The Ad Council has two interesting campaigns that have been running this year.

• The campaign on Emergency Preparedness is sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security, and it leads to Ready.gov.  You can watch, listen, read, and interact with the various ads and get the absolute basic introduction to emergency preparedness.

• Another campaign on Global Warming is sponsored by Environmental Defense, and it leads to Fight Global Warming.

I would like to see these two campaigns combined.  Preparing for the long emergency of global warming should be on all our minds, but I suppose it will take a while before government agencies admit that to the point that we see public service ads suggesting what we can do to prepare.

A simple kit helps us focus on the most basic elements of preparation for an emergency or disaster, but there is a big gap between a kit and skills to survive whatever difficulties we face.

I’ve been watching and listening to coverage of the Superstorm of 2006, including days of power outages in sub-freezing temperatures. Power outages create a double emergency of several days or more. A flare in your car kit, a couple of candles and a can of beans won’t get you through a storm like this.

I am concerned that my own perparations don’t become just a compulsion to buy kits and make lists. The important point is to learn to do for myself and my family what a wildly misspent period of industrialization has tended to do for us. Feed us, keep us warm, supply our water. After the kit is used, we still need to cross that gap to reach genuine preparedness.

What would you do during a week with temperatures in the teens? What else might you need to get or do or learn? Walk yourself and your family through your typical week to find the gaps. Add the fact of extreme weather and walk through again. Add power failure and walk through again.

Make sure that your preparations don’t stop with the gathering of a kit. We need to know how to provide for ourselves whenever possible.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Lao Tzu

Ready.gov tells us our main concerns should be fresh water, food, clean air, and warmth. They recommend these basic supplies for an emergency kit:

• Water, one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days, for drinking and sanitation
• Food, at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food
• Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert and extra batteries for both
• Flashlight and extra batteries
• First aid kit
• Whistle to signal for help
• Dust mask, to help filter contaminated air and plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter-in-place
• Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation
• Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities
• Can opener for food (if kit contains canned food)
• Local maps

They go on to suggest extras that might be relevant based on situation, but I’m still thinking about what are the most important basics for any disaster or emergency situation.

These items make a basic, no-frills emergency kit.

Don’t Panic. That’s what the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy says. During my first semester of doctoral classes, I reminded myself often, Don’t panic don’t panic don’t panic. I’m reminding myself again.

The information available on emergency and disaster preparedness is overwhelming, which is exactly why I intend to play out my own reasonable take on what one should do to prepare for 10,000 emergencies that seem to face us.

But, where do I start? I know I need to prepare for

• winter
• power outage
• drought
• earthquake
• peak oil
• post-carbon world
• climate change
• fascism
• war

There is surely more I have missed.

How far do I go? Where am I going? I’m not going to join an Amish community (as if they’d have me), but I’m sure I can learn from them. I suspect the future will look more like the solutions Cubans have found to the passing of peak oil. Community is important in every solution. I also need to make sure I am prepared to help rather than be helped in an emergency. So, I am going to start by focusing on just a few areas.

1. Learn about what has worked for others faced with crisis.
2. Reach out to my neighbors and larger community frequently.
3. Continue to gather and sort my list of necessary disaster and emergency preparations.
4. Prepare my family, house, and car for winter (though global warming has made that less an issue in the past few years).

Book Wish List

I have about 800 books on my wishlist. I’m not sure I have time left in my life to read 800 books, but I intend to try.

One of the highest books on that list is Albert Bate’s Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook. Amazon does not yet have the book, but publisher New Society does. “This book,” they tell me, “is about having your catastrophe and eating it too.”

One of the reviewers called it a post-petroleum Whole Earth Catalogue. All of the reviewers say that the book approaches the situation with good humor and optimism.

Topics covered include:

• Rebuilding civilization
• Changing your needs
• Water and waste disposal
• Energy and transportation
• Equipment and Tools
• Food storage and First Aid

I’ve added this to my emergency preparedness shopping list.