Climate chaos is here and we need to talk through our options, choices, decisions, and plans, then share if we’ve got anything we think can help with survival. Each week I’ll present a question or a topic that’s about something every one of us is likely to face, and see if we can figure out ways to deal with it together.
The first week’s question was Do You Stay or Do You Go? Last week’s question was What Is Your Timeline? This week’s question is:
What Skills Do You Need To Learn?
I have a set of things I can do well enough for most uses, but the stuff that I know I really need to figure out is electricity and electronics.
I can make a lamp, I can make a (primitive) light bulb, for that matter, and a very very primitive solar cell. I’m good where circuitry is simple and the size is big enough to see what’s going on without needing special equipment. I have put together simple circuit boards from purchased parts and done the same with computers (buying the units and assembling them into a computer).
There are two problems here. The big problem is that electricity and electronics are two different things. And, right now, a lot of things we use electricity for are both heavy on needing electronics and constructed from a business model that makes repairs close to impossible. The other problem is that buying components to put together into a whole is not the same as building something from the ground up. It’s the difference between cooking from scratch and from a box from Pillsbury.
But the stuff we’re depending on for HVAC and possibly for transportation is complex and electronic. I want to learn how to fix (make, if possible) heat pumps and home storage batteries and electric vehicles and induction cooktops and washing machines. And I mean fix as in be able to make it work without special equipment already pre-assembled coming in from somewhere distant. Jerry-rig, even. Build from scratch, if at all possible and if needed.
Because, if we depend on it, we better be able to fix it or make it. If/when civilization falls apart, having valuable skills will be … valuable. Definitely barterable.