I would not skin a rabbit to save my sad ass, but I sleep soundly at night in the knowledge that my bore hole is, um, fully topped up.
www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/17/time-to-join-preppers-survive-climate-change-apocalypse?CMP=fb_gu
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Don't think I'd ever go that far, but as one brought up in the countryside I've long been in the habit of keeping a good stock of tinned foods in. A quick survey of the HM pantry reveals enough to keep the two of us in vittles for at least a month. Still a rare weekend that we don't go shopping though!
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Edit; ran outta time.
As to being cut off; in that unlikely scenario we'd survive better than most. I cook with LPG and always keep a spare 47 kg bottle in, we have two woodburners for heat; one has a flat top and can be used as a hob. For fresh water there are a couple of springs in the next field if the mains supply should fail, and I have a 2.8 KV petrol generator which would sustain the fridge and freezer for a while if used sensibly; always have at least a gallon can in the shed as I use it for mower and chainsaw.
In the event of having to bail out, we now have a VW LT van (SWB diesel ex-minibus) so could take along more than most. I doubt it would even happen though as Mrs HM would not leave her cats behind!
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It gets a bit blowy, and a bit wet, and you wimpy lot of irons are quaking in your boots about having to skin rabbits, even talk of fleeing in vans,
Wot a load of wooly woofers.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 18 Feb 14 at 15:23
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These guys have a better idea, preppers are just playing at it, most of them wouldnt survive long in the end.
www.discovery.com/tv-shows/yukon-men/about-this-show/who-are-the-yukon-men.htm
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>> I cook with LPG and always keep a spare 47 kg bottle in, we have two woodburners for heat; one has a flat top and can be used as a hob
Me too, but just the one multi-fuel stove, got our own water supply, the pump is operated via electrickery so I'd require a genny for that, I'm in with the Quornish here and regularly get given veg and Cornish honey.
This place is 366ft above sea level ... I just measured it :)
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I'll take over a distillery... no need for other supplies.
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Any recommendations fora standby portable gas cooker thingy?
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>>Any recommendations fora standby portable gas cooker thingy?
Like this mayhap: tinyurl.com/pzoaqdo (Amazon)
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www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/17/time-to-join-preppers-survive-climate-change-apocalypse?CMP=fb_gu
If you read until the end you will find that family planning takes on a whole new meaning! "contingency plan for which one you'll all eat first."
Last edited by: sherlock47 on Tue 18 Feb 14 at 20:35
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OK, I'll get on my hobbyhorse again.
The IPCC has said there is no evidence to suggest that storms, droughts, hurricanes are getting worse. Indeed, last few years have seen a very quiet hurricane scene.
Even the Met Office says that this year's storms are not exceptional (though that Slingo woman contradicts the statements of the Met Office that she is boss of). Oh, and they forecast in November that the chances were that it would be a dry, but very cold, winter.
The Professor of Meteorology from Exeter University says that this years storms are nowt to do with "Climate Change", and he helped write the IPCC 5th Report so he should know what he's talking about?
(Sources available if required)
If you want to read about a proper storm have a look at this on the Great Storm of 1703 (and that was long before you all bought those gas guzzling 4x4s!!)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1703
We've had a very wet winter. And, yes, I do feel sorry for those people with flooded homes.
On the other hand, I was up in Scottish borders the other day and mentioned to a chap what a horrible wet winter it was. He replied that they had had a nice mild and dry winter - it was only seen as exceptional because the stuff they usually got had moved a bit south to the heavily populated areas of England.
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PS
How are those drought resistant plants we were all advised to buy a few years ago doing in your garden?
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Phil,
We live on an island whose climate, courtesy of surrounding ocean and particularly the gulf stream, is far milder than it might be. Remember, Edinburgh is on pretty much same latitude as Moscow.
That means that Global Warming/Climate Change might give us Mediterranean climate. OTOH if it changes movement of ocean currents we might get a lot colder. More likely though it will just mean our climate will be less stable and more inclined to move between extremes.
