| Please find time to read Jem Bendell’s deep exploration into the present and deteriorating predicament……. and respond so that we know of serious steps to sanity and can co-operate in building a critical mass capable of affecting radical change ———- Forwarded message ——— From: Jem Bendell <jemb@lifeworth.com> Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2024 at 11:07 Subject: Professionals Inch Towards Talking Collapse – DA Review To: Peter <peterchallen@gmail.com> We recommend you read this newsletter in your browser. DEEP ADAPTATIONREVIEW Issue 15, February 2024 Welcome to a summary of recent opinion and activity in the field of deep adaptation. This independently produced, free publication explores collapse risk, readiness, and response. We take a critical perspective on the culture and systems that led to our predicament, and celebrate the solidarity amongst people in response. To unsubscribe, use the link at the end of this email. If you prefer only to receive content from DAF, we recommend subscribing to their blog or events newsletter. IN THIS ISSUE Editorial News and Opinions Key Publications Courses and Events Arts and Culture News from Deep Adaptation Forum Gratitude EDITORIAL The world is slowly starting to talk collapse [audio version here] The new head of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has publicly accepted the obvious – that the pace of climate heating is speeding up, and rapidly. The WMO has always been more able to declare what the science currently concludes than the cumbersome, cautious, and catastrophically misleading IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). One of the most famous environmentalists in the UK since the 1980s, Jonathan Porritt, wrote that the IPPC should be “put on notice”. That’s because, “forced to comply with the UN’s highly politicised, consensus-based decision-making process, its Assessment Reports (and occasional Special Reports) do not tell the truth. The IPCC has rarely managed to reflect the frontline science going on all around the world; its generic reassurances (that 1.5°C is still alive, for instance) are now a travesty of what good, responsible science is all about.“ Whereas I’m lampooned as a “one man IPCC” by journalists who think they are respectful of science, rather than having a poor understanding of scientific processes, hundreds of climatologists and research analysts have critiqued the IPCC. For instance, Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, explained over 5 years ago in a seminal report, that “experts tend to establish a peer world-view which becomes ever more rigid and focussed. Yet the crucial insights regarding the issue in question may lurk at the fringes… Therefore, it is all the more important to listen to non-mainstream voices who understand the issue and are less hesitant to cry wolf. Unfortunately for us, the wolf may already be in the house.” Being the founding director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, he knew what he was talking about. But both he and that report were ignored. So were Dr Ye Tao and myself, when we went to the UNFCCC CoP Summit in Egypt in 2022 to call for rapid action against heating from the reduction of aerosols. This reaction is because there are incentives for paid professionals in climatology to avoid concluding the obvious. For instance, in the Deep Adaptation paper in 2018, I noted that there was already good evidence that the pace of global sea level rise was increasing, which would only be possible if the pace of heating was increasing. That’s a simple indicator, which could have shifted more of us onto an emergency footing (with disaster management and adaptation being key), perhaps if careerist ‘climate users’ hadn’t blocked it when prioritising their own emotions, income, and status. Jonathan Porritt is a doyen of the corporate sustainability movement, which I was part of once. His article is therefore significant for how it invites the environmental profession to abandon stories and strategies for a managed transition. “My criticism here applies just as much to those NGOs as to all those government delegations and businesses enjoying the latest CoP tourism offer. They’re either totally naïve or deeply dishonest,” he wrote. “And I hate to have to say this, but that particularly applies to many of those “stubborn optimists” or “resolute climate solutionists” who still cannot accept just how fast things are changing around the world.“ He is not alone. Another leader in that field since the 1990s is Simon Zadek. A new report he co-wrote recognised that the 1.5C target was part of “the fictional prospect of a ‘win-win’ transition to a future world much like today’s – just without the carbon. Through this lens, peddled by most of our political, business, and civil leaders, we remain constrained to act within the confines of conventional wisdoms embedded in today’s status quo.” The report succinctly stated the dangers of wishful thinking: “To not prepare for a life beyond 1.5C is a reckless disregard for humanity“ The importance of such a shift was recognised by a leading facilitator of multi-stakeholder dialogues and collaborations, Mille Bojer. “As a scenarios practitioner I find the glorification of virtuous hope and optimism (and the shaming of “doomsday prophets”) that happens in places like Davos and elsewhere to be a dangerous part of the problem,” she wrote. “We need to surrender to reality and activate our imagination.” These are indicators that in professional circles, admissions of defeat for reformism and transition are no longer just muttered in the hotel bar but could begin shaping strategies and projects. After years of ignoring or vilifying people like