constructive things to mitigate Y2K

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Constructive ways to mitigate Y2K

from www.igc.org/icc370/y2k.htm

Contact your local, state and federal representatives to demand legislation to shut down all non-essential, non-Y2K compliant chemical, atomic and other industrial facilities prior to January 1, 2000. (Chevron has already admitted that they will not finish their Y2K remediation in time, and plans to shut down their refineries before "00".)

Help create community gardens in your neighborhood.

Learn how to can and dry food, grow sprouts, build "cold frames" for winter vegetables, and store rainwater. (see www.soybean.com, www.living-foods.com, www.arkinstitute.com, www.speakeasy.org/~tilth/sustgrow/biomethd.htm, www.jademountain.com for information on these items)

Get schools, churches and other community centers to establish food storage centers in cities, towns and rural areas. www.carlaemery.com/Y2K.htm

Urge that grains be diverted from animal agriculture to directly feed people.

Work with neighborhood assocations and local governments to establish emergency communications systems for communities (CB, ham, bicycle messengers?).

Ask your local Red Cross chapter how they plan to assist people who might need emergency food and shelter. www.redcross.org/disaster/safety/y2k.html

Demand that government contingency planning prioritize emergency renewable energy backup power (wind) for ultrahazardous facilities such as nuclear reactor fuel cooling pumps and virulent pathogens stored at biohazard isolation centers.

Demand a global "stand-down" of all weapons of mass destruction before the Year 2000.

-- Mark Robinowitz (mrobinowitz@igc.org), December 10, 1998

Answers

How about educating our educators? Let's enroll teachers in focusing the upcoming semesters before y2k on self-sufficient societies and groups.

Our children's shock at many changes can be lessened by the knowledge that other people manage very well in a more simple fashion.

They can study the American pioneers and the modern-day Amish. They can take a look at how a kibbutz works in Israel, and how castaways and others who have been cut off from civilization have creatively solved the challenges of everyday life.

My son's teacher was very receptive to the idea. She immediately saw the potential and the inherent value of this idea, with or without y2k. It's worth coming out of the closet for. (Apologies, teachers, for that last sentence's grammar!)

-- Sara Nealy (saran@ptd.net), December 10, 1998.


There is a web page out there for a project called the "JosephProject", I think the URL is www.josephproject2000.org.

It's supposed to be focused on Christian responses to Y2K.

Buy your church an electric generator, for example. Stockpile food (most people don't have enough space at home for food, but churches do, in Sunday school rooms, etc.

Also, The Joseph project is about stocking enough food to feed DGIs, which is part of a Christian's calling and responsibility.

Again, i'll repeat what I said on another thread. Whether Y2K is TEOTWAWNI or a minor/midrange inconvenience is largely dependent on the behavior of people in a crisis. If we all keep our heads, then 2005 will be pretty much back to normal (where we were in 1999). If we all act like animals, as Leo is predicting, then 2005 will probably look more like 1790, or Mad Max.

-- Glen Austin (gdaustin@aol.com), December 10, 1998.


Mark Robinowitz, I know about Chevron not being fully remediated as I read it, but have not read anything on Chevron stating they plan to shut down-per your posting. Please give the URL for this. Thank you.

"plans to shut down their refineries before "00"

-- Goldi (goldilucks@yahoo.com), December 10, 1998.


Sara, always thought the teachers should be involved. Kids too. It's their world as well. Explain the situtaion to them and see if they have creative ideas for working around the Y2K problems. They are often more ingenious than set in their ways adults.

I'd love to see the science classes teach "how to purify water" or "how to grow patio gardens" or "camping 101," this spring.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 10, 1998.


FWIW I'm aware of a number of different homeschool groups that are including this sort of instruction in their lessons. One commercially available (Conservative Protestant Christian)curriculum that deals with this is known as PREPARE AND PRAY (you'll have to do a search for their internet site, as I don't have it bookmarked).

Arlin Adams

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), December 10, 1998.



Just curious: how can a "global nuclear weapons stand down" be verified, by anybody ? We mustn't forget, governments lie routinely. They also have power to coerce and falsify supposedly independent expert reports.

There was an amazing New Yorker article some years back showing the relation between the launch window (command to actual launch) and the core technology. Since the core technology can't be uninvented, all that can ever be done from now on is to widen the launch window (minutes to hours to days). Given that the raw materials are widely available, the article concluded that the most the launch window could ever be widened would be a few months. And even that is impossible to verify.

-BH

-- blue himalayan (bh@k2.y), December 10, 1998.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