Prepping has a bad name, for good reason. Prepping has such a bad name that I don’t always call what I do prepping. Most of what is labeled prepping is this individualist mentality—what I call the bunker mentality. Instead, we’re going to talk about preparedness from a point of view that remembers we’re social creatures and that we’re part of a society, from a point of view that recognizes how disaster tends to bring people together more than it pushes people apart. We’re going to talk about community preparedness, even if we’re going to talk about what you as an individual, a family, or a small community can do to be prepared to participate in a broader community preparedness.

We’re All Preppers Now | Live Like the World is Dying

The goal of being prepared is that, by having your own shit together, you’re more able to help others.

Gear is less important than skills. Skills are less important than relationships. All three matter and all three interrelate.

An abundance mindset will beat a scarcity mindset in the longterm more often than not. The best thing you can do for yourself, for your own self-interest, is build resilient communities.

Encourage people’s natural desire to work together during crisis. Err on the side of inclusion, not exclusion.

Having more of something that is good enough is better than having the single best, most expensive thing. The best way to upgrade your med kit is to get your friend a med kit so that there’s someone else around with a med kit.

Stockpile perishables that you use, and use what you stockpile.

Learn to favor practical clothes and tools.

I love triangles. Strong shape, the triangle. Need an emergency shelter? Build a triangle. More importantly, it’s easier to avoid getting caught up in binary thinking when you think about ideas as sides of triangles instead of as opposite ends of various dichotomies.

So here’s a triangle—preparation is built on three sides: gear; skills; relationships.

We’re All Preppers Now | Live Like the World is Dying

We all have an important role to play in preparing our communities for the consequences of the climate crisis. Though we cannot predict the future, we must help create it. We have the power, both on the individual level and community level. As punks, we take on the responsibility of carving out our own liberation, without waiting for businesses or governments. Humans are flexible, imaginative, and creative creatures. Wherever we find ourselves, we can rebuild a meaningful relationship with the land and its inhabitants to work towards collective healing. One solarpunk at a time.

The hope of Solarpunk – Shado Magazine

In order to survive a real catastrophe, disaster, you need more than just supplies, you need a community, right?

You’re not going to be able to logically hole up in a bunker with four people with six months of food and expect to get through the fall of civilization.

You need to be able to make agreements with people, build trust, build a community.

Solarpunk Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Just Help People – YouTube

Further reading,