In Europe we're being told to prepare a World War lll "survival kit". In Australia? Crickets.
Plus, some "I'm definitely not a prepper" preparatory tips
The European Commission has just told its 450 million residents to assemble a 72-hour survival kit. The kit should include matches, three days worth of food and water, a torch, a Swiss army knife, and card games (cute) etc, in preparation for the “challenges that cannot be ignored”, namely war, natural disaster, pandemics and civil unrest. In the coming weeks, France will be distributing a 20-page booklet detailing 63 measures to take, including information that encourages its citizens to join defence initiatives like the reserve forces, and reminders to seal doors and windows 🫤 in the event of nuclear fallout
I’ve found it all quite surreal. I stay very abreast of politics in Europe where I now live (and geopolitics broadly), as well as Australian politics and news. And, perhaps more importantly, each territory’s reaction to what’s going on. I can’t help but compare the two.
In France, where I’m now based, everyday people are alive to, and discuss, both local and global politics. They protest. They have opinions on the news. They are also aware of what is called “collapsologie”. I meet young people at bars who are well-versed in the concepts. The number one best-selling book two summers back was energy futurist Jean-Marc Jancovici’s: World Without End, all about systems collapse. “It’s what everyone was reading on the beach,” a guy I went on a date with told me.
Meanwhile, in Australia, where I’m currently visiting (and doing various meet-ups and events), there’s a Federal election on May 3. I see little evidence of such awareness, let alone preparedness. Apart from a few friends I know specifically through activism, no one in my orbit is posting about the election on their social feeds, nor the current geopolitical situation. Let alone collapse. Until the latest round of tariff announcements, neither party leader had substantially commented on the ramifications of Trump’s attacks on world order and what their policies were in response.
Community question:
What about where you live…what are you seeing? There are readers here from over 100 countries - what’s going on for you in terms of leadership and general discussion about collapse themes?
The Guardian’s Full Story podcast picked up on this concern (in relation to Australia) in a recent episode in which they suggest the country is in denial of geopolitics:
The Australia Institute’s
discusses the same on this 7am podcast1:Which reminds me (for Australian audiences):
Amy and I are doing a Substack Live just after Easter, ahead of the election. I’ll share more information shortly. But feel free to start sending through your suggested questions…
It could be argued that Australia is a long way from the brewing military conflict in Europe, and even Taiwan, so the apathy is relative. But I hope this is not revelatory to anyone here - if/when there is a World War lll, it will likely be nuclear. And nukes and nuclear winters spare no one. Plus, any “lesser” geopolitical flutterings, including the erosion disbandment of democracy in the nations it trades with, will have massive implications for Australia and its myopic obsession with the cost of living2.
Obviously in the lead-up to an election, political leaders are disinclined to talk “long term” issues (outside of their political term) or issues they, ah-hem, don’t have answers for (or have sufficient knowledge of). But in Europe they manage to. The difference, I feel, is that over here, once again, voters - everyday people - are engaged. So leaders respond.
Again, chime in with our perspective in the comments.
The subject has also prompted me to think through other “survival” or emergency plans.
A bunch of people in my orbit are doing the same. I have a friend with a trans partner and they are sorting out legal documents to protect them should the draconian measures emerging in the States reach farther afield in coming years. Others who are travelling to the States are getting a burner phone and leaving their other one, brimful of anti-Trump messaging, at home. I’m also seeing a lot of social media posts with tips for how to manage this properly. It’s worth knowing that border police can search all your electronics without a warrant.
It occurred to me the other day that, should it be his unhinged whim, Elon might shut down Starlink in territories that rise up against techno-feudalism (or other fascist forces). Or a space war (which I cover here) might break out that would destroy the satellites, shutting down internet and phone system en masse. In which case we’d be totally defenceless - no access to money, no sat-nav nor Google maps for navigating our way to a safe place, no phone nor email for making plans if one hasn’t been made already, no chat GPT to ask , “How do I light a fire?”.
A bunch of us here in Paris are buying old-school maps and arranging to convene at friends’ houses on the outskirts of the city. My ex, who lives 800km away, has agreed to come and get me; the “go” signal is the internet and phones going down.
I’m not a doomist and I have repeatedly said I will remain in community rather than “prep” and isolate should “shit go down”, but I’m aware we could be thrust into a rapid “simplification” event and in such an instance I would want to be with people who have the skills to cope with this, and to support others too. I think, as Europe’s leaders are showing, now is the time to think through and talk about these considerations.
Below are a few things I’ve thought about, please add your thoughts in the comments. You might also want to check out this post from earlier this week:
We will need to write down a lot of things - phone numbers, addresses, instructions for things (like how to light a fire). I’m practicing remembering things - codes and phone numbers - to practice using that part of my brain.
Maps are a good idea. And being able to read one. Countless studies show our tech dependence has seen our capacity for remembering things like addresses and numbers, and to navigate spatially, decline dramatically. They are use it or lose it aptitudes. We need to start using them again, fast.
Kids need to go to Scouts. Adults need to start mucking around with basic life (we don’t need to use the word “survival”) skills, like how to mend things, how to change a tyre and plant things, how to camp out, how to collect water.
We need to meet our neighbours. And maybe talk about this stuff with them. And cross-reference what skills we each have. And ascertain where there might be gaps in knowledge.
I’m starting to have conversations with my family about what, where and how we want to go about things in a longterm kinda way.
When I was a kid, Mum and Dad put all our birth certificates, photo albums and Dad’s record collection (?) in crates by the front door during bush fire season. We probably need to have a similar plan.
Any other considerations you’re thinking through?
I don’t feel that discussing this is alarmist. I appreciate anyone, particularly in Australia, who has not been exposed to leadership in this reality might disagree. But I’d argue most of the world now is exposed to some kind of climate risk, bare minimum. And sorting this kind of stuff out, and learning the “life skills”, are not going to hurt. They’ll get the kids off the devices to start…
Sarah x
PS If you want information on survival kits, my friend Jenni prepared a spread sheet 😆 using these links here, here, here and here.
Obviously The Guardian and Schwartz Media are covering the geopolitical collapse issue, but they appear to be outliers.
Which is not to be dismissive of people in real crisis in Australia. I take issue with it being the only crisis being discussed, and it being discussed in isolation from everything else.
I live in the US and not only are people light years away from recognizing collapse, there is a good portion still denying the climate crisis and a large portion still supporting Trump. The narcissism here is inherent to the American narrative and culture. To believe in collapse would require the humility to note ones fallibility.
I have been an apocaloptimist for the past few decades and as my children have grown (9 and 11 now) navigating the in-betweeness is challenging. That space between tending to the now and dreaming and crafting the next, between keeping the lights on and lighting the path forward. It feels like being asked to survive the end of the world as we know it… while still making school lunches and answering emails. And part of this work is naming, as you do Sarah, that we are already in collapse. Of certainty, of modernity, of the current paradigm in many ways. And that’s exhausting. So we hold space not just for action, but for lament. For quiet witnessing of what’s hard.
And somehow, in that honesty, new energy arises.
It is crickets here in Aus more broadly. The tyranny of distance, the "she'll be right" attitude, election cycle fluff... "oh the footy". But the quiet conversations acknowledging these realities are happening when we question, listen, and engage with care. I know there is certainly more focus and momentum on crafting community resilience in rural and regional areas as climate and ecological risks are more prescient.
I live on Bidjigal and Gweagal clan lands in urban Sydney and it's "consumer as usual" on the surface. Much more brewing and being seeded in the cracks though. Slower contagion through positive deviance.