Climate Prepper Bill Green. Source Guardian, Fair Use, Low Resolution Image to Identify the Subject.

Guardian: We Should Consider Prepping to Survive the Climate Apocalypse

Essay by Eric Worrall

Prepper Ben Green thinks the coming climate apocalypse will end the Capitalist system – but if you pay him €3,500 you have a non guaranteed place in his survival compound.

‘Change is coming’: Meet the Englishman prepping for climate apocalypse in an old German barracks

At his remote woodland home, Ben Green is trying to stay positive about a collapse of the food supply

Ben Green doesn’t have to worry that Vladimir Putin might cut off Europe’s gas this winter, fret about a seasonal revival of Covid-19, or panic about a looming global food crisis.

Green weaned himself off gas when he purchased the five-hectare (12-acre) grounds of a derelict East German army barracks three years ago: the previous owner, who used it as an outdoor museum for vintage tanks, had gutted the building of water and gas pipes. Green patched up the roof of the refectory and insulated the windows so that temperatures inside don’t drop below 5C at night. He bathes by pouring a bucket of cold water over his head and cooks on a wood-burning stove.

A 49-year-old Englishman with a greying ginger beard and the word “Vegan!” tattooed on his left upper arm, Green is unaffected by fraying supply chainsbecause he lives almost entirely off the vegetables and fruit he grows on his land. If, as Green hopes, friends give him an oil press for his 50th birthday, he will soon be able to cut out the occasional four-mile cycle to the nearest village for cooking oil.

On those trips he does stock up on tea, coffee and chocolate, but they are luxuries he could dispense with in the case of a systemic breakdown of supply chains. The fact his food miles are still measurable at all is due to the bottomless appetite of Fat Tony, Brunhilde Demagogue and Marilyn Monroe, his three Mangalica pigs.

What we are looking at isn’t the end of humanity but the end of capitalism,” he said, describing climate breakdown as the common denominator behind the various political, food, energy and health crises that have started to converge in recent years. “The collapse is going to happen, and this is the year when people will notice.”

Anyone seriously interested in joining Green in the event of a climate-induced famine can pay €3,500 (£2,950) to be put on a waiting list, though he gives no guarantees that will automatically secure a place. One person has already made the payment.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/06/change-is-coming-meet-the-englishman-prepping-for-climate-apocalypse-in-an-old-german-barracks

There’s nothing wrong with growing your own veg – my backyard veggie garden kept the family going during the short, sharp economic contraction which followed September 11th. Adding a €3,500 end of Capitalism insurance policy is a nice touch.

I wish my current home had a veggie garden like Ben, though I sure hope he had the soil tested.

The risk of soil contamination might be why the land was so cheap. The Soviet Union, including East Germany, didn’t have a good reputation for responsible disposal of toxic waste. Bill’s veggie garden could be contaminated with lead from old batteries or dumped ammunition, or lead from old style leaded fuel.

The survival compound building is likely contaminated with Thallium, which was widely used by the Soviets as a cheap rat and insect poison, long after it was abandoned by the West due to its cumulative human toxicity. In 2004 some Russian soldiers made a credible attempt at the Darwin awards when they found some white powder Thallium rat poison in a tin thrown on an old military dump, and tried to smoke it.

Ben, if you’re feeling any odd aches and pains or digestive upsets, or a persistent tingling in your fingers and toes, and especially if you have lost a little hair recently, see a doctor immediately.

Of course, even worse contamination is possible. I once drove past what looked like an overgrown farm field in Britain, which had several rusty radiation signs hanging off the fence. When I asked the locals what was in the field, they told me that’s where the British Government buried loads of old WW2 Radium gunsights and radioactive glow by night instrument and watch dials.

Radium has a half life of 1600 years, and is very dangerous to humans, because the body mistakes it for Calcium – once absorbed Radium ends up incorporated long term into people’s bones, where it slowly fries the unfortunate victim’s internal organs. I sure hope someone replaces those radiation warning signs, before they rust away completely, and people forget what is buried in that field.

The radioactive field is close to a medium size but rapidly expanding town in the Home Counties. Other than the old rusty radiation signs, there is no indication of a problem. The field looks like any other field, except it looks overgrown and untended.

I guess East Germany isn’t the only country whose government made questionable choices, regarding the safe disposal of toxic waste.

Even if Ben’s veggie field isn’t radioactive or contaminated with deadly poison, starting an outdoor veggie garden is a dubious preparation for a climate apocalypse. Other types of apocalypse, sure, but isn’t climate change supposed to wreck crop yields by creating more extreme weather events? If you believe in that kind of thing, of course.

I wish Ben luck. He seems a fairly harmless chap, and despite his hilarious anti-capitalist insurance business, he mostly seems to try to live by his beliefs – unlike fake green urban extremists who live in the middle of big cities, use all the conveniences of modern life, then block streets and cause misery for people in automobiles.

4.9 17 votes
Article Rating
131 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Tom Halla
August 7, 2022 2:16 pm

A climate breakdown is more likely do do away with socialists, until people forget what the last batch were like. Some notions are as difficult to kill off as the heavy in a horror movie.

H.R.
Reply to  Eric Worrall
August 7, 2022 2:58 pm

Yeah, but… the women of the time really seemed to go for men in tights.
😉

Bill Parsons
Reply to  H.R.
August 7, 2022 3:08 pm

“Little” John had his problems with those.

