Deep Adaptation
“Connecting people across all areas of life to foster mutual support and cooperation, as we anticipate, observe, and live through social disruption and collapse.”
Jem Bendell
Facing reality honestly
The origins of the Deep Adaptation movement can be traced back to a paper written by Professor Jem Bendell in 2018. The essay explores the personal and collective qualities that can help people prepare for social disruption and collapse, and learn how to live with the process as it unfolds.
At the same time, it does not assume that our current economic, social, and political systems are sufficiently resilient to adapt to the rapid changes ahead, or to survive in their existing form.
Radical change
When we speak of societal breakdown or collapse, we are referring to a profound and far-reaching transformation of our current living conditions. Those who see this process as so likely as to be effectively inevitable – or already under way – use the term Deep Adaptation to describe the search for meaningful responses.
Collapse and adaptation
Of course, we do not know exactly what will happen, when, or how. What has become clear, however, is that changes to the living world and the climate are reaching a scale that will make it impossible to continue our way of life as we have known it, and may even lead to systemic collapse.
Deep Adaptation offers one way of making sense of this extraordinarily complex situation. It can help people reassess their lives and rediscover what truly matters, even as the societies around them begin to unravel under the weight of their own crises.
Deep Adaptation has two dimensions
Inner adaptation:
Exploring the emotional and psychological consequences of living in a world shaped by lasting damage to the social fabric – or by the complete breakdown of societal systems.
Outer adaptation:
Developing practical measures that make it possible to sustain a liveable life both before societal collapse and in its aftermath.
Inner strength
Many people need time to process their feelings about what lies ahead before they feel strong enough to turn outward, seeking and finding a role for themselves in preparation and adaptation.
Others turn inward under the weight of their grief, learning to be honest with themselves and to trust their own emotions. In doing so, they may quietly encourage others to do the same.
A message of calmness
It is time to consider the possibility that we may already be too late to prevent a planet-wide environmental catastrophe, and that it will unfold, with all its consequences, within the lifetimes of people alive today. As this realisation spreads across societies and areas of life, anxiety and fear naturally begin to rise.
As the effects of climate chaos intensify, panic can drive extreme responses. The purpose of Deep Adaptation is to help cultivate compassionate, grounded responses to our predicament, reducing the suffering ahead and, perhaps, preserving something of our societies and the living world we depend on.
Shared growth
This forum is a space designed to support people – both online and in person – from all walks of life as they find one another in the process of preparation, fostering mutual support, cooperation, and shared growth.
It offers a place to seek appropriate answers to the why (how to sustain a more liveable life) and the how (with purpose, joy, courage, and compassion) regardless of what the future may hold.
“Preparation for adaptation must begin immediately, at both organisational and individual levels. This remains true even though its essential necessity is still recognised by very few today.”
Jem Bendell