How do you propose one plan to live life without a fossil-fuel based economy? Bunker in the woods with 30 years of canned food? I'm not being facetious, just cannot even imagine where one would even start.
I'll be honest with you. I haven't totally figured that out yet. Mostly because there is still too much uncertainty to know exactly what is going to change and when. In broad strokes, though, my plan is to arrange my living situation to reduce my dependency on products I need but cannot produce and cannot acquire locally. I think food/water/shelter is a good place to start. Do you own your own home? Do you have a well you can use if the power goes out, or do you collect rainwater? Do you have gardens and know how to preserve what they produce, or is there a reliable small farm nearby? Without those basics other types of preparations don't make much sense. After that what will make your life comfortable? I like reliable electric power, so I think a solar power system with battery backup is a good idea. I like to stay warm, so I have a wood stove. I think all of these types of things improve my life even if I expected the status quo to remain unchanged.
I know humanity lived without fossil fuel for thousands of years before we found coal, but there were societal systems in place then that supported that type of lifestyle. We weren't all driving cars to big grocery stores filled with 10000 mile products [1]. And a lot more of us were farmers [2]. Hopefully as fossil fuel resources dwindle we can restore some of those older systems, or figure out better ones. But that depends on how fast the oil production declines. And if it takes a while to set up new systems you might need to provide for yourself in the interim. What to provide is up to you. What do you need and what would you not want to live without?
Brace yourself for the op-eds about "learning to live with less" and shaming people about their consumption / prosperity. Not that I am completely opposed (I try hard to reduce, reuse) but it generally rings hollow as a message from the upper class and media who we know will generally not make meaningful lifestyle concessions (but are happy to implore others to do so) and are heavily insulated from resource shortages
I know humanity lived without fossil fuel for thousands of years before we found coal, but there were societal systems in place then that supported that type of lifestyle. We weren't all driving cars to big grocery stores filled with 10000 mile products [1]. And a lot more of us were farmers [2]. Hopefully as fossil fuel resources dwindle we can restore some of those older systems, or figure out better ones. But that depends on how fast the oil production declines. And if it takes a while to set up new systems you might need to provide for yourself in the interim. What to provide is up to you. What do you need and what would you not want to live without?
1. https://cuesa.org/learn/how-far-does-your-food-travel-get-yo...
2. https://www.vox.com/a/explain-food-america