me, it’s a relief to see more of the sustainability profession escape the ‘seven sins of denial’ that I wrote about last year. That means the conversation on collapse risk and readiness will expand within the sustainability profession, and that’s something I’ll explore in my speech in Brisbane next month. But the wider situation is still difficult for such conversations, as I want to recap on now. Unfortunately, in wider society, the managerial classes in charge of the world’s top institutions and media outlets are still ideologically policing our public conversation. They continue to suppress discussion of whether it’s too late to avert catastrophic damage, and instead promote elite-friendly stories of our techno-salvation. I experienced one instance of that when a senior manager within the National Public Radio network decided to withdraw a documentary on Deep Adaptation to climate chaos. It had been commissioned, cost them a bunch of money and staff time, and been edited and fact checked, before a last-minute sanction. Such suppression of discussion means that, empirically demonstrable, rising public anxiety about our planetary situation seeps out through the popularity of creative arts. This is something we note in the culture section of this review. As I have explained for years, suppression is counterproductive. This is because without an open discussion in civil society, various unconscious patterns, or psychological games will be played out over time. For ease, we might describe them as the ‘blame game’ and the ‘safety game’. The first game is a natural way for people to try to shift the difficult emotions of grief and fear. It’s why we get angry at someone or a group. Some people will target those who are easier to blame and where support can be won for such blame. For instance, blame a nation, a corporation, an industrial sector, a generation, a gender, or a species (that’ll be us, the human race). Some people will tell grand stories of why this tragedy befell humanity, in ways that affirm their ideology and power, or avoid critiquing it. Which brings us to the ‘safety game’. Concluding we are in a situation of the creeping collapse of modern societies can trigger a sense of existential threat to one’s worldview and identity, not just to one’s future, or the future of one’s children. That threat is therefore to the ‘ego’ and its deep-seated desire that we exist in a significant way that persists despite death. Therefore, as things fall apart, some people will decide their role is to try to grab as much as possible for themselves and their kind, whether they’re small-scale preppers, or large-scale military strategists. In order to feel like they are still in control and matter to the universe, other people will even try to accelerate the process of societal collapse. That includes the ‘accelerationists’ who flutter around those tech bros who appear irreconcilably alienated from the wildness of real life. Others will seek multi-year grants to fund nice lifestyles in advanced cities located on top of a pyramid of global exploitation. We will hear them talk about polycrisis, metacrisis, multicrisis, or permacrisis rather than collapse. They will warn about the rise of protectionist sentiments in the Majority World, or the general public’s alienation from the credentialed classes. Some members of the environmental profession who are listening to Porritt, Zadek, and Boyer might be tempted by that limited response, which avoids the worldview-shattering implications of societal collapse.Turning away from such responses, other people may naively claim that safety comes from growing our own food. That is what some people think I am doing by co-founding an organic farm and farm school. But I know that Bekandze Farm is not likely to make me safer in isolation, as my neighbours will need food, along with their neighbours, and political changes after societal disruption could scupper any of my plans. This doesn’t mean that collapse-ready organic farms aren’t a great idea, but that we shouldn’t make them our own ‘safety game’. To help more of us transcend the blame and safety games in an era of unfolding societal disruption and collapse, we need to talk more about collapse and offer alternative narratives for living meaningful lives in this new context. That includes narratives about how we got into this mess, how to be with this knowledge, what to do about it, and what not to do about it. We can celebrate the freedom that ‘doomsters’ are finding to live more courageously, kindly, and creatively since we woke up to the unfolding collapse of a society that we no longer assume is sane or legitimate. Without such discussion and alternative narratives, the general public will only experience those narratives that serve elites and factions of capital. In particular, I see one binary beginning to dominate. On the one hand, the clean tech, big tech, and nuclear sectors promote techno-salvation and therefore demonise alarmist readings of the science and current data. On the other hand, the fossil fuel and heavy industry sectors promote the idea that manmade climate change is uncertain, or a hoax, or just not that important. As we humans make sense of the world through stories, articulating narratives to counter those delusional ones is going to be as useful as anything else we could do at this time. So thank you for reading this review. I am grateful that this issue received voluntary input from Matthew Slater and Stella Nyambura Mbau, who supported myself and Associate Editor Jessica Groenendijk. We thank our individual sponsors at the end of the review. If you supported us, thank you. Please consider taking some moments to forward this newsletter to a few