Dave Fair
Reply to  H.R.
August 7, 2022 3:12 pm

Depends on the size of the codpiece.

Richard Page
Reply to  H.R.
August 8, 2022 12:42 pm

“..the women of the time really seemed to go for men in tights.” Should hope so – if they hadn’t then a large number of people wouldn’t be here today.

MarkW
Reply to  Eric Worrall
August 7, 2022 3:11 pm

At the time of Robin Hood, the rich were the government.

H.R.
Reply to  MarkW
August 7, 2022 3:44 pm

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

HotScot
Reply to  MarkW
August 7, 2022 5:48 pm

Only difference is, the government now become the rich.

Quite how we have allowed government officials to have second jobs and invest in any type of business is quite beyond me.

But we haven’t become slaves to politics, politicians are just the convenient scapegoat, we have become slaves to laws.

We imagine laws protect our rights, but when challenged, the process is the punishment, and the means to resolution is deliberately delayed by the legal process.

How long ago was the Roe Vs Wade decision first passed, and how long has it taken to have it overturned, never mind that the ‘legal’ concept is barely cared about by every western nation except America.

Th straightforward political concept of turning the decision over to democratic states has been persistently delayed by the law, employed by politicians admittedly, but the lawyers are the problem here, politicians merely their stooges.

At almost every point in our lives we are now faced with ‘legal’ challenges or, more pertinently, bureaucracy presented as legal challenges.

The ideological concept of laws to protect people from predators is now a mechanism that creates predators.

Buy a house? You buy what you see. If you haven’t the brains or the ability to check it for termites then it’s your fault, until a lawyer gets involved.

Our governments are infested with lawyers, ostensibly to broker agreements rather than witness violence. What they actually do is share around the misery which foments frustration and violence.

The law is an ass, and governments are built on layers of laws, and those laws ensure the status quo of governments are protected by the very people government utilises to supposedly represent the citizenry.

What we are inclined to forget is that lawyers are our mouthpieces because they can supposedly represent us in a more articulate manner than we can.

What we also tend to forget is that they are our servants. We pay them to do our bidding, not the other way around, as they would have us believe.

I’m an ex cop. I worked with these people daily, and if we imagine they have the least concern for our wellbeing we are seriously deluded.

They convince us that violence is not an option, but violence is frequently the only option. Their violence though, is intellectual rather than physical.

The law convinces us that rather than resorting to physical violence to solve disputes, your neighbour and you should both employ lawyers to represent you in order that your dispute doesn’t descend into violence, because you may be physically unable to physically challenge your neighbour.

How about the legal precedent, then, of employing a boxer of your choice to represent you, in a ring, to decide the rights and wrongs of the situation?

Last man standing wins the debate for his employer. Not an outrageous concept as Jousting was employed to settle disputes in years gone by.

Our entire global medical community abandoned the human race to covid ‘vaccines’. Almost to a man they violated their oath of “First, do no harm”. They have perpetrated violence on humankind, and there is no defence as violence is now a dirty word.

Lawyers have been screwing us all over for centuries on this premise.

BobM
Reply to  HotScot
August 7, 2022 6:32 pm

My doctor says lawyers are the “revenge of the ‘C’ students”.

MacDara Bryan
Reply to  Eric Worrall
August 7, 2022 6:29 pm

Robin hood was stealing from the government. The office of Sherrif of Nottingham was a lucrative tax collection appointment.

Chaswarnertoo
Reply to  Eric Worrall
August 8, 2022 9:10 am

Bad King John was forced into Magna Carta, thé great Hungarian freedom fighter….

Old Man Winter
Reply to  MacDara Bryan
August 7, 2022 8:23 pm

Robin Hood wasn’t even stealing. He was taking back what
the gubmint had illegally taken from him through laws designed to make him a criminal.

Chaswarnertoo
Reply to  MacDara Bryan
August 8, 2022 9:08 am

Shire Reeve.

TonyG
Reply to  Eric Worrall
August 8, 2022 9:00 am

The Robin Hood story has been horribly corrupted.

MarkW
Reply to  TonyG
August 8, 2022 1:55 pm

Re-invented to suit the needs of each generation.

Emily Daniels
Reply to  Eric Worrall
August 11, 2022 10:12 am

The actual story of Robin Hood was that he took the exorbitant tax money from the government and gave it back to the taxpayers. A criminal in the eyes of the government, sure, but a hero to the common folk.

Tom Abbott
August 7, 2022 2:22 pm

From the article: ““What we are looking at isn’t the end of humanity but the end of capitalism,” he said, describing climate breakdown as the common denominator behind the various political, food, energy and health crises that have started to converge in recent years. “The collapse is going to happen, and this is the year when people will notice.”

The common denominator is climate breakdown political policy.

The Idiots running things think CO2 is an evil gas and as a response, they are in the process of destroying our whole western society including the food supply.

It’s Climate Change Policy that’s the problem, not the Climate.

John Raw
Reply to  Tom Abbott
August 7, 2022 3:18 pm

I agree with this comment…..the “cure” is far worse than the “desease”.

H.R.
Reply to  Tom Abbott
August 7, 2022 5:59 pm

From the article: “[…] describing climate breakdown as the common denominator behind the various political, food, energy and health crises that have started to converge in recent years.”


As you say, Tom, it’s climate change policy and not the climate.

But who is behind the climate policies that have created these totally unnecessary and completely avoidable crises?

