Release the Quacken! snow is so deep and struggling I don't mind the cold
lose a little bit of mobility climate change insurance buy land elsewhere in
case global warming makes their homes uninhabitable some millenials have a
plan B investing in places like the Catskills Oregon and Vermont the New
York Times is running this trend story about Millennials in their response to
climate change I'm not one who's likely to put stock in New York Times trend
pieces another millennial trend piece why I mean they've covered everything
from the rise of the man bun to people sleeping with way too many pillows to
all sorts of different ways to style your short and curlies so take it for
what it's worth as a New York Times trend piece so the article had these
profiles about you know 20 and 30-somethings who are buying land
outside of the metropolitan area that they live and setting up sort of a
second residence where they plan to be self-sustainable and where they can grow
their own food my first reaction was like god why do people have to do what i
want to do so they essentially have an escape hatch for when the the problems
created by climate change get to be too much for the area that they're living in
mr. douse key 33 lives in Greenwich Connecticut but he can envision a time
when his home there might be besieged by extreme weather and rising sea levels
will I need it in ten years from now or 30 years he said I don't know but if his
part of Greenwich is ever in jeopardy he added I'll have a safe
space for my wife Allison in me as recently as two years ago we owned land
in Washington DC we had a row house you know very very low very close to the
Anacostia River and you know I will admit climate change or the long-term
effects of climate change did create a certain sense of alarm for me I wouldn't
say that the reason we moved up to our farm here in Vermont was driven by
climate change it wasn't even in like the top five considerations by any means
but that said as we were weighing different places in the country to live
like so for example we considered Virginia as a place to settle or rural
Maryland the idea that Vermont was a northern cooler climate with more
rainfall and less exposure to the coast might have been somewhat attractive and
there's a lot of things that we have done or that we plan to do around our
farm to make ourselves much more self-sustaining whether it's growing our
own food with the orchard that we're building or coming up with a long term
plan for how we generate and store and consume energy the projections of what
climate change will mean over the next 30 40 60 years that has absolutely been
part of my consideration set for all the plans that we've had and for all the
activities that we have going on here now I'm curious to hear what you guys
think about all this and so I will leave a link to the story down below in the
description of this video definitely tell me what you're thinking in the
comments I read all these comments and I'm very curious to get the reaction of
all of you out there in YouTube land dude why are you talking about climate
change when you're surrounded by snow the new york times trend piece did give
me a certain sense of trepidation and I had three immediate thoughts and I
actually wanted to just take a minute and share those with you guys so thought
number one is for all the people that were profiled in the story or other
people who are like that out in the world and I met plenty of them myself
including a lot of my friends people who say wow it would be really smart to get
far away from society and grow your own food and be completely self-sufficient
well let me just tell you it is easy and if this is a plan
that you're seriously considering don't underestimate the amount of knowledge
you need the amount of capital you're gonna need the amount of work that it
actually takes all of those things are are real challenges that we face
personally here as we work to get started and so you know don't just look
at you know some vlogger on YouTube or some awesome Instagram account or some
weird survivalist infographic that you found on Pinterest and say oh this is
gonna be so easy it's not easy and if you really are committed to this idea of
growing your own food and being self-sufficient it becomes a massive
massive massive lifestyle shift so the second reaction I had is for all the
people who are considering to do this don't neglect the importance of your
community and you know they actually interviewed a scientist in the New York
Times piece to their credit and he said this very well
Bruce Riordan and program director for the climate readiness Institute at the
University of California Berkeley caution that it isn't realistic to
expect to live in a bubble sure you can grow your own vegetables but what about
wheat and grains he said and what happens when you need medical attention
a better strategy Mr. Riordan suggestion would be to find a community that is
intelligently preparing for whatever climate change may bring he equated this
situation to what California has done about earthquakes they can't be avoided
but we can build safer buildings get better at predicting them and establish
systems to care for vulnerable populations when they occur look when
you're trying to survive and you're trying to sustain yourself on a
homestead you're not in Ireland you're gonna need to have friends you're gonna
need to have people that help you whether it's harvesting food or you know
butchering animals or building a structure having your friends and having
people in your community that you can rely on and partner with and share and
work together with it's so important so if you are out there planning for this
dystopian climate change society don't neglect the importance of your community
don't neglect the importance of being a part of resilient community don't
neglect the importance of being a part of something bigger than you and that
means not just having people that you can draw on for help
but also being there and being a available to others and making sure that
you can be a support and help to people out there particularly those people in
your community then I guess my third reaction is is very specific to well
what's next so here I am a guy who bought land in ordered Vermont one of
those places that he is considered to be one of the best places to live in 2100
and I'm trying to set up my own homestead and I'm trying to get a farm
business going and so I wonder what's next so if I just for a moment assume
that the the New York Times piece is accurate and that this is truly an
emerging trend what happens next when all of these other people start moving
up here all of these people make a rush to to lead a life that's much more
protected against the changes of climate change I got to really think about what
that's going to mean both in terms of what sort of challenges that does that
create what sort of opportunities does that create but if this is true and
that's a massive massive if but if this is true this could be a significant
trend in development I don't know I just I guess I find that type of stuff
interesting yeah if you're interested in learning about what we're doing here at
Gould Shaw farm be sure to check out one of our other videos and see how we are
going through the process of starting a farm here in Vermont or you can just
subscribe and I will see you guys in the next video thank you