people who you think might be suffering eco-anxiety but not yet know about a post-doom Deep Adaptation response. Perhaps bring them along to an event? I will be participating in various ones online and in Australia, Hungary, Belgium, Mexico, and USA this year (see the Courses and Events section). If you fancy trying out hearing from me more often on collapse risk, readiness, and response, then please subscribe to my blog. Warmly, Jem Bendell Publisher, Deep Adaptation Review Author, Breaking Together Cofounder, Bekandze Farm  The Red List’ by artist Jayne Ivimey: bisque-fired clay depictions of the 70 endangered bird species in the UK. Photo: Jessica Groenendijk As a window on the world of collapse, this newsletter reflects on ways to find meaning, and to support the work and healing of others. NEWS AND OPINIONS Elitist ‘wagon-circling’ on the environmental predicament continues. For instance, Britain’s Prince William commented on how we should all feel about the environmental predicament. He backs the Earthshot Prize, which funds mostly good projects, as a basis for claiming that isolated innovations prove we can save the world. He stated, without evidence, that not believing we can innovate our way out of catastrophe is unhelpful. In fact, the evidence from many psychological studies is that we are radicalised by our awareness of failure. However, elites can feel threatened by such radicalism, so their ‘moodsplaining’ will continue. They now have a book – ‘Not the End of the World’ – upon which to generate lots of misleading commentary in the world’s mainstream media. Brazilian researcher Claudia Gasparovic offered a rapid debunking of its arguments, in a post on LinkedIn. Similar concerns were put to the book’s author by journalist Rachel Donald for Mongabay. Simply, one must be blind to the material dimensions of energy generation and storage to believe that modern societies can maintain current consumption patterns by switching to entirely renewable energy. Moreover, the momentum of change in our oceans and atmosphere, coupled with a dramatic loss of cooling aerosols and cloud-seeding forest cover, means we are already within a scary climate situation. On leaving the employment of mainstream media, environmental journalists have the chance to explain how they have been maintaining an ideological stance in their writing. Former BBC journalist Roger Harrabin wrote in the Independent newspaper: “Forget optimism – despair will be the prevailing emotion for many. We environment reporters are urged not to say this because it may sap the will of the public to take action on climate if they believe it’s too late.” When Roger uses the passive tense of “are urged”, he is hiding that it is the top bosses who ideologically police their journalists to maintain false hope and thus avoid anything that might lead to radicalisation and rebellion. Neither the journalists nor their bosses are psychologists, so their views on what may or may not motivate the public or how political change might occur, is a self-serving projection. It helps them mask from themselves how their pay cheques and prestige require them to lie to the public – because lies involve both omission and commission. The accelerating wagon-circling of elites is likely to make them dizzy as data on collapse continues to grow. The obvious issue is the latest observational data on changes in our oceans and climate, which far outpace the predictions from mainstream climatology. What is fascinating is how radical climate activists were closer to the truth on climate than the people paid to work on it full-time. That is not surprising to anyone aware of the way institutional dynamics shape scholarly endeavour, but is an incomprehensible threat to the worldview of some commentators and journalists who pretend that the IPCC is correct and its critics wrong, even when the opposite is factually undeniable. That is why seventy scholars from 16 countries signed a public letter in support of climate activists who were undermined by senior climatologists. At the time of writing, the editorial team of the Deep Adaptation Review do not know of any public apologies from such scientists. Instead, those scientists who are responsible enough to admit their failure in public have been taking it in their stride, to say they need to do more science, rather than understand their own identity, ideology, and perverse incentives as well as what damage they might have done. Elsewhere, some senior scientists are allowing the environmental predicament to dissolve their past confidence in their profession and skill set, and to respond with a new curiosity. Physicist, Professor Tom Murphy of the University of California in San Diego, confessed that his profession hasn’t helped us respond to the environmental predicament. One senior climatologist has now broken ranks more fully. In the last few months Dr Wolfgang Knorr has been writing a series of articles for websites like Brave New Europe and Resilience that challenge the dominant short-termist attitudes within his profession. In particular, he has been warning about how scientists will face a decision about whether to support greedy or abusive policy agendas as disruption and anxiety spreads throughout the world. In one article he notes that “as climate impacts become more frequent, we will see increasing nervousness on the side of the authorities, and a clinging on to the illusion of control.” In sociology, this is known as ‘elite panic’ and is outlined in the book ‘Breaking Together’ by DAR-publisher Jem Bendell. More scholars from a variety of relevant disciplines are joining Wolfgang in communicating the danger we are in. For instance, Dr Marshall Brain, an NCSU