I wonder if he has ever heard of Maurice Strong, or G. Soros or a Mr. Gates or Klaus Schwab or any of the other GEBs?**

**Globalist Evil Bastards or Government Evil Bastards or both can be one and the same

fretslider
August 7, 2022 2:43 pm

I wonder if griff has signed up?

Tins…. If the climate does break down bang goes his veg patch

LdB
Reply to  fretslider
August 7, 2022 7:27 pm

I thought Ben Green’s nom de plume was Griff 🙂

griff
Reply to  fretslider
August 8, 2022 2:41 am

I certainly planted potatoes this year, just in case…

and the water collectors have come in handy…

This guy needs to consider if there is a collapse half of Saxony or wherever will descend on his compound.

If any of you are worried about societal collapse, for any reason, this is the book for you:

The Five Stages Of Collapse, By Dmitry Orlov – Book Review – Resilience

Redge
Reply to  griff
August 8, 2022 9:33 am

LMAO

The book is about what happens when societies are driven into the abyss by greedy, hard-hearted elites and corrupt and incompetent politicians, and you are blissfully unaware of who the greedy, hard-hearted elites are.

I’ll give you a clue: your favourite colour.

DonM
Reply to  griff
August 8, 2022 10:15 am

Given a true apocalyptic breakdown, there will be no ‘half of Saxony’ descending on the new age hippy compound. One of two things would happen:

Three to eight people would show up, assess the worth of the ‘compound’, kill him & stay for a week until the pigs and other food is gone.

Or,

Three to eight crazies would show up, slaughter him and his pigs just for fun, and move on.

Cosmic
Reply to  griff
August 8, 2022 11:09 am

You are loathsome. Ick.

Zig Zag Wanderer
Reply to  griff
August 9, 2022 12:13 am

I certainly planted potatoes this year, just in case…

We did this when we were young and stupid (but I repeat myself). Easily the best way to waste time and energy for the smallest possible return.

Vuk
August 7, 2022 2:44 pm

Charging electric cars at my local petrol station it’s not for peanuts, £0.55/KWh, for a medium battery power vehicle of 50kWh (that might take you about 200 miles on open road) comes to £27.5, For my 30 years old Volvo 200 miles would cost about double that (£1.799/litre of ordinary unleaded petrol at the same station) for more efficient up to date IC cars most likely much less than double. For a low annual millage with an efficient ICV, considering all other aspects, it doesn’t appear to be worth changing.

Rud Istvan
Reply to  Vuk
August 7, 2022 2:58 pm

Vuk, the hybrid compromise is very good. We drive a MY 2007 Ford hybrid Escape small SUV with AWD and class 1 tow hitch. NiMH traction battery still good after 14 years. Compared to the equivalent Ford V6 from MY 2007, we got the hybrid premium back on day one thru the then tax credit (likely how Ford priced the hybrid). By comparison fuel economy (more MPG with regular when the comparable V6 needed premium) we have already saved over $10k in fuel alone and will likely double that saving in the next few years with Biden regular now over $5/gallon. And for its now age in the US, our hybrid is low milage—now approaching ‘only’ 90k. We mostly use it to commute to our mountain cabin in North Georgia, since we both retired. Previously, it was her around South Florida realtor show car.

Dennis
Reply to  Rud Istvan
August 7, 2022 8:45 pm

At last many in the automotive industry are saying that hybrid technology is more practical than plug-in EV technology. Especially for long distance driving and therefore country people.

Cosmic
Reply to  Dennis
August 8, 2022 11:10 am

YA THINK? good grief.

griff
Reply to  Vuk
August 8, 2022 2:41 am

Petrol went up to £1.98 a litre and beyond recently…

Chaswarnertoo
Reply to  griff
August 8, 2022 9:12 am

300% TAX. It’s 100 rupees a litre in India, about 50p. Ie the actual price.

Andrew Wilkins
Reply to  griff
August 8, 2022 12:43 pm

And that is the fault of green zealotry.

Rud Istvan
August 7, 2022 2:46 pm

He will likely die of vegan malnourishment before toxic ground contamination. Even the mostly vegan India Hindu all consume dairy products (yoghurt, ghee) and many (but not all) consume occasional lamb, chicken, and fish in curries. The traditional Hindu lamb curry is called ‘Rogan Josh’. Uses yoghurt. I make it occasionally. Served over jasmine white rice.

His diet is seriously oil deficient even if he is getting sufficient balanced vegetable protein from Hindu pulses.

Maybe he infrequently sneak butchers one of his three pet pigs. That would solve the dietary fat and protein problems quite nicely. Meat and fat can be preserved thru salting/drying and/or smoking without need for refrigeration. The Plains Indians proved that with buffalo centuries ago. Italians do it today with both pork and beef thru smoked and/or salted/air dried sausage and ham. Carpaccio or prosciutto anyone?

aussiecol
Reply to  Rud Istvan
August 7, 2022 3:16 pm

Always a positive in a negative. Glowing in the dark caused by living in a toxic environment would save lighting expenses.

Dave Fair
Reply to  Rud Istvan
August 7, 2022 3:45 pm

Rud, he certainly doesn’t look healthy. Look at the discoloration around his eyes and lips and the pallor of his skin (Apocalypse Z for him is more likely than a climate apocalypse). Its most likely anemia, which can be caused by: Malnutrition; lack of folic acid and vitamin B12; and chemical poisoning. He should get in the long queue for a British national health service appointment as soon as possible, if he is still eligible and can last that long.

