DOOM doom doom DOOM DOOM doom DOOM!

A cool answer in the Ask Metafilter to the question of where to live when the Oilpocalypse hits…the author is one “jefgodesky” of the crashblog Anthropik. I haven’t read his blog (yet), and I think this view of the Oilocalypse is probably exaggerated (hopefully), but overall, I like his answers:

1.) Forget agriculture. That’s the first mistake so many people make: they try to farm. Farming is what got us here, and it’s simply not an option for our future. We’ve done way too much to the soil at this point. You might get horticulture or permaculture going, and in the short term that’s probably your best bet, but forget about farming your own food.

2.) In the long run, climate change will require you to be nimble, and that means nomadic, and that means hunting and gathering. Hunter-gatherers have lived prosperous lives in climes even cockroaches fear to tread: from the arctic to the Kalahari, foragers have usually lived happier lives than us, and usually just as long and healthy. So that means, in the short term, learning to provide substantial parts of your diet with hunted meat and wild edibles.

2A.) Buying your whole range is cost prohibitive, but regulations in national parks make them temptingly close. The only real problem with living off a national park is where you do your actual living. So, a few acres adjacent to a national park can make an admirable base camp, while the park serves as your range.

2B.) That base camp is also a place you can turn into a permaculture garden to supplement your diet in the meantime, while bag limits and so forth continue to be an issue. As a forager, you’ll need to strike your own balance against overhunting.

2C.) Two or more such sites, arranged around the edges of a national forest, can be seasonal camps, allowing you to get in the habit of seasonal migration.

3.) THIS IS THE SINGLE MOST CRITCAL ELEMENT, the thing that 9 out of 10 primitivists get wrong that dooms them to failure. YOU NEED A COMMUNITY. It can be your family–in fact, it will become your family, so starting with your family is an excellent choice.

4.) Now that we’ve established that, which continent? There’s a chance the tropics may become fairly uninhabitable from global warming in the future, and the coasts of course are questionable. If previous collapses are any guide, civilizations typically implode. People flock to the cities, and the cities turn into killing fields. So, stay away from cities.

4A.) Because of this, I actually don’t hold out much hope for Europe. They may be collapsing more slowly, but they’re still collapsing, and when they do, their intense overpopulation is not going to end pretty.

5.) So, look to the places that are still wild today. We’re at peak, so the places being exploited are going to shrink from here, rather than grow. There are still plenty of pockets. Settle down there, learn the ecology, what lives there: become native to that place.

6.) And remember, that ecology is going to move. Be prepared to move with it.

…What do you think? Would you be a survivor?
-PD