Green prepping is for everyone. Green prepping is central to REAL Green but mainly as a physical expression. Green prepping is about a lower ecological footprint that increases resilience and sustainability. This involves localization strategies combined with low carbon capture. So, this means obtaining food and energy locally with low carbon capture. It means lowering mobility. This lower mobility means both people and place. It is not enough to remain local physically. Reducing connections and networks is important too. The physical localization is obvious. The less time you spend away from your local the better. The human component of localization means spending less time in social media and more time with your neighbors or off the net and in the field. This also means groups and friendships. I am not asking you to sever friendships but instead avoid having too many especially when this delocalizes. Focus on those in your immediate surroundings. Family should avoid moving away from each other.
Low carbon capture is important too. If you are in a temperate climate like I am and have a wood lot then heat with wood. I have good soil for gardening. I produce some of my food. I gather solar energy through grass in the fields with animals. I have combined these traditional capture methods with some modern approaches. I also have solar power. This gives me off the grid options. If the grid goes down, I can keep lights and my food preserved. My system is not complexed and I do not try to cover all my power needs. I still use the grid. It is cheap and reliable but I avoid being overly dependent on the grid by having solar power. Being totally off the grid is problematic too so my approach is hybridization. In fact, hybridization is central to REAL Green on so many levels.
The other key item of low carbon capture is efficiency. Efficiency is a double-edged sword. Too much efficiency means less resilience and sustainability but so does not enough. There really is a sweat spot one should aim for. There are components to efficiency one being the behavior of conservation and the other is the physical approach of things like insulation and thermal orientation.
Conservation of behavior is utilization of resources in a manner that enhances their utility. Conservation localization is vital to low carbon capture because once low carbon material becomes mobile it loses its embedded energy and can go negative. Conservation is about using resources properly like not wasting food. Most importantly it is about the wisdom of choosing what activities and things to include in your life.
The physical aspects of efficiency like insulation and thermal positioning mean lowering your needs for energy and movement. Locating properly means expending less energy. A well-insulated house requires less heating and cooling. A home positioned correctly will lower energy needs. Buy things that require less energy. Balance performance with robust durability. It is often the case that good efficiency strategies will cost more so expect to have less. Have a smaller house and expect less out of it. Generally low tech or no tech is preferable to high tech but keep in mind a hybridization is often the best solution. Many small high-tech additions can make dramatic difference in low carbon capture needs. Low carbon means high volume low value. So, you need to utilize lots of stuff to get a small return so this means efficiency. High tech can leverage and magnify this high-volume low value equation.
The basics of green prepping are numerous and well established. I have learned them over many years as an outdoorsman and homesteader. I am a tree hugging green so I have always been personally obsessed with conservation and respect for nature. In the past decade and a half, I become focused on prepping. This is being outfitted with basics of survival. Many times, prepping is enhanced by being green. This is because being local and seeking a lower footprint is safer. Yet, keep in mind stocking up on things is another double-edged sword. Too much and too little happens with prepping like efficiency. In fact, being hyper efficient means less stocking up and being leaner. So, when you stock up and store things keep in mind you have limited resources and space so choose wisely. The more you stock up on also means you need to occupy space which means less space for other activity. So, this is where wisdom comes in yet again. Choose your preps wisely or you will have stranded assets and or degraded space. Degraded space becomes deadwood that REAL Green seeks to triage out so don’t produce more or you suffer a circular trap.
Finally, this is probably the most important part of green prepping and this is where REAL Green comes in and that is your belief system. Anyone can green prep but only a few can be a REAL Green knight. It takes a special set of circumstances to produce a knight. This generally means age and experience. It means ascending levels of abstraction. It means attaining a level of understanding that comes with education, experience, and external circumstances. It is much like a seed that is from a great garden species finding the right location to germinate. There are processes involved here for success. The REAL Green knight has combined these and the planet has provided the seed bed for constructive growth. So, a REAL Green knight must be humble because he may have all the right stuff but the planet has not acquiesced a place of growth.
Humility and acceptance are the key here. A REAL Green knight must remain humble. He will be given powers in leadership and opportunity that should not be used for personal gain. Again, we have the double edge sword we saw above. This is because the conditions of relativity and the realistic enter the equation as wisdom. Wisdom faces choices. A REAL Green knight must take care of his local of people and place so he will have to use his power to protect them. He will have to also be a warrior so he will have to use his powers to defend and preserve. Keeping humility in this situation is difficult.
Acceptance come in as the most vital element. Acceptance of an overall tipping of the planet, web of life, and human civilization into the decline of succession means the REAL Green knight accepts failure and erosion will confront everything he does. His physical and mental will be challenged with destructive change on all levels so it is only by living a wisdom of insecurity that one can constructively grow in destructive decline.
A REAL Green Knight is a green warrior. He is humble and accepts the will of the planet. He adapts to this with his very deepest meaning. The key here is taking your existing higher power and combining the planet’s plan for you. All too often people’s higher power distances them from the planet. REAL green says incorporate nature into your higher power. A REAL Green knight accepts that the destination is death but it is the journey of enlightenment that is the key. He will trade physical assets for spiritual meaning. The spiritual meaning of following the way of the planet will inspire and drive him on and compensate for the inevitable loss. A REAL Green knight has an oversized importance to a local because the knight will protect and enhance a local. It is much like having a livestock guardian dog protecting the herd.
A REAL Green knight will ultimately combine all this into his REAL Green monastery where behavior meets place. Only a few can be a knight but remember a community is diverse so a knight is only a part of a strong local there must also be other components. The knight organizes and protects but he cannot be the only part. Now he can be the lone wolf and the monk which is often the case in this existentially isolated modern world but the key is his monestary is open to community. It is a robust community that is the most REAL Green so a knight will do what he can to prepare the field for the growth of a community.
REAL Green Adaptation 