Notanacademic
Reply to  Dave Fair
August 7, 2022 4:27 pm

Your right he looks terrible and he’s using his left arm to hold up his right arm! How weak are vegans? Think I’ll stick to my diet of steaks, chops and veg.

August 7, 2022 2:58 pm

The bloke is an apocalypse-fearing fool. And he ain’t getting my £2950.

Scissor
Reply to  Brent Hargreaves
August 7, 2022 3:11 pm

I will provide a non guaranteed spot for half the price.

Dave Fair
Reply to  Scissor
August 7, 2022 5:08 pm

I’ll top that, Scissor, with free non-guaranteed food, drink and entertainment. Hell, I’ll even throw in 72 nubile virgins (non-guaranteed) for an extra $200 dollars!

Alexy Scherbakoff
Reply to  Dave Fair
August 7, 2022 7:07 pm

Knowing my luck the virgins would be males.

Dennis
Reply to  Alexy Scherbakoff
August 7, 2022 8:46 pm

That would be virgin on the ridiculous.

Mr.
Reply to  Alexy Scherbakoff
August 7, 2022 8:48 pm

And how would you tell?

Alexy Scherbakoff
Reply to  Mr.
August 7, 2022 8:57 pm

When it’s too late.

Mr.
Reply to  Alexy Scherbakoff
August 8, 2022 9:49 am

🙂

Redge
Reply to  Dave Fair
August 7, 2022 10:32 pm

You won’t find 72 virgins in the UK, let alone the nubile type

mikee
Reply to  Brent Hargreaves
August 7, 2022 7:39 pm

A fool is easily parted from his money!

Chris Hanley
August 7, 2022 3:07 pm

Adding a €3,500 end of Capitalism insurance policy is a nice touch.

Participate in the downfall of Capitalism at only €3,500, it’s a bargain.
As for instance George Soros has shown being an anti-capitalist can be very profitable.

Dave Fair
August 7, 2022 3:23 pm

An anti-capitalist investing in and developing apocalypse timeshares. He’s become what he hates.

Rud Istvan
Reply to  Dave Fair
August 7, 2022 3:28 pm

Non-guranteed. Boy, do not try that offer in the US. SEC would have him in a nonVegan prison real fast.

Mr.
Reply to  Eric Worrall
August 7, 2022 8:52 pm

So there were 30,000 Paul Pelosi followers even back then?

Dave Fair
Reply to  Rud Istvan
August 7, 2022 3:49 pm

Rud, woke prisons will give him his Vegan diet, along with B12 shots. Hell, if he wants he can even get transition surgery. Just ask our female admiral who is suffering from male-pattern baldness for tips.

Dave Fair
Reply to  Dave Fair
August 7, 2022 5:34 pm

Excuse me: Its one of USA Today’s Woman of the Year suffering from male-pattern baldness. Plus, Penn State (M. Mann’s State Pen?) nominated someone with testicals for NCAA’s Woman of the Year award.

I’m certainly no biologist (much less a U.S. Supreme Court Justice), but I’ve never met a woman with testicals. And that’s after lots of looking. Of course, grade school children certainly saw many of them at their school-sponsored Drag Queen extravaganzas.

Steve Case
August 7, 2022 3:51 pm

“What we are looking at isn’t the end of humanity but the end of capitalism,” 
____________________________________

“Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that 
about?” – Maurice Strong, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
Link quote is on the last page.

Dave Fair
Reply to  Steve Case
August 7, 2022 4:09 pm

The context for this is Strong rendering a fictitious story he wants to novelize of a WEF meeting in Davos as a cautionary tale about the future. He did say “I probably shouldn’t be saying things like this.”

Who cares, anyway?

Steve Case
Reply to  Dave Fair
August 7, 2022 4:43 pm

Obviously you don’t care what some high priest in the United Nations said, but just for the record here at Watts Up With That, he apparently said it again in 1997. Here’s the LINK and the quote:

If we don’t change, our species will not survive… Frankly, we may get to the point where the only way of saving the world will be for industrial civilization to collapse.

— Maurice Strong,
U.N. Undersecretary General
September 1, 1997 edition of National Review magazine]

Dave Fair
Reply to  Steve Case
August 7, 2022 4:47 pm

Who cares; we know what the UN is.

Strong was a rich guy that could afford to pander to his Soros-like megalomania and wife’s new age dabbling. The UN hates capitalism and, most especially, America. FJB and FUN: Fight to the end!

Dennis
Reply to  Dave Fair
August 7, 2022 8:47 pm

Interestingly Maurice Strong was a UN executive who found ways to create personal wealth.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Dennis
August 8, 2022 2:15 am

oil for food wasnt it?

MarkW
Reply to  ozspeaksup
August 8, 2022 9:22 pm

Which is the primary reason why so many EU politicians did not want the Gulf War to resume.

Garboard
Reply to  Dennis
August 8, 2022 2:55 pm

Like taking million dollar bribes , for instance ?

Dennis
Reply to  Steve Case
August 7, 2022 8:51 pm

Strong was granted asylum in China when the Canadian Environmental Protection Agency was after him for illegally pumping out fresh water from an aquifer under land he owned in Canada to sell for profit.

His cousin was a girlfriend of Chairman Mao Zedong (Little Red Book author).

He died in China, and apparently his plan for climate change hoax politics based end of “capitalism” as the world has known free enterprise was the CCP managed and controlled participation of trusted comrades version.