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>> We've had a very wet winter.
we have had the wettest winter since records began.
And, yes, I do feel sorry for those people
>> with flooded homes.
>> On the other hand, I was up in Scottish borders the other day and mentioned
>> to a chap what a horrible wet winter it was. He replied that they had
>> had a nice mild and dry winter - it was only seen as exceptional because
>> the stuff they usually got had moved a bit south to the heavily populated areas
>> of England.
Oh I see, some local jock is your world climate change guru - all is explained, but hey we have plenty of sandbags down here you can stick your head in.
So if all the rain has moved south - Thats climate change init?
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 20 Feb 14 at 20:21
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Basically, if you are in politics, any bit of weather remotely departing from the norm is due to climate change.
And you tax more and footle about with emission related stuff.
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I think you are misinterpreting me Z.
"we have had the wettest winter since records began"
I think that's since 1910. ie. it was wetter in 1910 (and in many other years before according to various accounts?)
I won't quote sources because last time I did, you told me off for copying and pasting.
One bad year for a small area of Southern England is not evidence of climate change.
"Oh I see, some local jock is your world climate change guru - all is explained"
I didn't say that. I was just pointing out that while those down south have been having a very bad time and rainfall has been higher, others have been having a dry winter. (Look at figures for Eastern England and Scotland).
It certainly makes the news because of the area it is in - a lot of people and a lot of properties - and, I stress, I have the utmost sympathy for the individuals concerned, it is a disaster for them. And I am not trying to belittle that disaster.
"So if all the rain has moved south - Thats climate change init?"
Not sure - it's moved south for 3 months in one year. Is that climate change or just a bad winter?
Perhaps we should ask the Met Office who forecast that climate change would bring drier, colder winters?
"we have plenty of sandbags down here you can stick your head in"
Silly, my point, maybe not well made, for which I apologise is that climate (the Met Office and IPCC tell me) should be measured over a minimum of 30 years. 3 months is "weather", of which you guys down South have had some very bad stuff recently.
I hope you have not suffered personally.
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>> I think you are misinterpreting me Z.
>>
>> "we have had the wettest winter since records began"
>>
>> I think that's since 1910. ie. it was wetter in 1910 (and in many other
>> years before according to various accounts?)
>> I won't quote sources because last time I did, you told me off for copying
>> and pasting.
I won't copy and paste. I will link.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26280219
>> One bad year for a small area of Southern England is not evidence of climate
>> change.
Of course it broody is. If it hadn't happened it wouldn't be change would it. You trying to tell me it didn't happen?
>> "Oh I see, some local jock is your world climate change guru - all is
>> explained"
>>
>> I didn't say that. I was just pointing out that while those down south have
>> been having a very bad time and rainfall has been higher, others have been having
>> a dry winter. (Look at figures for Eastern England and Scotland)
Check the numbers on that page And If i were you I would stop plying your jock climate change guru with drink.
.
>> "So if all the rain has moved south - Thats climate change init?"
>>
>> Not sure - it's moved south for 3 months in one year. Is that climate
>> change or just a bad winter?
Its a change. Anything new or different or exceptional is a change. Or is that not the case?
>> I hope you have not suffered personally.
No because I accept climate change is a distinct possibility, so I moved from a flood risk area to one that wasn't Still climate change is a lie so i suppose I needn't have bothered.
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Oh well, I said to myself, "don't enter this discussion" but, as ever, foolishly I did.
"I won't copy and paste. I will link.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26280219 "
I don't deny this. It is the wettest winter since 1910. That's 104 years and narrowly beat 1995.
But, if you took winter of 2010 (?) when it was incredibly snowy would you accept that as evidence of climate change and that in future we would have incredibly snowy winters every year? If so, what about this year? Hardly a frost here, let alone snow. My fuchcias are budding!! Is that climate change or should I take that really snowy winter as evidence?
