A question that comes up a lot is that because of global warming, err… climate change or whatever it is this month what kind of weather should we prepare for and what would we expect in the UK in a few years time.
Personal Opinion Alert.
Without going to several links and spending hours reading web pages and PDFs I can state my view is based on facts, is simple to follow and I believe it is true.
So having read many different opinions of what is happening and drawing my own conclusions I will state my beliefs in simple form;
- The Climate is changing
- It is not man made, it is sun related
- It is cooling not warming
- Our leaders are taking us down the wrong path and an energy shortage will result
- Our leaders are using this as an excuse to tax us
- We need to look after ourselves for power now as well as into the future
It’s not like the climate is not changing. It clearly is with the freezing nights, snow and hail at times of year never seen before as well as record temperatures. So we need to accept that it is, just that the temperatures are not rising on average, but there are hotter periods during the year. It’s almost as if our temperature range is being squashed causing it to extend up and down, in summer it is hotter and in winter it is much colder with the average temperatures over the year being down.
In technical terms we are going into Ice Age Cycle 24. This is expected to be a little Ice Age lasting just under 20 years. This means that as time goes on we will see the average temperatures fall even further. No big floods, no scorched earth, no deserts and no Middle East temperatures in the UK. It will however get bloody cold with record, for us, cold spells.
Now wind turbines and hydro electric plants will suffer from freezing up. Solar panels will suffer from snowfall and their output will be reduced as they are rated at quite high temperatures. Ironically, nuclear, oil and coal power stations will be OK as long as they can get fed but in the end I expect we will be reliant on nuclear power.
Just my belief mind.
So what does this mean for us preppers? Well in the initial stages;
We need to prepare for hot periods during the summer months and water will be an issue at certain times of year. Make sure you prepare with protection for the plants, drought resistant plants and make sure that you don’t waste any water. This should be a priority anyway.
During the rest of the year though we need to prepare for lower temperatures. Water will freeze earlier, plants will need protection from the cold for longer periods which reduces the growing period and thus we will produce less food unless we can compensate.
In the longer term we could very well find ourselves living in a situation like Alaska and Russia with temperatures going below -25. They still grow things over there but a lot of their food is imported as it in not viable to live off the land at those temperatures. We won’t have that option if there is an event and even if there is not can we as a species produce enough food to feed all the hungry mouths here? I don’t know but I do know that if we prepare for this then we stand a better chance of surviving. Consider before you scoff that the last two years had record cold spots of -10 in some areas of the UK with many deaths.
The estimate temperature decrease is, on average, just over 1 degree per year for 17 years, about 18 degrees. Last time this happened in the 1600s about 10% of the population died and they were toughpeople, self sufficient, no central heating, lived off the land and had nothing like the number of people or dependency that we have. Make your own guesses as to fatalities but I see this as an event.
So when we prepare we need to ensure that;
- Our plants will survive these extremes
- Our power supply is capable of generating power at below zero
- Our homes, bug in or out, are insulated
- Our fuel will not freeze up
- Our clothing is suitable
- We have plenty of greenhouses, cloches, etc.
- Our livestock is protected from the temperature extremes
- We are prepared for predators
If this is the event then the difference this will make to us is that the unprepared will perish very quickly. Little food, low temperatures and no power will see them die in droves of exposure mainly.
This will keep people indoors, only the desperate will be out looking for food for their families and sieges will be next to impossible. As it will be snow and ice you will be able to use these as part of your defences, snow will cover your hidey holes and traps and ice will make approach and attack difficult at best. Making ice barriers will stop most weapons and make defensive barriers from the elements.
The problem is I now see this starting to happen now. So revisit your preps and see what changes you need to make to cover this. In my case not much as I was looking at a nuclear winter caused by the nutters in government or an asteroid strike anyway.
What about you?
In case you are wondering many real climate scientists are now predicting this. Not the global warming pseudo scientist where some are economists, others are biologists, ecologists and lots of other ists while very few are climatologists. Coupled with my knowledge of history and listening to the climate change scammer I know what I believe.
I try not to focus on causes especially as 99% of em are beyond my control in all ways, so I try to prep for as many varied threats and risks as possible. I think if I read about every possible threat we could be hit with I would go insane, but generic prepping with a bias towards what worrys me most is something I can cope with.
SD, I agree with you. The weather here last year was absolutely terrible. The number of sunny days was in the twenties, most other days it rained or we had snow. We had hail in May and June with flurries of snow. We have been here nineteen years now and it was the worst year weather-wise. It has gradually worsened each year. It is certainly much colder. Yesterday was very cold and this morning is icy. I can look out of the window and see it glistening on the cars and the road looks like a sheet of ice. Kenneth Eames.
NR,
I like to think about different ways and see if I can add that into my preps. If it is difficult then I have to decide if it is possible or not.
Kenneth,
It is worse for you as well being up north. It is amazing the differences across latitudes even in a country as small as the UK. I think the further north you are the harsher the life will be when the climate changes.
Midday news was full of the drought scenario today. The local farmers will be rationed as to what degree of irrigation they can use. Food goes up in price as a result. We have not had any ‘real’ rain for a while now. The talk is of constructing a ‘grid’ to transport water to other regions. I think I hear the sound of hollow laughter? Maybe.
It certainly has been very cold of late – our part of the country has been recording some of the coldest temps in the land, and we live in East Anglioid!!
Anyhow we should be orlroight boi – got the Broads just down the road – get a couple of buckets and we’ll be fine – won’t we?
mm the weather is a big thing, i lived 2 years in northern finland where growing was out of the question in -10 on a good day to -30
Houses out thier a wood, with mulched up newspaper as the insulant, with wood burners for cooking and keeping warm. Their houses never were cold even on the worse day, they had the roof space to store, and food was kept under the house in winter. It strikes me as we will need to work the same. I think power will be a thing of the past in winter and wind power and solar power in the summer if lucky.
The main thing is to train out minds and bodys for this hardship. Im the times before eletric and gas they managed, it was hard but people got on with it. The younger generations will have the most problems with adapting as they are the ones who nearly cannot thingk without a pda, cp, iphone, mobile ect telling them! How many kids today do you see playing out, making things out of wood, cooking ect??
I agree that it is likely to get colder with even more inclement weather. Power will efinitely be one of the things to go first. Great way to destabilise a country unfortunately for us. When visiting relatives near Kaliningrad the Temp was -16 but with a wood burning stove in the lounge all was well. Windows were covered with the equivalent of Duvet blinds and internal shutters. The entire family and ourselves were put to work either cooking, sewing, making things,doing puzzles, playing games etc. Most mornings the men dug us out os the snowed up front door and while we could we gathered wood, clowned around enjoying the little sunshine and laughed a lot. This kept us all positive, happy etc. Their stores were stored in chests in the ground