August 7, 2022 4:14 pm

” … insulated the windows so that temperatures inside don’t drop below 5C at night …”
It seems he doesn’t have skills in thermal analysis. Without heating, the indoor temperature will drop to ambient. I recall a time in central Wales, late ’70s, when a glass of water on the bedside table froze. Reported to be ~ -20°C outside. Our pipes were an early form of polybutylene that swelled, did not burst, not then anyway.

Dave Fair
Reply to  Martin Clark
August 7, 2022 4:56 pm

I’m assuming it is a small area he is actually occupying. It is surprising how little of a heat source will keep small, insulated areas warm. Try a 20′ Winnebago in an Alaskan winter.

PCman999
Reply to  Martin Clark
August 7, 2022 5:01 pm

He probably sleeps with his pigs, and there’s probably also a vast assortment of vermin that’s colonized his home, so that cumulative body heat might explain the discrepancy – or he just neglected to mention the wood stove.

DonM
Reply to  Martin Clark
August 8, 2022 11:13 am

slab on grade buildings won’t drop below freezing inside unless it gets really cold outside.

Olen
August 7, 2022 4:19 pm

He does not look well, perhaps he should see a doctor now. He looks like he would be at home in California.

Scissor
Reply to  Olen
August 7, 2022 4:34 pm

I think I saw him in Mendocino County.

DMacKenzie
August 7, 2022 4:37 pm

A derelict army barracks? Property taxes where I live are based on a little bit for land area, and much more for roof covered or floored area. An army barracks would cost tens of thousands of greenbacks per year….

Dave Fair
Reply to  DMacKenzie
August 7, 2022 5:02 pm

No water plumbing and no gas lines; electrical isn’t mentioned. From reading between the lines, he only fixed the roof over his small living area (“rectory”). It is a gutted, valueless hulk.

Alan
August 7, 2022 4:53 pm

Prepping makes more sense than what the alarmists want to do.

Geoff Sherrington
August 7, 2022 5:19 pm

Oh come off it, Eric.
Your alarmism without proof is starting to rival that of climate Apocalyptics.
Same methods, different whipping boys.
An old sign plus local gossip becomes a radioactive threat?
Did you investigate the quantity of radium? Whether the site had been re-cleaned properly? Whether and why there has been regulatory failure?
From Radium Ra to Lead Pb. The Establishment literature on Pb toxicity is as corrupt as the IPCC science. Sure, it is harmful to fatal at high doses, through mostly known mechanisms. But claims that tiny amounts lower the IQ of babies rest on nothing much more than Appeal to Authority, for there are no known, proven mechanisms. What are the uncertainty bounds for measuring IQ in babies.
These are not my findings, they come from the late Dr Allen Christophers, who was a global leader for decades on the topic of Pb poisoning. Geoff S

Geoff Sherrington
Reply to  Eric Worrall
August 8, 2022 1:16 am

Radioactivity became demonised in the public opinion partly, even largely, because scientists and engineers were so successful in the design and construction of cheap, hand-held measuring devices that were highly sensitive, able to give a click! click! click! noise at levels below the natural background for many common materials.
The public, often without training in science of what the signal meant, were able to become part of the developing social story. This was the way that some people, especially some poorly-educated people, became converts to green thinking and its many wrong ideas.
One outcome is that dangerous levels for radiation are well above what the public thinks. Bodies set up to enforce safety have more work to do when they imagine that their levels of “safe” are not particularly related to safety so much as telling a story to the public that keeps them in work. So, we get silly ideas, not supported by hard science, like the linear no-threshold dose conjecture, whereby the “harm” from radioactivity continues down to the low detection limits of the sensitive instruments. All radiation is deemed dangerous, no matter that people have evolved and lived in relatively large doses from their natural surroundings, apparently with little known harm.
Heavy metals are now being demonised, by similar processes, but thankfully without civilians running round with lead-meters or thallium-meters. Before you know it, we will have a regulatory department for every element in the periodic table, unbalanced sadly by a more wanted, more problematic, practical meter that detects hand-held causes of unwanted pregnancies. Geoff S

James Schrumpf
Reply to  Geoff Sherrington
August 8, 2022 10:13 am

Straight out of college I worked for a while for a state highway administration as a “soil compaction technician,” which involved taking moisture content and density reading of layers of road bed during construction.

I used a Troxler nuclear densimeter, which used a bit of Americium-243 in the end of a probe that was withdrawn into the body of the device when not in use. The process was to drive a steel spike into the road bed some 6″ or so, position the densimeter over the hole and lower the probe into it. Press a few buttons, read the numbers, do some calculations, et voila, moisture content and density values.

I drove a van with big radiation warning trefoils on the sides and wore a film badge, and when I pulled up to the work site people scattered. It was kinda fun.

We had four of them and they were stored in the back of the soil testing lab, a building about 20′ X 30′, where several technicians worked. They had cases, which were never used, they were just lined up against the back wall. This had been going on for years, I suppose, and I had been there about four months when I found the Geiger counter in a drawer.

I dug up some batteries and turned it on, and at its most sensitive setting it clicked occasionally from background radiation. I figured I’d check the lab, so I headed out the office door and over toward the lab, and as I got closer the ticking picked up, until it was fairly chattering when I was standing at the door of the lab.

When I opened the door the thing screamed. The needle flew and pegged itself on the stop, and on the next lower sensitivity setting it was still raging, but the needle only went two-thirds of the way to the peg.