"Check the numbers on that page And If i were you I would stop plying your jock climate change guru with drink."
OK -look at map - some ares have below average rainfall and large areas have above average, I don't deny that it has been a very, very wet winter - but that's weather - it's one year. Actually it's not even a year, it's not even a quarter of a year, it's 2 months and 19 days and yet you are saying it is evidence of climate change??
"Its a change. Anything new or different or exceptional is a change. Or is that not the case?"
Of course it's "a change" but is it "climate change" or just weather change? It changed today, bloomin' cold, wet and windy this am and yet this aft warm and sunny (where I was) then sudden squalls with fantastic rainbows in the bright sunshine. That's "change" but it ain't "climate change" - it's changeable weather like we've all grown up with in Britain.
Remember a couple of years ago when the reservoirs were dry and we were told it would take years for the water table to be replenished and they instituted a hosepipe ban and it didn't stop raining for months - in Summer - it was a carp Summer like this has been a carp winter (well, on the rainfall front though it has hardly snowed or frosted)?
" I accept climate change is a distinct possibility"
As do we all - after all it's been going on for millions of years. Remember the last Ice Age (oops, sorry, the present ice age - we are just in a warm interglacial). Remember the Roman Warm Period? The Medieval Warm Period? Did you go to the Ice Fairs on the Thames from the 1600s to the 1800s?
Of course climate changes, but whether you can say that the climate is changing any more than it has done for millions of years on the basis of one wet winter in Southern England is another matter.
Give it another few months and it could be the driest Spring/Summer on record. That's the weather for you.
But it ain't Climate Change unless you can show me a trend over at least 30 years.
Come back in 30 years (and cut out the insults to me and others such as " stop plying your jock climate change guru with drink" - he wasn't drunk and neither was I and I didn't even suggest that he was a "climate guru". He was as much a "climate guru" as you think you are.
Best wishes "Zero Climate Guru"
P
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Funny init, if there is no climate change, why do you have to come on here more and more often to convince us there isn't?
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>> Funny init, if there is no climate change, why do you have to come on here more and more often to convince us there isn't?
Why do you think PhilW is saying there's no climate change? Doesn't look like that to me. He seems well aware of climate change through the ages, as many are.
If what you're talking about is man-made climate change, then you may be exaggerating. While human agency must have a measurable effect or two, it seems fairly small beer compared to what the planet, and the sun, put out whether we like it or not. It's a good idea to avoid polluting the place too much of course. But actually the ozone layer appears to have recovered quite well following the cfc panic. There's going to be a lot of money made by promoters and makers of so-called green technologies, which are of variable effectiveness. More importantly perhaps, conflict between emergent energy-using countries and bien-pensant sanctimonious rich countries becomes more likely every year...
Crazed zealots abound on both sides of the argument, but I don't think PhilW is one of them.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Fri 21 Feb 14 at 00:14
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>>........and cut out the insults to me and others such
>> as " stop plying your jock climate change guru with drink" - he wasn't drunk
>> and neither was I and I didn't even suggest that he was a "climate guru".
>> He was as much a "climate guru" as you think you are.
>> Best wishes "Zero Climate Guru"
>> P
It's not like me to defend Zero, but, ok, just this once.
I assumed the remarks about "Jock climate guru" were meant to be amusing, that was how I took them and that was how I found them.
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So we've been wet where it's normally dry and dry where we'd expect it to be wet.
But that's not evidence of climate change?
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I live in Central Scotland and spend weekends in the Borders (Tweed Valley)
It has been pretty wet, wetter than average, but not massively worse than the past 10 years (other than the snowy ones!)
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>>So we've been wet where it's normally dry and dry where we'd expect it to be wet.
But that's not evidence of climate change? <<
If that is your idea of evidence it is no wonder climate change scepticism is on the rise.
