[Janick]

... for the effects of the downslope of peak oil?

Any articles on the subject?

[RonMN]

you can't prepare for EVERYTHING, so remember your 4 basic needs in this order:

1: Shelter
2: Water
3: Fire
4: Food

anything else is a WANT...not a NEED.

[Andy]

I would rearrange that order to :

1. water
2. food
3. shelter
4. fire

in decreasing order of importance.

[linlithgowoil]

in my opinion, you should do absolutely nothing. just make sure you dont have a ton of debt if your job is insecure.

[gnm]

Andy, I think what he listed was in a survival situation and is correct - although I would class fire last... since you could live for months without fire.. but really it should be a given for cooking food boiling water etc...

shelter is first since you will freeze to death (for instance) long before you have time to drink that water you have...

-G

these are such entertaining threads....

[RonMN]

I've read it as

1-shelter
2-water
3-fire
4-food. They gave this order because of what will kill you the quickest...without shelter you could die in hours. without water you could die in as little as 3 days...3rd is fire because it can double for shelter & boil water to make it drinkable. and food is last because the human body can live for 3-4 weeks without food. You can order them however you wish but this is how i read it.

[Nairb]

I just was in the boy scouts they have a very usefull list

1.positive attitude (anything to keep you in good mood)
2.first aid
3.shelter
4.water
5.fire
6.food
7.signaling for help (not nessasary in this instance)

[TaxiDriver]

You may be overlooking a very important commodity...

weapons... and lots of them

When the economy starts to destablize, that will be all the reason for many people to go on anarchic binges of robbery and destruction. Not that many people will need that much impetus to do this now.

If you choose to keep this in mind, keep in mind also that training in said weapons is just as, if not more, important than their acquisition.

Perhaps I'm looking at the Worst-Case Scenario (c) version of all this, but I'd rather have and not need than to need and not have.

[Pops]

There is the Planning forum… http://www.peakoil.com/forum8.html

The assessments and plans threads (there are 3, here is the first http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic816.html) are a good place to get an idea of what people are thinking and doing.

There are so many factors involved it’s hard - if not impossible, to guess what might happen so planning is difficult. My thoughts are to reduce your dependence on both fossil fuels and wages as much as possible.

Of course that is pretty general – and certainly easier said than done, but no one can evaluate your situation as well as you. But it is obvious that at some point, if oil costs rise enough, everything will cost more and many businesses will be hurt – meaning many workers will see a shrinking or total loss of income along with ever increasing expenses.

I also think what you decide to do should be based on your own skills and experience. If you’ve never ventured farther a field than cutting across the lawn at the city park, I wouldn’t think learning to trap muskrats or identify mushrooms would be the smartest idea. Not to say learning new skills is bad – just the opposite, but go with your strengths.