Beat feet back to the office, showed the boss, and he immediately had the densimeters moved to the far back of the warehouse where nobody worked and put them in their cases. Then he made a phone call and the next day someone was there from the NRC who took statements and collected our film badges.

Turned out we were all OK, though I wondered about some of those old-timers in the lab that had been standing next to the things for years. We stuck the densimeters, in their cases, way back in the warehouse, next to the Ark of the Covenant, and used those cases religiously afterwards.

commieBob
Reply to  Geoff Sherrington
August 7, 2022 6:05 pm

What do you do when you can’t trust any information? What you don’t do is bet your life that a supposedly radiation contaminated field isn’t.

There’s wisdom in antifragility.

I do agree though that experts need to be held responsible for the consequences of their bloviation.

We’re in a world where scientists doing good work are punished for not being sufficiently woke. Scientists publishing fraudulent society destroying crap get a free pass.

Defund the universities.

Geoff Sherrington
Reply to  commieBob
August 8, 2022 1:20 am

commieBob,
How many people have ended up dead or in hospital from scenarios like you imagine? Can we not rank the need for action to deal with human threats in a triage type of way? And devote bugger all time to minor, rare episodes knowing that at the present stage of human development and knowledge, we have enough money to deal with bigger problems, while the tiny ones have to go through to the keeper until we all get richer.
Geoff S

commieBob
Reply to  Geoff Sherrington
August 8, 2022 4:06 am

Two thoughts:

1 – If someone told me not to go there ’cause it’s full of radioactivity, I’d at least take a Geiger counter.

2 – How many people die? Consider the Darwin Awards. Most of the time people get away with stupidity but sometimes they don’t.

John Bell
August 7, 2022 5:28 pm

He is in training for what he hopes will happen, the apocalypse! If it really does he won’t last long.

Dave Fair
Reply to  John Bell
August 7, 2022 5:39 pm

At the very least he won’t have his coffee, tea and chocolate treats. And he’d better hope his friends come through with his oil press.

TonyG
Reply to  Dave Fair
August 8, 2022 9:37 am

You notice how he’s relying on other people to provide that for him, rather than getting it himself or trying to make one?

Alistair Crooks
August 7, 2022 5:59 pm

I don’t know what web sites you guys look at but it is no secret on the World Economic Forum’s web site that it is their intention to end capitalism … and move to a whole new “resource based economic system” which will look something like North Korea’s. The whole “build back better” scheme is predicated on the assumption that capitalism ends – and they can start a rebuild of the global economy from scratch. So no one should be surprised by this idea “What we are looking at isn’t the end of humanity but the end of capitalism,” The WEF has been shouting it out for the last twenty years. All you have to do is take your head out of the sand and actually listen to what they are saying! …. and start you prepping – just like this guy suggests!

Alistair Crooks
Reply to  Alistair Crooks
August 7, 2022 6:29 pm

Dont take my word for i, try this that just popped into my inbox this morning …
https://alt-market.us/supply-chain-problems-will-persist-because-the-system-is-being-sabotaged/
Brandon Smith …. Supply Chain Problems Will Persist Because The System Is Being Sabotaged

“As I have noted in the past, the “Great Reset” agenda of the WEF, IMF, the BIS and other globalist organizations requires an extensive destabilization of the existing order. In other words, they need a controlled demolition of certain pillars of the economy. To frighten the public into accepting new collectivist and authoritarian models like the “Shared Economy” (where you will own nothing and like it), they will need a large and semi-chaotic disaster. People would have to be threatened with the loss of supply certainty and they would have to be unsure every day of where they will be able to get the necessities they need when they need them.”

Walter Sobchak
August 7, 2022 6:04 pm

If he is a vegan, why is he raising pigs?

Dennis
Reply to  Eric Worrall
August 7, 2022 8:53 pm

Especially if feral and they catch you.

Old Man Winter
August 7, 2022 6:19 pm

Some things people overlook in a post-apocalyptic world: who’s going to
keep others from stealing your stuff that’s not located in your realm?
How are you going to get there? What’s E-Z in normal times, may be very hard then.

Average people have enough sense to make their own survival stash, even if
you live in an apartment. Survivalists have been around a long time & there’s a lot of info on what to get & how to store it long-term, like wheat & rice.
Research how people live off the grid in Africa, remote islands, etc., noting
ways to generate power & heat & the manual tools/gadgets they use, many of which are now considered antiques that you can see online. There’s so much you can do without having to give someone else $5,000!

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Old Man Winter
August 8, 2022 5:40 am

“Some things people overlook in a post-apocalyptic world: who’s going to
keep others from stealing your stuff that’s not located in your realm?”

Just as it has always been down through history, you will have to gather a group of people together for mutual protection.

A loner won’t stand much of a chance, unless they were completely alone.

Edward Katz
August 7, 2022 6:26 pm

What would anyone expect from environmental/climate reporting from the Guardian which has to be taken with not merely a grain of salt but a heaping tablespoon.

Bob
August 7, 2022 6:34 pm

Just another crackpot in a long line of crackpots.

Philip CM
August 7, 2022 7:44 pm

OMG! I do so hope a great many people fall for this and Mr. Green becomes very wealthy.
I can’t think of a better lesson in green stupid.

Andy H
Reply to  Philip CM
August 8, 2022 5:34 am

It is a bit like asteroid insurance. Buy my £5000 plan and I will guarantee you will be accommodated if the Earth is struck by a 500m+ diameter asteroid.

