Call this the time for learning about international supply chains-- and reducing our dependence on them. Call this the Time for Differentiating between necessities and luxuries. Plant edible landscapes, compost kitchen scraps, mend clothes, make soup, walk, share rides, host monthly neighborhood potlucks. Trade kitchen table remedies for all manner of ailments. Make peace between your ears and build conflict resolution skills. Protect forests. Aim to live within your watershed's offerings of food, water and fuel. (The U.S. has six main watersheds and 2100 smaller ones.) Educate yourself as if life depends on nature.
As much as possible, avoid A.I.
This is NOT the time to upgrade the power grid, upgrade telecom infrastructure, build data centers, install solar PVs or battery storage or wind turbines anywhere. (If you question this-- good! And before you buy anything, track its supply chains.) It's not time to buy a new car, a new computer or a new smartphone. No electronics for children at least until reading, writing and math are mastered on paper.
On May 8th, Mark Shryock described what's needed for oil to flow again. First, Shryock explained, "Shipping lanes must be cleared of mines. Maritime insurance companies must be convinced the strait is safe, and Lloyd's of London will likely maintain war risk premiums for months after any peace deal. Ships must be repositioned. Production that was shut in must be restarted, a process that the post-COVID recovery showed can take up to two years, with permanent damage to some reservoirs if wells were not properly mothballed. Industry estimates put the repair timeline at up to five years. Critical equipment like gas turbines has OEM backlogs of two to four years. The total Gulf repair bill is estimated between $25 and $58 billion."
Then, Shryock continued, "It takes roughly 40 days for a Very Large Crude Carrier to travel from the Persian Gulf to the U.S. Gulf Coast. Once crude arrives at a refinery, it enters a multi-week refining process before it becomes usable fuel. Then, the refined gasoline has to be moved from coastal refineries to inland distribution points, which takes another 10 to 14 days by pipeline and truck"roughly 12 to 16 weeks from strait to pump. The physical reality of moving oil across oceans, refining it, and distributing it to 150,000 gas stations cannot be compressed. Currie confirmed this on Bloomberg: 'You're talking three-plus months to even start to get even a resemblance of this stuff beginning to flow.' And that three months is just the beginning. The full timeline to restored flow is over a year."
Shryock expects empty shelves in July. He suggests buying as many non-perishables (canned foods, salt, cooking oil, dried rice, beans, toilet paper, soap) as you can afford. Since municipal water depends on fuel, fill jugs with water. Know your nearest natural water source.
On May 26th, Unshadowed responded to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization warning about an impending food crisis-- and its plans toward technocratic takeover of food production. Unshadowed breaks down the options: go along with centralized food production with genetically modified seeds-- or grow food in your backyard and/or sprouts or herbs on windowsills.
Communicate with neighbors about what you need and what you have to share. Let's learn from and support people who've survived on minimal, unpredictable income.
Brandon Marc Finn documents the human costs of global supply chains. Like weaponry, solar PVs and industrial wind turbines, mobile phones, laptops, desktops, vehicles"all start with mining.
New Mexican Elaine Cimino writes about America's Great Water Collapse: The Ogallala and the Cost of Corporate Greed. The Ogallala Aquifer-- the vast underground reservoir that stretches from South Dakota to Texas-- is drying up"over a mix of water and oil.
A.I. and DATA CENTERS
Menomonie, Wisconsin has defeated a giant data center; and organizers now offer a toolkit for other communities. As of October, 2025, the U.S. had about 3,000 new data centers being built or planned nationwide. Data centers bring few permanent jobs and can drain municipal water resources and wells, drive up electric bills, rob cities of tax revenues, and cause damaging noise, light and air pollution.
Reinette Senum and Erin Brockovitch on data centers.
The Institute for Local Self-Resiliance has produced a series, "The Data Centers are Coming." Here's Episode 1.
What 370,000 College Essays Tell Us about A.I.'s Effects on Creativity.
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