Deep Adaptation Depression

I have just finished reading Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy, an academic paper by Professor Jem Bendell that doesn’t pull any punches. It is really worth reading, but make sure you have some time to mull it over after. Even with all the reading I do on the climate crisis, this paper made me sad.

This isn’t a paper trying to prove the climate crisis, instead it looks at how we are facing the inevitable collapse of our societies as we know them, and how we’re in denial. Instead of facing what’s coming head on, we are protecting ourselves, trying to think positively and masking the coming chaos with hope that somehow we can fix things in some kind of vague way in the future. Professor Bendell argues that we should be preparing for what’s to come by focusing on

• Resilience: not just physical adaptation to climate change, but psychological as well. How can we change and grow as people and groups in the face of societal collapse?

• Relinquishment: What do we need to give up to stop making things worse? This could include physical things such as moving inland from the coast, or behaviours such as letting go of expectations of what we can consume.

• Restoration: rediscovering approaches to life that have been eroded over time. Things like re-wilding land and changing our diet so it matches the seasons again.

There is so much more in the paper so I urge you to read it, but make sure you have time and space to process. I’m not sure breaking down into tears at the office is the best way to process this! I know I’m going to pick myself up, maybe after a cup of tea (tea! what will happen if I can’t get tea?), and move forward.