Surviving global changes !

Some other things to consider - this page by the axis shift author...

Surviving Global Climate Changes
August 21st, 2007 by mmc7

http://survivingclimate.wordpress.com/

In response to questions I received about what we can do to plan for the weather changes, power shortages and crop failures, I have done quite a bit of research. While some of these suggestions are for home owners, there are recommendations in here which you can do even if you are renting or leasing a home such as placing insulation around water pipes and heavy shades in windows to block out solar heat or heavy drapes to keep out cold, gardens, canning and other things your landlord may permit…. so there are things in this article which can apply to everyone. You will also need to decide which items are applicable in your situation since homes have a variety of styles and designs.

See cautions about roofing, info on attic inspections and wiring at the bottom of this article.

The green roofs suggested by the UK and Canada are an excellent idea but need accurate engineering and loading of weight to be accomplished.

http://www.ukresilience.info/emergencies/w...ndflooding.aspx

I have some photos of a village near the Spencer estate and Althorpe, England where these homes built over 800 years ago used moss roofs… about a foot thick. Early US pioneers also used sod roofs. Other suggestions for urban homes in London were rooftop gardens. There is a lot of important info in their pamphlets to show the problems and precautions needed to do this successfully. This is a PDF file link. You will need Adobe reader to open it.

GLA: London Climate Change Partnership Report: “Adapting to climate change - Lessons for London”

I’ve been doing a lot of research on our options to help ourselves. After Katrina, I would not want to depend on the gov’t’s help on anything. Things we can expect are loss of electricity, water rationing and high prices. It would be advisable for us to go off the grid by installing solar panels or windmills (windmills may have some ordinance prohibitions due to noise). There are many different types of solar panels. Some are solar cells, some are evacuated panels, some use heated copper tubing, etc. Perhaps a combination of both. Here is one site you can look at to get an idea. There are many other sites you can find on the internet.

http://www.evsolar.com/pricelist.html

Most of the time, if you install these, the power company has to buy back your excess power if you connect to the grid. If all the customers of an electrical cooperative had these alternate systems connected to a grid, they probably would not have to buy any fuel… but you can also do this on your own and have a generator handy as well in case weather is not favorable. Be sure to do reasearch on the products, the cost, maintenance, durability, lifespan of the products and check out your electric providers policies and the ordinances in your area.

Other ideas suggested include light colored roofs… while white is the best heat reflector, it also stains very easily. Beige or gray or a mix might be better aesthetically. Something durable like a 35 or 40 year tile but don’t buy Corning… their tiles tear like paper. You want something to withstand wind. I prefer Tamko myself.

Don’t use staples, it will weaken your tiles and they will break off. Also be sure to replace the tarpaper underlayment and inspect the roof for damage and replace or add any flashing or new vents as needed before doing the roofing tiles. Add any downspouts for overflow areas on your rain gutter system. You don’t want any leaks. This is also a good time to add extra turbines and automatic fans to your attic. We use a combination of both.

Now this is very important about roofing tiles and every contractor I have met either lies about it because they are lazy or because they don’t know any better… but as an engineer, I can tell you this for a fact and my spouse did not know this either: The clear plastic on the edges of the new tiles are there to keep the tiles in the stack from sticking together. But when you install those new tiles on your roof, you Must REMOVE the clear plastic strips from each roofing tile. This allows it to adhere to the tile below on the roof and will prevent your tiles from lifting up in the wind (and is also another reason you want heavy, longer life tiles). If you leave the plastic on, your tiles will lift up in the strong wind like the shuffling of cards and will break and become damaged. My spouse had left on the plastic and used staples on his previous home. The tiles lifted up in the wind and broke off at the staples. Last spring, we had 100+ mph wind storms at our current home. Our house was the only one which did not have the roof tiles lift up and these are the lighter weight tiles because they came with the house. Even our neighbor, the contractor had his tiles lifting and breaking. Tiles from every house in the area were blowing everywhere. Our tiles did not budge an inch. I went outside in the peak of the storm to check. So from experience… I share this with you since no one else seems to be doing so. I also recommend extra heavy anchoring of anything that might be affected in high winds. With the changing global weather, strong winds are inevitable. Items such as satellite dishes, antennas and other items need strong anchors and bracing and you cannot depend on the installer having done so. They usually only do the bare minimum unless you make special arrangements.

Trees are important. Fast growing trees with a lot of shade and hardy to droughts. Be sure to research the plants which are best for hot summers and cold winters. Don’t go by your normal climate ratings because these are rapidly changing. Trees can help shade your home and reduce heat. Even better if the trees are fruit, berry or nut trees because they can provide food even though they tend to be messy. Other plants such as shrubs and other plants will help and you can also do some drainage landscaping to help with floods and water run off. You can do french drains, gravel and dry wells for excess water or recycle and store the runoff for watering trees but don’t use it for the house.

