Radical Adaptation

“We are asked by our evolutionary predicament to become better humans—with better, more co-creative conversations, relationships and projects.”

We are at a moment in time when more and more people are beginning to panic over what seems to be impending civilisational apocalypse. David Wallace-Wells’s book, The Uninhabitable Earth unpacks the horrific implications of climate change. Greta Thunberg, the Sunrise Movement and Extinction Rebellion are catalysing an enormous international climate-aware movement that is making Democratic candidates for the US presidency speak of existential risk. Society is slowly recognising that human civilisation won’t sustain as it has been.

An influential paper by a British professor of sustainable business named Jem Bendell called “Deep Adaptation” has gone viral this year. In it he says that he has lost hope that we can avert “near-term societal collapse.” He calls it “inevitable” and suggests instead that we adapt, not just to rising sea levels or warmer temperatures, but that we prepare for “civil unrest, lawlessness and a breakdown in normal life.”

So let’s unpack why Jem Bendell’s paper went viral. We are indeed in a dire and overwhelming evolutionary moment. Our climate emergency is rapidly intensifying.