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The Keys to Transitioning Healthcare: Empowerment, Education, & Prevention

A few months ago, I developed red spots on my face and neck that were kind of itchy. After another day or so, the spots had progressed down my torso and onto my thighs, so I decided to go to a doctor. Although I have health insurance, at the time I did not have a primary care physician, so seeing a doctor quickly proved to be difficult. Most everyone I called told me to go the emergency room, a ridiculously expensive suggestion, given that my situation was certainly not a life-threatening emergency. I finally got an appointment with a nurse practitioner at a local clinic. She hurriedly looked at the red spots, pronounced that I had hives, and immediately decided to give me a steroid injection and to prescribe a week-long dose of Prednisone. There was no discussion of reasoning for her prescription, likely symptom progression, or treatment options.

I know that steroids significantly impact my body through increased anxiety, difficulty sleeping, and suppressed immune response, and I was about to leave on a month long trip, so I really didn’t want any of these side effects. I slowed her down long enough to get her to tell me what I could expect if I didn’t take the shot or the Prednisone. She told me the hives would likely progress through the rest of my body, enter my lungs and then cause difficulty breathing, and that I definitely needed both the injection and the Prednisone. By this point, I internally questioned her judgment due to her extreme prognosis and lack of willingness to engage with me, so I accepted the shot and decided to mull over whether or not to fill the Prednisone prescription. That afternoon I spoke with a friend of mine who is an MD (I should have called him first), and he said that I likely would not need the Prednisone and that I should see how it goes for a couple of days. I did not need the Prednisone and the hives disappeared in a week or so.

So why am I sharing this story? In my opinion, health care remains one of the thorniest problems that we face, because even with relatively abundant cheap oil, our current system serves us poorly.

The Keys to Transitioning Healthcare: Empowerment, Education, & Prevention

by suziegruber

So why am I sharing this story? In my opinion, health care remains one of the thorniest problems that we face, because even with relatively abundant cheap oil, our current system serves us poorly.

Installing a Solar Energy System

by rhare

Like many of you reading this article, I am fairly new to the realization that our future may not turn out the way we originally planned. A little over two years ago, after the financial turmoil set in, I began to wake up from my comfortable, relatively uncomplicated life and take a closer look at what was going on around me.

I was first introduced to the Crash Course by an attendee at the 2009 CPAC Liberty Forum in Washington, DC where I had gone to hear Ron Paul speak. Little did I know how dramatic an impact that one conversation would have on my life. After watching the Crash Course a couple of times, many pieces of the puzzle started to fall together, and I quickly progressed to Stage 4 – Fear. (See The Six Stages of Awareness for more on that topic). A few weeks after I attended Dr. Martenson's Lowesville seminar, I decided it was time to take immediate action. I've also had to deal with the challenges of convincing my partner that these changes were really worthwhile and necessary and that I wasn't a raving lunatic who would soon be wearing a tin foil hat!

I hope reading about the thermal and photovoltaic solar systems we have installed will encourage you to think about actions you can take to prepare for our uncertain future. Since it would be impossible to even begin to give every detail about how the systems work or how to put one together, my goal is to show what can be done, give you things to consider, suggest rough costs, and provide links for further research.

Installing a Solar Energy System

by rhare

Sharing Our Thanks

by Adam Taggart

While we deal with some pretty heavy material on this site, it's important to remember we all have a tremendous amount to be thankful for.

Thanks to Chris, we're aware of the interplay among the Three Es and how things are likely to unfold. Take a moment to appreciate that gift – the vast majority of those yet to swallow the 'red pill' are still sleepwalking into the future unprepared.

Thanks to our still-functioning societies & economies, we have time. Time to debate & process the implications of peak oil and to take informed steps to increase our resiliency to them – in our investment portfolios, in our homes, and in our communities.

And thanks to each of us, we have this site – a collective of smart and encouraging individuals doing their best to "figure it all out" and help each other do the same. Your forum contributions, comments, and feedback are making this site the pre-eminent resource on the Web for those seeking to prepare for an uncertain future.

So this year, I'd like to invite us to share our Thanksgiving experiences with each other.

Sharing Our Thanks

by Adam Taggart

While we deal with some pretty heavy material on this site, it's important to remember we all have a tremendous amount to be thankful for.

So this year, I'd like to invite us to share our Thanksgiving experiences with each other.

Peak Certainty, Food Resilience, and Aquaponics

by Farmer Brown

Long-time readers of this site undoubtedly share one thing: We know no matter what exact course the future takes, or what twist or turn the economy makes, the “future,” as we had come to know and think about it for the past 30 years, is now woefully uncertain. I call it “Peak Certainty,” and we passed it sometime between 2008 and today.

The manners in which we thought we’d live our lives, from the realistic to the idealistic, have radically changed. We could be facing hyperinflation, deflation, a currency crisis, social upheaval – all bad enough without factoring in whether Peak Oil manifests itself sooner rather than later. All of these macro-structural developments are of such high impact, whatever plans we may have had need serious reconsideration.

Peak Certainty, Food Resilience, and Aquaponics

by Farmer Brown

A Case Study in Creating Community

by SagerXX

Take a little trip with me…

Ben Bernanke finally prints A Dollar Too Far. Or the bond vigilantes have their day. Or various foreign countries begin to dump their Treasuries en masse one Wednesday morning. Or Fraudclosure pitches the TBTF banks (and mortgage insurers, et alia) into a hole too deep for any bailout. Or oil producing nations decide to cut back exports by 20% when it becomes apparent that some of their largest fields are well past peak and starting down the steeper part of the back side of the curve.

