Barry’s The Great Influenza. The epic story of the deadliest plague in History. The lesson to be learned is that people with poor / malnutrition were the most vulnerable to flu to dying.  Only two percent of America’s population died because the population was well-fed, but some countries may have lost up to half their population.

Good luck everyone!

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