John the Econ
August 7, 2022 7:50 pm

“Capitalism” is not a “system”. It’s the explanation of natural forces that exist between people and entities as they exchange goods and services for their own self interests. It exists everywhere, even under the most repressive and supposedly non-capitalist regimes. (Ironically, it is under the most repressive regimes where it can be found in its most pure laissez-faire form, otherwise known as the “black market”) When conservatives speak of “capitalism”, what they are really talking about is “freedom”, people living under a paradigm where they can exchange labor and capital easily and without interference or theft from the state, and rule of law protects their right to do so.

Capitalism cannot be created or destroyed. Capitalism can no more suffer a demise or be replaced than can other natural forces like gravity. Every attempt to do so has resulted in mass economic misery, starvation and death. It can’t disappear or be disappeared. Capitalism is not a “system” that can be vanquished. It is the explanation of how people interact in their own self interest.

atticman
Reply to  John the Econ
August 8, 2022 2:08 am

Agreed, John, but I prefer the term “free enterprise”, being very suspicious of “-ism’s”.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  atticman
August 8, 2022 5:44 am

Free markets is also a good term.

Dennis
August 7, 2022 8:42 pm

“Vegan”, I understand that is an ancient tribal word that means incompetent hunter.

Disputin
Reply to  Dennis
August 8, 2022 5:29 am

I think it means “coming from Vega”, a star about forty light years away. Why don’t they go back there?

n.n
August 7, 2022 8:58 pm

The Green blight is spreading, threatening the viability of flora, fauna, and human in its wake. Perhaps they meant acropolis.

Shoki Kaneda
August 7, 2022 10:16 pm

I bet they could buy land in northern Norway real cheap. It will be like Costa Rica in a few years. They should spend every penny they have.

Redge
August 7, 2022 10:29 pm

On those trips he does stock up on tea, coffee and chocolate

Locally grown I would hope

Stan Sexton
August 7, 2022 11:16 pm

I guess he hasn’t read any books on the Great Reset. Capitalism takes over in the form of Fascism – specifically Neo-Feudalism.

Climate believer
August 8, 2022 12:54 am

He ain’t gonna survive shit…

alastair gray
August 8, 2022 12:55 am

unfortunately when the shit hits the fan it is every man, woman and transgender entity for themself and Ben’s first priority will be machine guns to slaughter those who will relieve him of his produce/ On the bright side if he is successful in his defence he can feed the bodies to the pigs

Ed Zuiderwijk
August 8, 2022 1:36 am

’Climate Apocalypse’. Have we finally reached the end of the name list? What could ever be worse than the ‘Climate Apocalypse’? They will be lost for words from now on, while ‘climate apocalypse’ will be met with a shrug of the shoulders and considered as just of one of those things.

Vuk
August 8, 2022 2:14 am

A 49-year-old Englishman with a greying ginger beard and the word “Vegan!” tattooed on his left upper arm
Ben Green is shown in Guardian photo feeding couple of fat pigs, I’m sure not an absolute hypocrite, just making sure he has plenty of home grown protein and carbohydrate for the coming winter.

Matt G
August 8, 2022 2:15 am

“Green patched up the roof of the refectory and insulated the windows so that temperatures inside don’t drop below 5C at night”

“friends give him an oil press for his 50th birthday”

Even mildly cool homes with temperatures from 60 to 65 degrees F can lead to hypothermia in older adults.

Unfortunately in this case Ben Green is likely to get hypothermia somtime during his life in the near future living in these conditions. Cold kills nearly 9 or 10 times more that heat and 40 degrees F is far too cold to sleep in.

These figures in the USA are for people generally living in normal homes and this increases significantly more for the homeless.

comment image

Poverty
“In the UK, 28,354 cases of hypothermia were treated in 2012–13 – an increase of 25% from the previous year. Some cases of hypothermia death, as well as other preventable deaths, happen because poor people cannot easily afford to keep warm. Rising fuel bills have increased the numbers who have difficulty paying for adequate heating in the UK. Some pensioners and disabled people are at risk because they do not work and cannot easily leave their homes.”

There is a reason why humans only lived around the Tropics until society advanced and living in caves like what the greens want most of us to do would lower life expectancy by about 40 years.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/articles/howhaslifeexpectancychangedovertime/2015-09-09

Old Cocky
Reply to  Matt G
August 8, 2022 2:28 pm

Isn’t that what jumpers, wool socks, blankets and doonas are for?

That 60 – 65 degrees F is interesting, because there have been a number of studies (from cold places) which “prove” that the ideal workplace temperature is 15 degrees C.

In north Queensland, jumpers (sweaters) are usually added if it drops below 25 degrees C.
Being somewhat further south, my threshold is around 20.

People seem remarkably capable of acclimatising.

griff
August 8, 2022 2:38 am

8 Best American Survival Guide Magazines 2022 – Defiel

The ‘8 best’ you notice…

Are these guys planning because of climate change?

Tom Abbott
Reply to  griff
August 8, 2022 5:47 am

You didn’t read the magazines?

Redge
Reply to  griff
August 8, 2022 9:34 am

No

Ewin Barnett
August 8, 2022 4:11 am

If there is any apocalypse, it will be one imposed by government policies rather than any change in climate. We already are at the beginning of a monetary apocalypse brought on by the intensely wrong idea that printing money is the same as printing the things that money can buy.

