The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

Floss

Personally I find little excerpts from the press to be generally out of date and often not 100% accurate.

However I appreciate that not everyone has either information accurate to within 12 hours that is freely given to them by their NHS employer or access / ability to source accurate & up to date information from the Internet.

-taff

And don't forget those who plain can't be bothered to read doom and gloom... that's me by the way

Karmacat

boazu said:

I've always been of the mind that as much information as possible on any subject leads to being able to make clearer and better choices in life, not everyone wants to know ahead, but we find it helps with planning in all areas of life.  The DDs say we are control freaks but we just like the possibility of being in charge of our destiny as much as any single person can be.  We've never been of the 'head in a bucket of sand' persuasion but maybe some folks are just happier not thinking about the future and are just happy to let it happen, who knows? I'd hate to give false information knowingly and I'd hate to be thought a fearmonger so I've always popped on things I find for the first time in the paper as I find them, just information not scaremongering for sensationalism...people can chose to read or not, act or not all I do is flag up what I find if I think it might have relevance to prepping.

boazu, that's the epitome of sharing, and I'm always very grateful to people on this thread who are prepared to do that.  Please continue!  The reception that the sharers get is sometimes on the negative side, whether mild or intense, but it's still important, and positive, to the rest of us.  

[Deleted User]

Thank you 

thriftwizard

I'm also happy to be given a heads-up that there's something that might need a little further investigation, possibly even action, even if that just amounts to a bit more caution in certain circumstances. This thread is about prepping, after all, and it's hard to prep effectively for potential threats you haven't taken any notice of. I do miss - was it Kitty? - and her weather warnings, even if they usually just amounted to a bit of a blow or a late frost; every gardener knows a late frost is an absolute killer & you need to have your defences ready to roll!

There will always be threats that no-one saw coming & no-one is prepared for. But without being alarmist, let's continue to draw attention to potential threats that we're aware of, so that we can all make our own assessments & act accordingly. We all have different areas of interest, levels of access to information & expertise, & that's a huge potential strength for all of us.

[Deleted User]

An article in todays Telegraph and the journalist has been looking at the electricity capacity for this country and the state of the grid and come to the conclusion that with increased demand for electricity because of the decision to move away from petrol and gas we'll be likely to get severe power cuts regularly and has concluded that the grid is not being managed properly currently.  Electricity accounts for 15 to 20% of the UK's power use but with the advent of electric vehicles and the dropping of gas fired heating boilers in favour of heat pumps etc. that will rise to 65% by 2050 and the grid won't cope.  The journalist is Olivia Rudgard who is the Environment Correspondent.  Food for thought? or is this seen as scaremongering?

MrsCD

Boazu, our house is run completely on electricity, and I have wondered where all this electricity would come from when we have to have electric cars and boilers etc. Our electricity management folks (sorry can't remember their proper title this late in the day) sent an email a couple of weeks ago setting out their plans for the future, but it didn't really explain where the extra electricity would be made!
I'm happy to hear about things I might have missed, particularly because we don't read newspapers and there is a limit on what the news channels tell us.

Floss

I think the majority of oil & gas boilers have electric pumps anyway, which is why there is no central heating in a power cut...do ground heat pumps use more power?

Karmacat

Ooh, boazu, if you're wondering if the Telegraph is scaremongering, check out consciousnessofsheep.co.uk, it will blow your mind    He's quite long, and quite technical, and labours his points rather - and there are some things he says that I know a little bit about and I disagree with his conclusions, but as a broad brush I think he's in the right arena, sadly.  He's been talking about the electricity for electric cars for a while now.  And a favourite phrase of his is "the energy cost of energy" - ie how much it costs, in energy terms, to access energy, whether it's coal, oil, wind, anything.  And the effect that this, and political shenanigans, has on the price of energy.

There's also this guy Review: The Long Descent by John Michael Greer - Resilience - his blog has gone offline, so I never read much of it, but his view of the long descent kind of parallels Tim from consciousnessofsheep (I wish that blog title was shorter  ).

I do think that's the road we're on, over the next however many decades, unless meteorites or aliens intervene 

LameWolf

-taff said:

And don't forget those who plain can't be bothered to read doom and gloom... that's me by the way

I don't read the doom and gloom either - not because I cba, but because it feeds my depression, which I am struggling with badly as it is.

DH reads stuff online, and tells me the bits he thinks I can handle. Gotta love that man!

Re prepping - I have a little more space in the Room of Doom as we've used up 2 of the 4 tins of spuds I bought when there was a rumour that they would be in short supply. I've never bought tinned spuds before in my life!