“The beautiful rests on the foundations of the necessary.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

This quote from Emerson is the inspiration for the PreparedTompkins.org website. PreparedTompkins.org is an emerging local citizen’s initiative that embraces the necessity of preparing for the significant cultural shift taking place as we move into a post-carbon world — one household at a time. Home is where the heart is and that is precisely where PreparedTompkins.org intends to help.

The site is just coming together now and is designed to assist Tompkins County households establish levels of preparedness as part of a larger community effort. The goal is to create a decentralized grassroots network of prepared households to build countywide self-sufficiency.

There are many sound reasons to prepare for unforeseen events, like inclement weather, hazardous spills, and pandemic flu. Secondary stresses that occur after the initial disaster has passed, while systems are being restored to pre-emergency levels, can be as disruptive as the primary emergency.

But beyond the need to be ready in an emergency is the need to prepare for a future that is clearly shifting from what we have come to expect as the norm. Rising fossil fuel prices and climate change will stress our current patterns of delivering goods and services.

Looking forward, we are likely to see disruptions in basic services that we have generally taken for granted as part of our “just in time” inventory culture. Consider the following scenarios:

  • What if rolling blackouts are needed to conserve energy usage?
  • What if local drought, as a result of a warmer climate, becomes a regular feature of summer and wells go dry for three weeks?
  • What if department store shelves become sparse because the cost of plastics rise?
  • What if fuel prices make shipping out-of-season fruits and vegetables prohibitive?
  • What if warmer winters increase the incidence of ice storms that knock out power and phone lines?

    • Will you be ready?

    It wasn’t that long ago that most households were prepared for such temporary or seasonally induced interruptions. Pantries, root cellars, victory gardens, a flock of chickens and cisterns used to be part of everyday life here in Tompkins County.

    Although we will need to draw heavily from the past to guide the future, there are also some low tech solutions and contemporary know-how at our disposal that our great-grandparents didn’t have. Solar cells, rain catchment irrigation, water filtration systems, solar ovens and knowledge of the microbial world are just a few of the ways we can improve upon the past. Self-sufficiency in the 21st century will be a blend of old and new.

    Whether you live in an apartment downtown or in a suburban development or an old country farmhouse, you’ll need to plan ahead and incorporate basic preparedness into your home. There is much learning and un-learning to be done: innovations to discover, practicalities to address. Beauty is in the work that will provide the foundation for the future.

    As PreparedTompkins.org is developed over the first half of 2006, it will assist you with what to do and how to do it, including checklists, worksheets, preparedness links, vendors, local resources, and relevant workshop information.

    If you have information or helpful links to suggest, please email info@preparedtompkins.org.