Project C

The latest climate research has put the planet on track for 2-3C of global warming by 2050. The world is already starting to cross climate tipping points. Cities are running out of water, with some planning evacuations by the end of the year. Everywhere we look, reality screams at us to get ready for a future that's far different from the one we imagined for ourselves. We're doing the best we can.

Climate scientists like David Suzuki have told us to start thinking about "units of survival," because the collapse has begun.

I've spent the last several years digging into the gritty details of prepping and survival, asking questions that even many preppers don't want to think about. What if a disaster hits, and you have nowhere to bug out? Instead of stockpiling prescription medications, is there any way to produce any of them locally? How would you survive a heat wave with no reliable electricity at all? How do you start growing food to supplement your groceries in the suburbs, with poor soil quality? How do you know when water is safe to drink? How do you protect your home from threats? Is there any way to predict the weather without the Weather Channel, and how reliable is it?

Most importantly, what can you reasonably expect of yourself if you're also working jobs and taking care of children or vulnerable relatives? This newsletter has already answered many of these questions, but I want to go deeper.

I'm not sure about the title yet. For now, I'm calling it Project C. The C stands for Cassandra, the prophet nobody listened to.

Maybe you just want to know what's possible. Maybe you want a guide for yourself. If you're like me, maybe you want something you can give your children, a manual for surviving a future that you can barely imagine.

That's what I want, more than anything.

So I'm writing it.

A print book?

The best survival book is one that doesn't need electricity.

This part matters a lot. Internet outages are getting worse and more frequent. Human error is becoming more common. Artificial intelligence is taxing grids and support infrastructure. There's going to come a time when we can't look up the information we need or order things online, not reliably. Meanwhile, it's expensive and time-consuming to collect all the books you'd need in a survival library.

I've tried...

Who is this book for?

It's for us. It's for our kids, maybe even our grandkids.

My goal is to give the world one thick, comprehensive reference guide that covers the essentials of prepping and survival, not just on an ideal rural homestead, but in the suburbs or a metro area. I want it to be honest. I don't want to offer survivalist fantasies. I don't want to pretend you'll start magically growing all your own food by next spring. I want to offer realistic assessments of what's feasible and what's not.

I'm approaching this project as an academic and a journalist. I'm taking a rigorous, methodical approach that listens to science and medicine first. I'm going to address things like budget constraints. I'm going to show respect for readers who probably didn't grow up with a ton of opportunities to learn from elders.

I'm going to focus on the kinds of problems we'll encounter in the early collapse, like fixing toilets and showers yourself or refurbishing a car battery.

This book will strive for brevity.

I'm not going to pad it with lectures. I'm not going to spend 50 pages convincing you the climate crisis is real or explaining the science behind tornadoes. You already know all that. I'm going to pose direct questions and then answer them. I'm going to provide detailed instructions and lists, and that's it. You're going to be rereading this book during emergencies, and I'm going to keep that in mind.

No fluff.

Details

I'm planning for a book length of 300-400 pages. I'm aiming to finish the project by December 2026, and to have it listed on sites like Lulu by early 2027. I'll even make it available on Amazon, because practicality trumps idealism at this point. I'll be recruiting a few volunteers to help with research, and I'll be posting sections of the book online as we go along with regular progress reports.

I'm planning to sell the book at cost. In other words, I'm not trying to get rich off royalties. These days, printing costs make books expensive enough. However, giving up royalties means I'm going to need support.

Let's make it happen

You can help launch this project with one-time support. You can chip in even if you're already subscribed. It would be great to get a few hundred people on board, or even a thousand. Let's make this happen.