professor, spoke about “The Doomsday Book: The Science Behind Humanity’s Greatest Threats” in an interview last September. More worryingly (yes, that’s possible), Dr Jack O’Connor, at the UN University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security, authored the ‘Interconnected Disaster Risks Report’ that looked at tipping points impacting human security. Discussion of such news is still quite marginal, on specialist youtube channels. Imagine what might happen if Jack had been on primetime BBC, CNN, or even massive podcasts like Joe Rogan? It seems even numbers don’t make a difference for media penetration. “15,000 Scientists Warn Society Could ‘Collapse’ This Century” was the headline in Vice. But no major prime time discussion ensued. Perhaps that’s because ‘this century’ is pretty vague and so many people are already preoccupied with the decline and even breakdown of their own way of life. That is experienced as rising prices, debt, crime, strikes, wars, and disruptions of all kinds. Some activists understand that because collapse is upon us already, to differing degrees in different places and economic classes, their approach needs to change. One example: some co-founders of the climate activism group Extinction Rebellion (XR) in the UK have launched the Humanity Project. It seeks to work with community groups to help people cope better with a declining standard of living, in ways that don’t make the environmental situation worse and prepare better for further disruptions. This contrasts with the way XR appears to some people to have got stuck in an agenda that serves the clean tech and nuclear sectors, but little else. There is a growing diversity of views on what to think and do once we accept collapse is inevitable or unfolding. The blogger at “OK Doomer” is an interesting contributor to the conversation. Some of her articles, like this one, express a bold and proud nihilism – it is something we hear from some collapse commentators. The article illustrates how some people assume that the only way to respond positively to collapse would be more of the same corporate and technocratic managerialism that got us into this mess. Such a reaction is not unusual, as we saw when a narrowly corporate-medical agenda on Covid-19 was keenly supported by so many people who were, nevertheless, collapse-aware. Instead, we could be curious about what doesn’t work and so explore what else might reduce harm, whether on public health crises or other matters. Other emerging doomeratti sometimes add a misanthropic condemnation of human nature to an exasperated outlook on the future. Although that kind of venting may play to the digital gallery of thumb-jerk likers and re-posters, it is something that responsible doomsters might consider challenging. An example of this was when Renaae Churches challenged a twitter doom star when he wrote: “We are a plague. Are you brave enough to handle that? Can you own it?” She replied: “I will NOT own this stance, instead I see there is a different kind of courage. It is one that does not cope through numbness and hatred of our species. It does not require flawed stories of ecological inevitability to avoid feelings of shame. And it does not resort to believing one has superior knowledge or character than most of humanity.” Some doomeratti like to preach that humanity is going through a dark night of the soul to emerge with a higher consciousness. Strands of that thought include the idea that there is a direction to evolution, with humans at the leading edge. Often this story emphasises the benefit of understanding the planet as one sphere in space. In an interview for Buddha at The Gas Pump, our publisher Jem Bendell challenged this view as a product of modern culture, rather than transcending that culture. “It can arise from an emotional avoidance,” he said, “by displacing attention from how to be wise and compassionate in the unfolding malaise, and instead sharing stories about various kinds of salvation. People who live closer to nature, in cultures that are closer to nature, neither pontificate about a global awakening nor need to do that in order to experience unity with nature, or to be kind and wise towards people and beings in their local sphere of influence. To valorise global thinking is, at best, racially unaware, and could, at worst, lead to backing for globalist totalitarian schemes.“ There are many other emerging strands of ‘doomer’ thought. The prepper mentality focuses on preparing to try to get through a brief period of social unrest. Some popular YouTube channels take this approach, focusing on topics like storing food and purifying water. One writer on Substack, Justin McAfee is seeking to connect that mindset with ecological awareness and a greater community spirit. There will likely be many more people and initiatives coming into this space, especially as the managers of mainstream media seek to hide, lampoon or vilify the issue and the people engaged with it. Clearly, we would all benefit from hearing diverse views on how to make sense of the situation. One person doing important work on that is Dahr Jamail, with his Great Unraveling podcast. In December he interviewed Dilafruz Khonikboyeva. An Indigenous Pamiri and a transformational conflict expert, she explained that conflict is not something that should be avoided or seen as shameful. Transformational conflict can be used to reframe how we perceive what is happening around us and to foster a sense of community beyond physical space. It can also help us avoid a ‘herding stalemate’ and pull each other in. As she points out, the world is experiencing horrific dark days, but this is also a positive development because it has brought the