Gardens and canning will be a must to build up food. Not only for planning ahead on the impending crop failures and reducing your food bills, but for avoiding the bacteria contaminated produce industry. You can do this with small yards and raised boxes or roof top in urban areas if loading weights permit.

Some of the best things you can do to keep your homes warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer would be changing out your windows (and glass doors) to Anderson or Pella Low E, tinted composite frames and a solar reflective coating. Metal frames sweat. Vinyl frames sag and wood frames rot… so the composite is a combination of vinyl over wood. We have them and they are not only fantastic in reducing energy costs, they reduce noise significantly and glare as well. Then buy some solar screening for the outside. You can get an 80% solar screen, tough enough for pets. These really help a lot in the summer. You can do the screens yourself and save a ton of money.

You can also change out your doors with something like a Stanley Metal-solid core door which have all types of fancy designs and weather sealed glass. Get prehung doors with excellent weather seals. Stay away from styrofoam insulation. It emits a toxic gas. Adding a lot of extra blown in insulation in the attic is a must and is not that expensive. Use the shredded paper type. Don’t use fiberglass and remember to read a good book on insulation so you will know about vapor barriers. This includes sections on floor insulation as well. If you get the vapor barriers incorrect, you can cause rot damage and impede the purpose of the insulation. The blown in insulation can be bought at Home Depot or Lowes and you can rent the machine. Be sure to figure the amount you need and understand how it works… and install some planks to walk on so you won’t end up falling through the ceiling. You will need two people to do the attic. One to blow the attic and the other feeding in the bales to the machine… rather rapidly. Also check the lighting fixtures. Many are not rated for contact with insulation and get very hot. Fixtures also have a lot of air gaps which can be dealt with. We box ours in with a screen vent to keep the insulation away from them and replaced all light fixtures with those rated for insulation and thermal shut offs… but we still put in a box to prevent contact.

Fluorescent lights are a big help to energy reduction. They are no longer like the flickering tubes. We have them inside and out. They have also have spot lights, bug lights and candlestick fluorescents for those special needs. But don’t use them with dimmers.

Hot water… using the tubing type of solar panels can supply you with hot water and baseboard heat. The other way to heat the house is with solar electricity… but I would recommend getting away from any type of gas or fossil fuel before they bankrupt you and you cannot get supplies. By the time you realize you are in trouble, you won’t be able to find replacement units because everyone else will have waited until the last moment to change.

Be sure to insulate all of your exposed water pipes. Both hot and cold pipes. There is a foam insulation you can buy at the local Lowes, etc which will slip around the pipes. It keeps your pipes from freezing and lowers the loss of heat from your hot water pipes.

Water is the next problem. A report today said we will start running out of water by 2020. A shame they don’t consider desalinization plants. There will be plenty of water when the ice melts and floods the coastlines. But for those of us who can’t depend on the gov’t’s help and if we live in the country (another recommendation if possible. An acre of land will be a boon for your family.) Where possible, a water well will be a lifeline. If a well is not possible, then consider some type of large gravity tank storage or cisterns for extra water capacity when you need it. This will help with a garden as well when they put you on rationing like they did here.

There are also new types of septic systems which spray the water onto the yard… but I am not yet convinced of the safety of the bacteria in that water.

Simple things can be a great help: weather stripping, heavy drapes, ceiling fans, atic ventilation, window shades which block out all light, carpets on floors, sealing the fireplace when not in use, heatilators, exterior wall insulation are all things that help in heat and cold.

You can also use shade covers for your porch and deck or you can use larger, nursery style shade cloths for larger areas and you can buy them with various percentages of solar shading, custom size and custom ways to attach and support it. Nursery suppliers sell these rather inexpensively. One of the more interesting uses of screening was used in Ft Lauderdale, Florida. Many homes have their entire backyards screened in like giant aviaries. Some are one story tall, some screens are two stories high. A novel idea but definitely expensive even if you built it yourself.

If you live by the coast or near sea level which will flood as the sea levels rise, you might want to consider moving to higher ground. Every government website I have been on has talked about the rising sea levels as an unavoidable problem. So it is not IF the sea levels rise…. it is a matter of WHEN. They originally said it would not melt until 2070 or 2100. The Chronicle Herald of Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada ran an article today (Aug 19, 2007) that all of the ice will be melted by 2030.

Frankly, I don’t think we have that long. I am leaning more toward 2010 - 2013 as the total meltdown… and the seas will have started rising long before that. Some of our coastal states are already complaining about losing 3 feet per year.

