Relocalisation is survival

Are you ready for a disaster? The information has gone into homes in New Zealand, but is it the kind of readiness for a disaster that is preparing us for climate change?
We've all enjoyed preserved fruits, the mainstay of seasonal abundance, bottled for out-of-season enjoyment.
The other day I walked into the supermarket and noticed peaches in glass jars. On closer inspection I noticed grandmother, or a doting auntie did not preserve them in rural New Zealand.
The peaches were from China.
Increasingly more products for consumer consumption are produced in China. Garlic is another. Do we need their bottled peaches? Who is monitoring the quality and safety of these products? A Chinese toy manufacturer committed suicide because of the Martell recall where paint on children's' toys was found to contain lead.
China's increased productivity to satisfy world-trade demands, and its growing population, along with India and America, are the main source of emissions.
So, what does readiness for a disaster have to do with importation of foodstuffs and consumer items? What is the connection to climate change?
Relocalisation. It is where communities need to be growing their own food locally in readiness for the accelerating climate change; and for governments to secure energy and food supplies.
It's about survival; not as we know it, and not what we are prepared for.
Every day I receive emails from within New Zealand, from America to Tokyo, with new information about climate change. But climate change doesn't make the headline news; it's just another news snippet.
In his book, The Weather Makers, Tim Flannery, explains to those who want to understand the global heating process, the serious destabilising of the world's climate. He explains the three main 'tipping points' 'that scientists are aware of for Earth's climate: a slowing or collapse of the Gulf Stream; the demise of the Amazon rainforests; and the release of gas hydrates from the sea floor. He said there was some geological evidence for all having happened in Earth's history. "Given the current rate and direction of change, one, two or perhaps all three may take place this century," Flannery said.?He goes on to explain that a climate "tipping point" is a point beyond which it will be very difficult if not impossible to prevent catastrophic climate change - truly apocalyptic climate change, and we could be seeing one unfolding right now. That is how serious the climate crisis is. And that is why on September 4, the day Congress returns to Washington DC, a Climate Emergency Fast will be launched, which will see people go without food for weeks.
The reason is that food will become a scarce commodity because of the climate destabilisation, and this is why people I know are planning how to survive, not if, but when.
Severe drought is returning to the Amazon for a second successive year, and new research suggests that one further dry year beyond that could tip the whole vast forest into a cycle of destruction. The wet Amazon Basin would turn to dry savannah at best, desert at worst. This would cause much of the world to become hotter and drier. In the long term, it could send global warming out of control, eventually making the world uninhabitable.
People are saying we should be fighting for climate change, not wars for oil.