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>> If that is your idea of evidence it is no wonder climate change scepticism is
>> on the rise.
In a climate like that of the UK which is affected by warm ocean currents and weather systems formed over the Atlantic a changing pattern MIGHT be telling us something.
Not as a one off but if it were to be a trend .......
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"Not as a one off but if it were to be a trend ...…."
As in 2007, 2010, now 2014 (stated by a flood-victim on t.v. this morning).
Personally, I believe that climate change is taking place - I can see with my own eyes that seasonal expectations are changing. I also recognise the possibility that it is affected by human activity, though I can see why some people don't want to believe that.
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Two things seem to me to be obvious:
1) The climate has changed
2) It doesn't matter what has caused it. It is impossible to reverse it, so the only important thing is adapting to cope with it.
Dredging a river might help, charging 5p for a plastic bag won't.
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>> Dredging a river might help, charging 5p for a plastic bag won't.
But cutting consumption of resources might be a good idea anyway.
The proverbial elephant isn't the climate, it's unsustainability. There are too many people, consuming far too much, and it will get much, much worse. Half the world's population has hardly got started yet.
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"But cutting consumption of resources might be a good idea anyway.
The proverbial elephant isn't the climate, it's unsustainability. There are too many people, consuming far too much, and it will get much, much worse. Half the world's population has hardly got started yet."
IMHO - all absolutely correct!
Mind you cutting down on plastic bags (and other packaging) will make the country look somewhat tidier, even if it doesn't save the world.
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>> The proverbial elephant isn't the climate, it's unsustainability. There are too many people, consuming far too much, and it will get much, much worse. Half the world's population has hardly got started yet."
>>
So what are we going to do?
Stop sending messages of congratulation to couples who have had more than two children?
Bring in legislation to make it illegal to have more than two children?
Compulsory sterilisation of women when they have had their allocation of two children?
Somehow, I just can't see it happening!
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>>2) It doesn't matter what has caused it. It is impossible to reverse it, so the only important thing is adapting to cope with it.<<
Quite right, there is a certain arrogance to climate change believers that they think they can somehow turn the climate around again, if indeed one believes it needs to be done.
There is no possibility of any climate worriers being able to influence China etc on emissions so better to stop hand wringing about the cause and come up with a solution to the consequences.
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>> There is no possibility of any climate worriers being able to influence China etc on emissions
>> so better to stop hand wringing about the cause and come up with a solution to the consequences.
>>
I agree.
There are a lot of companies making a lot of profit out of "climate change" so will there be any real progress in concentrating on " What to do"
Meanwhile Germany & Japan are swopping over to good old C02 producing power generation.
Good to see the world all going in one direction.:-(
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Many climate change scientists apparently now believe we have now passed the point of no return as afar as reversing the effects of man mad climate change. Scientific efforts are beginning to concentrate on ways how the inevitable changes can be alleviated.
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It isn't just UK. A friend who lives near Imola has sent me pictures of an Italian coastal railway and the Po valley and, without captions, they could have been Dawlish and the Somerset Levels!
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A sensible start (so it'll never happen) is to legislate repairability and a long working life.
A truly stupid amount of stuff is thrown away and new ones bought.
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>> A sensible start (so it'll never happen) is to legislate repairability and a long working
>> life.
>>
>> A truly stupid amount of stuff is thrown away and new ones bought.
The market economy serves us very badly in that respect. It makes us all busy fools. We have to work at making and selling things we don't need, so we can afford to throw away the things we have and buy the things we shouldn't need, the while living off finite resources.
The market keeps those resources cheap, and ensures they are wasted, for as long as they are easy to extract regardless of whether they are essential and irreplaceable.
Only a fool would disagree that a managed world economy is the only way for humanity to survive in the long term. Only a fool would think that it could ever come about. People are very disappointing, they are the cleverest and the most stupid species on the planet.
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How to survive the climate-change apocalypse - Harleyman