You can pick one of any number of liminal events, or more likely several of them will make up the Family-Size Valu-Pak o'Doom. But it's obvious to me that El Ponzo Grande is beginning to develop a mortal wobble. Like the top in the last shot of "Inception," it only continues to spin endlessly in a world of illusion. In the real world we inhabit, wobble indicates the top is getting ready to fall.

A Case Study in Creating Community

by SagerXX

Take a little trip with me…

What Should I Do? The Basics of Resilience (Part 9 – Your Next Steps)

by Chris Martenson

Note: This is the final article in our series on personal preparation to help you answer the question, “What should I do?” Our goal is to provide a safe, rational, relatively comfortable experience for those who are just coming to the realization that it would be prudent to take precautionary steps against an uncertain future. Those who have already taken these basic steps (and more) are invited to help us improve what is offered here by contributing comments, as this content is meant to be dynamic and improve over time.

Those who’ve read this full series know that six years ago my family lived in a big house by the sea, where we were completely dependent on outside systems to deliver to us our daily food, water, warmth, and electricity. Perhaps even more worryingly, we engaged with a relatively limited community, defined by the people with whom we worked or knew through our children’s lives and activities.

Today, in addition to running this website and working towards creating a tipping point of awareness around the three Es, we have a garden, chickens, food preservation skills, solar hot water and electricity, local food connections, and a steadily deepening network of relationships around each of these elements. We did not do this all at once, but over a period of years.

What Should I Do? The Basics of Resilience (Part 9 – Your Next Steps)

by Chris Martenson

Interview with the Survival Podcast

by Chris Martenson

Yesterday, I was interviewed by Jack Spirko of The Survival Podcast. We had a meaty exploration of the core tenets of the Three Es in light of recent developments, then delved pretty deeply into strategies for building personal resilience, which is the main focus of Jack’s regular podcasts. I enjoyed myself and think the discussion is worth listening to.

The podcast of our interview is now posted on TSP. Click here to listen to it.

Interview with the Survival Podcast

by Chris Martenson

The podcast of our interview is now posted on TSP. Click here to listen to it.

What Should I Do? The Basics of Resilience (Part 8 – Community)

by Chris Martenson

Note: This article is part of a series on personal preparation to help you answer the question, “What should I do?” Our goal is to provide a safe, rational, relatively comfortable experience for those who are just coming to the realization that it would be prudent to take precautionary steps against an uncertain future. Those who have already taken these basic steps (and more) are invited to help us improve what is offered here by contributing comments, as this content is meant to be dynamic and improve over time.

You are going to need community.

It is my informed opinion that there is no “fix” to our current predicament; there are only outcomes to be managed. Unless some brand-new energy source is discovered – preferably about 15 years ago and prosecuted with all due haste – the necessary liquid fuels will not be there to power enough new economic development to cover all the past debts and unfunded promises. While this does not necessarily mean the “end of the world,” for many it will certainly mean “the end of the world as they know it.”

What Should I Do? The Basics of Resilience (Part 8 – Community)

by Chris Martenson

You are going to need community.

What Should I Do? The Basics of Resilience (Part 7 – Protecting Wealth)

by Chris Martenson

Note: This article is part of a series on personal preparation to help you answer the question, "What should I do?" Our goal is to provide a safe, rational, relatively comfortable experience for those who are just coming to the realization that it would be prudent to take precautionary steps against an uncertain future. Those who have already taken these basic steps (and more) are invited to help us improve what is offered here by contributing comments, as this content is meant to be dynamic and improve over time.

Graduates of the Crash Course series emerge aware that, economically speaking, the next twenty years are going to be completely unlike the last twenty years. This invariably leads to the question, "How do I prepare financially?"

We have entered some truly treacherous investing waters, where we must question everything and accept nothing, even (and especially) the base assumption that any given currency, be that the US dollar or euro or Yen, will retain its value. Is a ‘double-dip’ recession coming? Nobody knows for certain, but all the warning signs are there. Our view is that it’s best to start thinking about preserving and protecting your wealth now, while you still have that opportunity. The bottom line here is that you should not be taking your cues from what your neighbors seem to be doing, but instead being sure that your own house is in order.

What Should I Do? The Basics of Resilience (Part 7 – Protecting Wealth)

by Chris Martenson

What Should I Do? The Basics of Resilience (Part 6 – Heat, Power, & Communications)

by Chris Martenson

Note: This article is part of a series on personal preparation to help you answer the question, "What should I do?" Our goal is to provide a safe, rational, relatively comfortable experience for those who are just coming to the realization that it would be prudent to take precautionary steps against an uncertain future. Those who have already taken these basic steps (and more) are invited to help us improve what is offered here by contributing comments, as this content is meant to be dynamic and improve over time.

Heat, Power, and Communications

Being warm, having instant access to electricity, and being able to connect with anyone anytime, anywhere, are so integrated in present-day life that we often forget just how much value these luxuries offer us. My town has experienced four weather- and usage-related power outages in the past year (for a total of eleven power-free days), which provided a useful reminder of just how dependent we are on the miracle of steady, uninterrupted energy.

Being able to see when it is dark, cook food, and heat your space should an outage occur in the winter are first-level needs to prepare for. Remaining in touch with those you depend on (and those who depend on you) is also a primary need, especially in any prolonged outage situation.

Even more significantly than with food and water, there are major cost differences between preparing in an ideal or long-term sort of way using totally self-sufficient alternate energy systems and preparing in a good-enough stop-gap way for temporary outages. There is certainly value in planning and investing to accomplish both, but do not let concerns that you will not have the perfect long-term system impede you from preparing for some of the more likely problematic wrinkles that may come your way.