What are the best places to get sane info on future challenges?

[Wowijustgiveup]

I feel like i want to prepare for slightly more difficult times to come but other than a vague feeling im not really sure what it is i need to be preparing for.

for example we could afford a moderate rise in energy bills but when i try to google what people are expecting it ranges from nothing to total blackouts for whatever reason and i have no idea where to aim for!

we rent our flat (and rent is going up quite a lot soon) and its unlikely we will be able to buy anytime soon so we are pretty much stuck here.

how do you decide what you are actually prepping for?are there more trusted sources for looking at potential issues in the future?

i hope that makes sense!

Fundamentally a combination of your instincts to survive and your ability to recognise even the slightest shifts in both your immediate and more distant societal threats (for want of a better word) should allow you to make reasonably educated guesses as to what is BS and or what contains even the slightest grain of truth.

I recommend listening to lots of radio 4 and the world service particularly farming today (too early for me) news programmes such as today, wato, pm, world tonight, business matters (1am) and there is another business one. I definitely picked up on COVID in January 2020 and stopped winding down the brexit stash. ( Picked up there was a problem in China and knew that they are very connected to international travel and thought it would only be matter of time before it spread)

Read threads on here. The mega brexit thread, COVID stats thread, thread, Boris long running threads. Any thread that is long running and analysing what is happening in the world. There are lots of people in lots of different areas of life who contribute.

Keep an eye on the big newspapers.

Keep an eye on major news reporters on you tube. Particularly any based in other countries. Read stuff in any language you are compétant in. Be aware of who they are and their agenda/party leanings.

Generally listen and read and gather information from many sources news and general knowledge put together.

You might prepare and things don't turn out as bad as expected in which case you have had a practice run have resources to use and save some money in the next couple of months.

For me, it's about looking after myself and my family in an emergency, not depending on external resources or putting extra pressure on them.

So yes, picking up on global shifts ahead of time is good. It was Covid in Jan 2020, the signs for autumn/winter 2022 are around energy security and rising costs/possibly some scarcity of certain foods.

But it's also about having things ready to cope - when we had lots of pipes burst so water supplies cut off in 2010 with the cold snap, we had large containers of drinking water in the house, and a water butt of rainwater to flush toilets (using a bucket).

People in London had to evacuate their houses at almost no notice due to fires this week - would you have a bag of emergency essentials available or know where to grab overnight clothes, money, meds, id and family heirlooms within 5 minutes?

Do you have an alternative of the main source of something fails? Mains water is 1, or power cut or gas cut off are others. So some backup lighting (candles, solar powered garden lights, torches and batteries..) and a backup source of heating and/or cooking. Heating may be about hunkering down under blankets or might be an open fire and bag of logs. Cooking might be a bbq in garden or a 1 ring camping gas stove.

Just ways to take pressure off while there is a crisis and that you can look after yourself and your immediate family.

Some people also look longer term and have stockpiles of food and other essentials built up over time (a bit now and then not buying the whole lot at once). To reduce the need to go shopping or to manage cash flow or deal with price rises they are expecting.

Some of prepping is also just about having some emergency savings built up so when there's an emergency, you have funds for hotels, higher prices of food/other essentials, can call a man to fix the boiler when it's freezing out etc.

So it all depends on your personal circumstances and what's available to you already, what you think are potential things you may need to deal with and what would help you manage any of those things happened.

I've taken up shooting & archery, if the shit hits the fan I can defend my family & pillage from others!

The weather board on Mumsnet is a good place to get info on approaching severe weather. There's good stuff on prepping for weather on there as well.

Good discussion on food on business matters (about 1.45 am on world service)

Last night's business matters is worth a listen on sounds.

How are you doing on finding places to find info?