A Mission

Let's get started on why this blog exists. There is a reason.

This blog is to here to promote our website, www.prudentrver.com. That website is where I talk a great deal about a "prudent" style of living and suggest that people should purchase the products (LEDs for RVs and Boats for the time being) that we offer.

You may wonder why I am pushy on the "prudent" life-style. It comes from the fact that I am a futurist with a background in physics and engineering. Most futurists are optimists, and to some extent I fit that mold, but others (more like me) are realists (and maybe pessimists), trying to look into the future to see what trials and tribulations we face in the near term, and what faces our grandchildren in the long run.

To be honest, I do not hold much hope for the future of our current civilization. I fear that at 6.5 billion bodies, we already exceed the reproductive energy capacity of the entire earth, and at the rate at which fossil fuels are being used, within my lifetime (I expect to live another 25 years to age 95), we will be sucking on the bottom of the fuel tank. The weather will change dramatically, and not the way we want. Food sources will dry up, literally. Pandemics will sweep the world until they cannot find a way to spread. Disasters of a magnitude we have never experienced will happen, and the world will drop into chaos.

I became interested in scenarios of the future many years ago when I started to wonder what would happen if events of the past happened in today's "modern" world. (See www.the79scenario.com) The example I chose to study was what would it be like if today's world experienced a series of earthquakes of the magnitude experienced in 1811 and 1812 in the heartland of the Mississippi Valley. 195 years ago, there were about 5,000 souls living in the affected area; today there are 32 million. It was the worst natural disaster to ever strike the United States, at least in terms of potential damage. Today, it would simply be the worst.; ten times what Katrina did. I wrote a couple of novels telling what it would be like: Memphis 7.9 and Broken River. You can find books these on Amazon.

I recently saw a History Channel episode on Mega-Earthquakes that described what Memphis and St. Louis are looking at (USGS says 10% chance in the next 50 years). I was both pleased and dismayed when they quoted the worst case: 80,000 dead, 500,000 injured, 10,000,000 homeless. Those figure are directly out of my books.

Back to this website. I have done the book tour scene, trying to tell the people of the central US what they are facing and warning them they must do something. Some agreed with me (like CUSEC and CEIR and the MidWest Earthquake Center in Urbana) and are busy trying to do something, but they face a daunting task. I am no longer sure there is enough they can do to make a real difference.

In fact, I have concluded that survival has become a personal thing. Can I survive the calamities that are sure to come? Is there something I can do to ensure success? And is there something of what I have learned that I can share with the rest of humanity, so that others can survive as well? And what are the various kinds of disasterous situations do we face in the future?

Out of those concerns has come has come the development of the Prudent RVer and Prudent Boater website. I see recognize that at least some of today's RVers and Boaters have the survival talents necessary to handle tomorrows trials, and by building on those talents, maybe we can create a group of humanity that will be capable and equipped to handle the future, whatever the challenges may be.

So, our mission as The Prudent RVer is to be far-sighted in our search for the key elements of a lifestyle that is thrifty, wise, and frugal. We are vigilant to real opportunities and wary of choices and habits that threaten our existence, and the existence of the rest of humanity. At our website we share what we find that is prudent.

I am not sure if it can make a difference, but at least it gives me a focus for my thoughts on what to do to help myself. Let me know if it helps you as well. And join the movement to survive the future.

sam