It’s getting hot. 6 PM and I’m sitting in this Portland cafe in the shade in a tank top, wishing I had a hair tie to pull back my hair. It’s the middle of April, two days past Tax Day (I took an extension… will deal with everything when my accountants have some downtime, ideally early next week).
Right now, life seems ok. I have some savings, a working phone and computer, my own place, and electricity + Internet. How much more does one really need? It’s true I had a major health scare earlier in the year. I got food poisoning, or something, on February 1 and whatever I ate threw my body out of whack for months. I won’t go into gory details, but it was significant. It’s also true I haven’t gotten the vaccine yet. That means I’m being extremely careful. For instance on Wednesday I woke up with sinus pain plus intense fatigue. No fever, but I still took a day off and had my groceries delivered.
Time to look for a job, I guess. And start dating. Things are opening up. The economy is gaining steam. There will never be a better time.
Right?
Not so fast. The problem is, if it’s this hot already in April, it will be hotter still in May and June. We had a mild spring and summer last year in Portland. Plenty of rain until July. Can’t count on that happening again.
What happens when the forest fires come back?
What happens when the sky turns dark, and smoke fills the air — when fine white ash filters down onto cars and buildings, and even into ventilation systems? I remember what it was like last year — seeing those pale flakes of ash on the outside of my black laptop case, sitting on top of my dresser chest. You couldn’t really go outside. In Portland the air quality emergency only lasted about two and a half weeks but it felt like we’d woken up in the second act of the Apocalypse.
The short answer is, I don’t know. Stock on up on air filters from Amazon, I guess? Also, canned goods. And bottled water. Keep essential medicines and first aid supplies on hand. No telling when the electricity might go out. The truth is, it’s unlikely the fires will consume my building.
No telling what kind of infrastructure we’ll have left. Or what kind of government.
But some of us are going to be around to rise up from the ashes.
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HINT HINT: If you know anything about meshnets and how to assemble, configure, deploy, and connect to them, this would be a great time to make that knowledge accessible. I have a working laser printer and access to several domains with outstanding Google Page Rank. Happy to distribute the information.
Legislative action and administrative actions help. So does driving less and eating a plant-based diet, Maybe a data-driven education tool to show people what they might expect in their own hometowns would change some hearts and minds… it’s hard to say. But the world has changed forever. Sharing information and solutions is the best path to individual and collective survival.