Sound of both body and mind

Let’s not beat about the bush: there are some tough times coming. If we do nothing about the environmental crisis, we are heading toward a perfect storm of environmental, social and economic problems that at best look something like a depression with very bad weather, and at worst some kind of apocalyptic movie. On the other hand, doing what it takes to implement a Total Green Future will itself cause significant social and economic turbulence in the short term, and in the medium-to-long term you may find yourself with a job in the Environmental Corps that is more physically demanding than being sat around all day fiddling with spreadsheets.

Quite a lot of attention is being given at the moment in environmental circles to mental and emotional health in light of the many uncertainties we face. This is very important because if we are not of sound heart and mind we cannot resist the status quo or build a better future. However, at the risk of painting a caricature of the environmentally aware, not so much attention is paid to physical preparedness in light of coming challenges.

So here’s a thought experiment. If you knew that you would be living in the equivalent of a war zone in 10 years’ time, what would you do right now to prepare? Many of the conveniences you currently enjoy would be gone, and you would have to work much harder to secure the day-to-day resources you need. Once you had secured those resources, you might be called upon to defend them. Are you capable of that right now?

In order to navigate either living with the environmental crisis or mitigating the environmental crisis, it is necessary to be physically fit and prepared. This is something that we all can and should take more seriously, starting today. Most of us need to lose weight and get fitter. You have known this for years, but have probably lacked the motivation to do anything about it: thinking about living in the equivalent of a war zone in 10 years’ time should give you an extra nudge.

Physical preparedness is not just about our bodies, but also our surroundings. There is a subset of the environmentally aware who are in to permaculture and homesteading, and who are well positioned to look after themselves in a time of upheaval or a breakdown in supply chains delivering food to the supermarket. Most of the environmentally aware are vulnerable to being left with nothing, yet they smirk at “doomsday preppers” as being a bunch of right-wing nuts stockpiling beans and ammo. However, there is much to learn from the preparedness community: just take on the lessons that are practical and useful, and discard any ideology that you find distasteful. Prepping is becoming increasingly mainstream, as suggested in the recent article, How Britain Became a Nation of Stockpilers (fueled by Brexit concerns, then the Coronavirus), and the Swedish Civil Emergency Agency which sent a preparedness advice leaflet called If Crisis or War Comes to 4.8 million households.

Then there is the stickiest issue of all: are you capable of physical violence if it was necessary? The vast majority of the environmentally aware understandably recoil from this question. Of course, any sane person would prefer to live in a world without violence, but different forms of violence are already committed upon the environment and regular citizens on a daily basis by bad actors, and it is likely to get worse. There is nothing noble about dying without resistance. Self-defense expert Tim Larkin says, “violence is rarely the answer, but when it is, it’s the only answer”: it’s worth reading his book When Violence Is the Answer: Learning How to Do What It Takes When Your Life Is at Stake to try and get your head around this issue (switch out the scenarios in the book for living in the equivalent of a war zone in 10 years’ time).

A common response to these questions is: I don’t think I want to survive in a world that requires such physical preparedness. Ok, but you need to genuinely understand the implications of what that means: you and your loved ones will probably not survive. If you have resistances to the above suggestions, just take a moment and contemplate them further: it is necessary to reevaluate many previously-held assumptions if we are going to build a Total Green Future.