Deep Adaptation + What’s Mine To DO?
Regions: State Wide
Solution Areas: Adaptation & Resilience Climate-justice Mental-health & Mindfulness
Details
Text below from the organization.
What is Adaptation?
We believe that the current focus on climate mitigation – whilst necessary – often neglects the need for urgent adaptation and preparation. Baroness Brown, Head of the Adaptation Committee inside the UK’s Climate Change Committee, recently described Adaptation as “being the Cinderella who never gets to go to the ball”.
“I would like to see us launch a race for resilience. We have a race for zero that’s been launched in association with the COP, where we’re getting businesses and organizations and community groups and local authorities all signing up to say they’re going to get to net zero. I would like to see businesses and local authorities and community groups all signing up to say that we’re going to be prepared for the changes that the climate is going to be bring. We’ve got to be prepared to make sure we live in a successful and resilient country and that we contribute to making the rest of the globe a successful and resilient world.” Deputy Chair of the Committee on Climate Change
Mitigation is about anything we do to ‘turn things around’ so that we achieve our carbon-emissions targets. That’s important, in that there are mitigation strategies that will at least avoid making things worse, or slowing down the worst effects.
Adaptation refers to those things we do to prepare for the conditions that we know are coming, but most people are still in denial about. Good examples are building sea-walls, changing buildings to cope with rising temperatures, food and water security, and re-wilding or permaculture to reduce current soil depletion. This could be called ‘Outer Adaptation’.
What is DEEP Adaptation?
Deep Adaptation is about asking some fundamental and profound questions about who we are, what’s most important and how we choose to live now. It includes psycho-spiritual approaches that deepen our resilience. And starting now to build resilient, adaptable and deeply connected local communities. This could be called ‘Inner Adaptation’.
In 2018 Professor Jem Bendell released an academic paper. He wrote of “deep” adaptation to distinguish conversations based on acceptance of the likelihood or inevitability of near-term societal collapse due to climate change.
You can read Jem Bendell’s paper (2020 update) HERE.
This paper went viral (it is the most downloaded academic paper of all time) and was the launching point for a global community, which you can explore HERE.
What is mine to do?
Here is a list of organisations working on the meta-crisis – including climate and ecological breakdown. It is in alphabetical order. Many of these organisations would welcome your energy and resourcefulness – get involved!
