Deep Adaptation
It presumes that extreme weather events and other effects of climate change will increasingly disrupt food, water, shelter, power, and social and governmental systems.
He offered a framework for that agenda, characterized by three approaches: resilience, “what are the valued norms and behaviours that human societies will wish to maintain as they seek to survive?”; relinquishment, “letting go of certain assets, behaviors and beliefs, where retaining them could make matters worse”; and restoration, “rediscovering attitudes and approaches to life and organization that our hydrocarbon-fuelled civilization eroded.”[2][11] Several scientists noted that Bendell’s conclusion of the inevitability of near term social collapse due to climate disruption was neither proven nor widely accepted.
[1][5][12] Climatologist Michael Mann was scathing in his assessments of Bendell’s scientific conclusions, and Gavin Schmidt, head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, asserted that previous climate trends of gradual change would continue.
For instance, lead author of the 2019 UN global disaster risk assessment, Scott Williams, said that Bendell was closer to the mark than his detractors, as the UN report was "close to stating that ‘collapse is inevitable.
Environmental activist and professor Rupert Read welcomed Bendell's analysis, suggesting that although the inevitability of societal collapse can be debated, its likelihood means that we must engage with the concept of Deep Adaptation because of the precautionary principle.
[18] Naresh Giangrande, a founder of the first Transition Town, called the paper an important part of a growing field of credible scholarship on the real risks of societal collapse from impacts of climate disruption.
[21] In March 2019, Bendell and associates launched the Deep Adaptation Forum "for people who are seeking and building supportive communities to face the reality of the climate crisis.
[32][33] In France, publication of the book Comment tout peut s’effondrer (How Everything Can Collapse)[34][35] established the interdisciplinary field of study called collapsology, which embraces Deep Adaptation.
[40] Political scientist Joost de Moor notes that while Deep Adaptation and related "post-apocalyptic narratives" are becoming increasingly prevalent within climate change activist movements, they are often marginalized in strategy-making.
[46][47][48] A clinical social worker in Seattle states that "Organizations such as the Good Grief Network, the Deep Adaptation Forum and others have cropped up in the past several years to offer support and education about the climate crisis, and to inspire political action.”[46] Noting the need for large-scale interventions to aid the large numbers of people experiencing climate distress, psychiatrists Beth Marks and Janet Lewis cite the Deep Adaptation community as a resource for those people.
[47] They note that:[Deep Adaptation] seeks to develop so-called collapse-readiness (ie, creating an equitable system for distribution of life essentials such as food, water, energy, and health care) and collapse-transcendence (fostering psycho-social-spiritual-cultural shifts to accept and live through collapse with some composure and stability).Social worker and educator Caroline Hicks speaks of providing a Deep Adaptation perspective, to help people understand their climate-related distress and grief as legitimate, and to empower them to act.
[48] Buddhist scholar and ecological activist Joanna Macy, with professor Sean Kelly, characterize “speaking the truth” of Deep Adaptation as “like a tonic.” They now expect the inevitability of collapse, and they are compelled ethically to act “to ensure a softer landing, to minimize suffering, and to save what can be saved…”[49]
