Crazy Town 97. The House Is Quite Literally on Fire: Peter Kalmus on the Climate Emergency Hitting Home

I want to address that comment from someone saying "What can I do when I'm stuck in the wrong place where no one is even talking about this and I don't know how to grow my own food and with a $15/hour job, I can't afford to move." The person doesn't say whether he or she is single, part of a duo, or has a family, but–
Twenty years ago I left a bad marriage with $5000, got a job that paid $24K/year, had it for 15 months, then quit to move back to rural West Virginia where my new partner lived. I spent three years in a downtown apartment, and for two years had a job that paid $20,000 a year. During that time he got himself out of debt and began saving too. We considered living on a sailboat, which he had once; or moving to Chile, or to Vermont–but Vermont was just too expensive. An old friend invited us to join a land trust on the ridge, and that's what we decided to do. We had $30K saved by then, and we built a comfortable, energy-efficient house doing all the work ourselves (and one thing about this area is very little hassle with building inspectors, etc). About the time we moved into the house, my mother died and left me $23K. We spent $9K of that putting in an off-grid solar electric system–got 30% tax breaks from both the feds and the state, which cancelled the tax I would have had to pay on that annuity. I've been growing half our food ever since.
Our income now comes from Social Security and puts us slightly below the poverty line, and we're steadily increasing our savings. This is partly because we're both frugal and had no debt; because the cost of living here is low, because now we need pay no rent or mortgage or electric bill and the property taxes are also low here.
But while this person is moaning about being stuck with no community, I'm moaning because my land trust with four leaseholds has two empty ones and I'm starting to wonder if we'll ever find someone to fill them. One is a well-set up homestead with a mostly furnished house and 16 grid-tied solar panels, and the previous leaseholder is willing to accept $10 for the improvements, which I think is a hell of a deal. If anyone is intrigued, they can find us at the intentional communities website at ic.org, in the Directory, under Hickory Ridge. And while you're there, if you like the idea of community, you'll find hundreds of other places, all over this country and elsewhere.
All that was to address the "can't afford" bit. As for not knowing how to grow your own food, there is a great deal to learn–but first-year gardens are generally quite successful and you can probably find mentors. Even starting a small garden will give you some experience and some tools. You can build on that later. But get started–there may not be much time left