If you are lucky enough to have a basement and are not in a low lying area or in a flood zone, you are one step ahead of the rest of us, because those of us who do not have basements may find ourselves digging as fast as we can in about 3 years. Temperatures underground can be best regulated with less energy. And with the wild tornadic storms, slipping axis, rising temps in the summer and freezing in the winter… we may find underground as our only refuge…. but we’ll have to plan for it on our own and start digging if the conditions get to such extremes where we need to survive… and we can’t expect any government to help us. We’ll be on our own.

Back to the old underground shelters of the 1950’s… I’ll provide info on those if we get to the point where we need to start digging.

Vehicles will be another issue. Fuel and cold weather. But most of you know what those issues are so I’ll leave it at that.

For the question on the best places to live….. in addition to living at a higher altitude with a basement and an acre of land or more… (away from the coastlines to avoid the rising sea levels … keeping in mind, when the sea levels rise… so do the river, lakes and creek levels), the center of the planet between the original tropics of cancer and capricorn, near the equators will remain the most temperate climates with the least impact in weather changes. But you’d also have to consider fault lines, seismic activity, volcanic activity, etc.

Should the worst happen and things get really bad….. there is one other concern….. money. It is not inconceivable that government income, social security, pensions, disability, etc… will be forfeited by the governments and corporations… not to mention medical insurances and medicare. Be prepared for them all to bail out leaving millions in the lurch.

I do know that there is a huge effort seeding the clouds and doing chem trails… although I would not recommend breathing it… and you might want to protect your gardens from it. I had heard rumors about it but was able to confirm it when I found the State of Texas licensing people performing weather modification and seeding. Here is a word doc file with the TX rules on this

http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/docs/...0.000301.00.doc

Then here is another idea NASA had about using orbital mirrors around the planet. I suspect they did not consider our eyesight when they came up with this one:

http://home.swipnet.se/allez/Eng/SpaceMirrors.htm

Perhaps the mayans knew something the rest of us did not know. Their 2012 date is sounding more and more accurate.

Now that I have shared all of this doom and gloom…. just try to stay ahead of the problems by doing the small things you can afford and save money and start gardens and improve things as you can. Don’t try to do it all at once just do what you will need at least 6 months to a year in advance but don’t wait until it is too far gone to do something because everyone else will go into a panic mode and there won’t be any supplies.

Try to get yourself off the grid if you can. A lot of us around here are getting ready to install solar panels. Nearly everyone I know is doing so just to get away from the high prices and control of the energy companies. Be sure to stock up on food and water and other daily necessities. Just take it one step at a time.

Caution: If you are contemplating a change in roofing, it is very important to consider the weight and structural support and consult an engineer if you are making significant changes in weight, roofing materials, weight distribution or any structural issues before proceeding. You can cause serious structural damage or cause supports or walls to collapse if you make changes your structure is not designed to handle. You should also do a full inspection of the roofing joists to ensure you are not having any separation or slippage or splitting or rotten wood. And it would also be a good idea to take a look in your attic at fireplace chimneys, lighting, fans, wiring, vents, etc. Black soot around your chimney is a bad sign of leakage and fires too hot or too much tar from using Pine. Problems like could cause a fire in your attic and should be further inspected by an expert before using it again. Electrical wiring should not be pinched, hot, melted, scortched, charred, chewed by rodents, etc. Some people have used a staple gun to attach wiring. This is bad as it can cause compression, overheating and exposure of the bare wire at that location. There are insulated staples specially designed for electrical wiring which is tapped in with a hammer, not a staple gun. Be sure to always turn off breakers before doing anything with electrical wiring. You can buy a lighted test plug for a few dollars to check an outlet. Also, aluminum wiring is a very bad thing to have. I’m a EE engineer…. don’t let anyone tell you different. It takes a larger gauge aluminum wire to handle the same current on a copper wire. But the worst problem are the AC outlets. If an AC outlet is not specifically rated for aluminum, the metals in the outlet react differently than the aluminum wire and will cause overheating in the outlet and fires. It can cause overheating in outlets farther down the circuit. I have seen aluminum wiring installed by expert electricians and pass building inspection which were not using the right gauge or outlets. So when the homeowner turned on a light or plugged in a vacuum in one room, an AC outlet across the house in another room became searing hot. Hot enough to cause 2nd degree burns when her toddler bumped into it. The wrong outlet was used by the electrician. My advice is to remove and replace all aluminum wiring with proper gauge copper (it’s better to go larger than smaller). And make sure all of the outlets are rated for the type of wiring you are using. Same with the breaker box. Make sure your breakers are in good functioning order and that they are appropriate for the wiring, gauge and current. Again, I caution, never handle or work on any electrical wiring or connection unless the breakers are turned off and if you don’t know what you are doing… have a qualified electrician do it for you.

Look for similar problems of overheating, damage, etc., around lighting fixtures which might be overheating or other problems. Rats and mice are a real issue because they can damage wiring and cause fires and attract rat snakes.