Greg
August 8, 2022 4:23 am

Our system will collapse long before the climate has a chance to change. Climate change hysteria is just one of the tools being used to dismantle it.

Andy H
August 8, 2022 5:47 am

UK food security report:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/united-kingdom-food-security-report-2021

Take into account that this country is rich so we can buy food if we need it, even if prices rise, and I think we will be all right.

Meanwhile, Ben moved into the middle of an economic zone that is trying to drastically reduce agricultural production on ideological grounds. Food security may be more of a problem for him than the average British Asda-going consumer.

Gerry, England
August 8, 2022 7:02 am

Sounds like it was better when it had the tanks to see. Can’t help wondering if i have been there as I did visit a museum in an old DDR barracks but I recall that the buildings were occupied by people living there.

ResourceGuy
August 8, 2022 9:14 am
ResourceGuy
August 8, 2022 9:18 am
Dave
August 8, 2022 9:27 am

My late father has hundreds of pounds of survival rations stored in his house. These have been sitting there since the Y2K scare and are still edible. If any of these climate apocalypsers are serious, I encourage them to contact me and take this stuff off my hands. They may reach me at iminsane.net/paranoia

Bruce Cobb
August 8, 2022 9:42 am

Hey, I’m a Prepper they’re a Prepper
He’s a Prepper she’s a Prepper
Wouldn’t you like to be a Prepper too?

James Schrumpf
August 8, 2022 9:43 am

I love his naiveté in thinking he would just be left alone to tend his garden when the climate catastrophe comes. If you’re going to survivalist, you need to be where there aren’t many other people. I don’t think Germany fits the bill very well.

TonyG
Reply to  James Schrumpf
August 8, 2022 11:17 am

You also shouldn’t advertise where you’re bugging out to…

James Schrumpf
Reply to  TonyG
August 9, 2022 12:13 pm

Definitely. I doubt anyone knew where Burt Gummer, was except for the locals in nearby Perfection.

I have a long time friend that’s always been a desert lover and a bit of a survivalist. Nothing serious, but back when things started to go a bit sideways he suddenly “died of cancer.” None of us who communicated with him ever heard anything about him having cancer, he just suddenly vanished. I never found any obituaries for him in any online sources. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find out he was living out in some RV in the desert.

I haven’t checked the vital records for a death certificate yet, but I just might.

Ben Vorlich
August 8, 2022 9:45 am

No need to give up coffee

How to make “coffee” from acorns (AKA ersatz coffee). No decaf process is necessary – it’s naturally caffeine free. Roasting the “coffee” produces a wonderful aroma. The taste is delicious but difficult to define. Perhaps an approximation is to describe it as something between coffee and chocolate – maybe approximating a caramel flavor.

No need to give up tea
A tisane (pronounced tea-zahn) is an infusion of fragrant herbs, fruit, bark, flowers, or spices that is steeped or simmered in hot water. Tisanes are a popular alternative to traditional tea that is usually caffeine-free.

jeff corbin
August 8, 2022 11:00 am

This is my last comment in WUWT. thanks for 14 years of great scientific info… and awesome debates with Leif et al. I have learned a ton about volcanism, Geology, meteorology, climate science, statistical modeling, how to lie with data and graphs, Space weather, Solar cycles etc. I understand why WUWT is in full political mode….but I am outta here.

I am fully prepared for a catastrophic avalanche of fear mongering dystopic nonsense in all medias. Why pay for medias geared for mass manipulation? I have tons of books, paper, pens, and plenty of friends to write and call on my old ma bell desk top phone that always works. We also have plenty of old format music and (pre-Silent to 2001 films to watch (picked up cheap). Plus we love card and board games. In a couple of months at the age of 67, I will be done with virtual employment. This is when my broadband goes bye bye. My kids will be in college. So we can be sans Roku and all PC’s and smart phones go to the attic. Burner phones for emergencies only. The endless crapola in the media since 2010 has reached a fever pitch…. time to exit. I have way better things to do. I expect the quality of my life to improve greatly. We have collected subscriptions to many different periodicals and there are still a few good news papers to read without being glow faced by the screen. WUWT is one of the few blogs I have kept up with over the past 14 years…. most of died out completely due to twitting and other medias. None of that is worth a dime. Many blogs have returned to paper formatted new letters and periodicals. So there is a small bit of a tech backlash coming because frankly it’s a waste of money for people with more interesting things to do. No one knows anything clearly enough to talk about it without sticking a phone in your face or giving a sound bite or verbal handshake, and customer service is anti-service. Endless rumors of war, famine, pestilence, climate catastrophe, Asteroids, etc….is soul killing… it just sucks the life out of people. Whatever there is to be feared… bring it on! There is nothing that will prevent us from dying.

Old Cocky
Reply to  jeff corbin
August 8, 2022 2:44 pm

Fare thee well.

Lurker Pete
Reply to  jeff corbin
August 9, 2022 12:41 pm

Good luck Jeff, I get where you’re comming from, I really do, I ditched the TV, social media, smart phones, and most news online years ago, but I couldn’t disconnect completely – it’s the biggest library in the world with free access, and I love learning new stuff. Maybe one day, you have 10 yrs on me, so time will tell. All the best.

Cosmic
August 8, 2022 11:03 am

hahahaha! You go ‘girl’ or whatever you are!

%d bloggers like this:
Verified by MonsterInsights