The Russian invasion and bombardment of Ukraine is having global consequences regarding food security, inflation and supply change shortages.
What can people do?
Dr. John House said he fears climate change will continue to take a back seat to other problems, such as war in Ukraine, so long as those other problems are more immediate and tangible.
“That’s the really unfortunate aspect of our governance: the truly big problems that take a united, global, long-term approach to solve, are not rewarded in the short term,” House said. “Politicians in our country are elected every two to six years. It’s very hard for a politician to address an overarching problem like the climate that requires huge, painful sacrifice on the part of the general public, when they have to worry about re-election every year or two. Obviously, I am not confident that we will enact any mitigating measures that will make a difference.”
Resident Faith Shah recommends a movement called Deep Adaptation, an international social movement designed to prepare and respond to extreme weather events and other effects of climate change that will increasingly disrupt food, water, shelter, power, and social and governmental systems.
“The whole idea is to get together in self-reliance groupings to manage the collapse that is happening,” Shah said. “This whole thing with Russia and Ukraine is affecting the entire world. Ukraine is the number one producer of sunflower seeds and sunflower oil, and a major producer of wheat. It is naïve to think the entire economy of Ukraine is going to collapse and it isn’t going to affect availability of food.”
Shortages are happening. For example, Natural Grocers in Fayetteville is rationing seeds, walnuts, and other items, and asking people not to take more than they need.
“I see that the world is a smaller and smaller place and we are all connected,” Shah said. “I also believe the Russian invasion of Ukraine is climate related. Russia is rushing in for the considerable resources that Ukraine has.”
As things are shifting and changing, what can people do to prepare? Shah sees that this is going to require more people to grow their own food and join with other people to have a support system. Shah and her husband, Mike, have installed numerous solar panels and produce more electricity that goes into the grid than they use. They recently took their well off the electric power grid; it is now powered by solar energy. They are also taking a portion of their dwelling off grid. They spend hours daily working outside and have expanded their gardens.
Shah is concerned about greenwashing by the gas and oil companies. While those companies put out commercials about all they are doing to promote alternative energy and energy conservation, in fact the oil and gas companies are producing more greenhouse gases linked to the warming climate than ever.
She sees a lot of new homes are being built that aren’t oriented toward the sun for passive solar gain, don’t have solar panels, fail to have simple systems to capture rainwater, and are often far larger than necessary.
“So many people are acting like none of the climate catastrophe is happening, that we aren’t seeing the worst drought seen in the West and the Southwest in 1,200 years, that we aren’t having bigger and more devastating wildfires,” Shah said. “People are living their lives as if nothing is happening. Maybe that is the healthier way to go. It is scary how all of this can be happening around us and many people don’t want to know.”
For the Shahs, doing what they can on their homestead including growing food and planting native plants that are good for wildlife are empowering.
Mike Shah says the oil companies are so grateful to the war in Ukraine because they are going to be able to drill more.
“The loss of Russian oil is going to push climate change action to the backseat,” Shah said. “We are going to pull back up oil production every possible way that we can. Public utilities haven’t done anything near what they should for alternative energy production. Solar power equipment we are buying from China could be produced in the U.S. creating jobs and making money for the utility companies.”