Apparently my future now depends on making friends with an allotment owner

If climate change continues at this pace we are going to have to learn to change and share what we have in a new way, writes Katy Brand

According to this Facebook post, the main thing we will all really need is access to land with its own natural water supply (AFP via Getty Images)

I was on Facebook recently and a sponsored ad popped up. It contained a list of 10 ways to prepare for life after the fall of capitalism. Now, I know that my phone listens to me, reads all my Google searches and generally makes judgements about what might catch my attention – it is very keen to find me linen vests at the moment, for example – but this was quite spooky.

Because I had actually been thinking about this very subject. And clearly so have a lot of other people as this pop-up had been liked over 30,000 times by the time I saw it. We are all rather more “impending apocalypse aware” than we were 18 months ago, for obvious reasons. The devastating impact of the Covid pandemic, coupled with the approaching disaster that is irreversible climate change, added to widespread anger that we are being played by a very small cabal of international billionaires who don’t pay their taxes, means we have all become more understanding of what we “really need” rather than what we “really want”.

And according to this Facebook post, the main thing we will all really need is access to land with its own natural water supply where we can grow our own food after the natural order collapses, utilities are switched off, and the internet becomes a distant dream or a forgotten nightmare depending on your perspective. It advises basing yourself in a harmonious community of people. It suggests acquiring some carpentry skills. The basic message is that we either learn to work together, or we’ll find ourselves living in a Philip K Dick novel.

Typing “piece of land with own natural water supply” into Rightmove is a sobering experience. Am I going to have to befriend an allotment owner? I have not always found that allotment owners are my natural companions, nor I theirs. But I guess that’s the point. If climate change continues at this pace we are going to have to learn to change and share what we have in a new way, if only to set a good example to our children for whom this is going to be less of a fun Facebook pop-up and more like real life.