conversation about societal disintegration to many more people. That could lead to significant change. Since the previous DA Review, an important contributor to conversation in this field, Reverend Michael Dowd, passed away. Michael’s very last sermon captured his post-doom ethos and personality perfectly. That is, he faced the dark, allowed it, and exuded a positivity about life, notwithstanding. In so doing, he invited us all to be our better selves precisely because of our understanding of the great predicament facing humanity. A five-minute artistic reflection of photos and music created by Michael Dowd’s wife and mission partner, Connie Barlow, conveys that positivity. KEY PUBLICATIONS The perspective that modern societies are breaking down is beginning to frame more and more books and research papers. That a major publisher, Penguin Random House, has put out a book on living with eco-anxiety, without pretending the problem can be solved, is a sign of the times. In this book the authors offer some wisdom that is similar to the ideas and experiences of people who have participated in their networks, and will not be new to participants in deep adaptation groups. It is a useful guide to the uninitiated.By the co-founder of the Climate Psychology Alliance, this book, published by the Simplicity Institute, looks at the psychological dimensions of modern cultures that created the environmental predicament. It goes further by pointing to how people can respond in unhelpful ways due to deep patterns. For instance, Paul Hoggett writes “Today survivalism assumes so many forms. It can be religious or secular, hi or low tech, it can involve an imagined escape to the hills, to New Zealand, to Mars or heaven or to a retreat inside the self.”Museums, understood as keepers of bygone eras and bastions of preservation, occupy a unique space within society with untapped potential, argues a world expert in this field. Dr Janes explains that “Museums have a much more enduring role to play in society by clearly demonstrating that no one group or ideology possesses the sole truth about how society should conduct itself.” He explains that during a time of societal breakdown, museum directors need to embrace a role in helping people consider whether to “resist the status quo and question the way in which society is governed.” Published by Taylor Francis. Indigenous knowledge and worldviews are vital for nature conservation, agroecological food systems, and adapting to climate change, according to a new study. This article, published by the Green Economy Coalition, argues for a different kind of politics, or “cosmopolitics,” one embracing alternative ways of understanding and existing in the world, especially those connected to living in harmony with the Earth. A publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA (PNAS) highlights the resilience of past societies that managed to navigate crises by reinventing themselves. It offers evidence for the vulnerability of ageing societies when facing existential threats, finding that states facing population ageing had a 63% higher risk of collapse when exposed to climatic, disease, or conflict stresses. This raises questions about how older people respond to unusual stressors on societies (compared to younger people), how they can be helped to respond well, or how unhelpful influences from them might be moderated. This publication emphasises the importance of long-term, slowly evolving socio-cultural factors in shaping resilience and vulnerability to acute environmental shocks. Things like economic inequality, political polarisation, and erosion of social cohesion are highlighted as critical. Therefore, the paper advocates for adaptations addressing social and psychological dimensions, such as fostering community resilience, building trust, and managing social conflict in challenging situations. It was published within a special issue on ‘Climate change adaptation needs a science of culture’. Re-examining pre-Hispanic coastal Peru, where indigenous farmers adapted to the stresses of highly variable environments and natural hazards, this paper concludes that diverse and flexible social structures were key. While it focuses on historical cases, it implicitly suggests the potential for applying anti-fragility principles to adapt to future climate change such as building diverse and adaptable agricultural systems, strengthening social networks and institutions, and embracing uncertainty and experimentation. Published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. Multiple reviews appeared for the collapse-ready book Breaking Together by Professor Jem Bendell. One review attempted a summary of each chapter and the key terms and arguments in the book. COURSES AND EVENTS֎ Online, every Weds, Thurs and Saturday, continuing – Collapse Club continues to host meetings on zoom for people to explore how they feel about and respond to societal collapse. ֎ Online, every Thursday – The ‘Collapse Acceptance Alliance’ meets every week on zoom. ֎ Online, February to April – A 9-week online course based on accepting collapse, starting February 18th. ֎ Brisbane, Australia, March 7th – A free public lecture by Professor Jem Bendell, on the professional implications of collapse. The week also includes a 4-day ‘Leading Through Collapse’ course on the South Bank of the Brisbane River. If you are joining, please email drjbendell@gmail.com. ֎ Byron Bay, Australia, March 9th-10th – Evening Q&A with filmmaker Michael Shaw and Jem Bendell and a half day with Plan C (email beccadakini@gmail.com for info on the latter). ֎ Budapest, Hungary, April 19-20th 2024 – A 2-day event will provide an opportunity for people across Europe to gather and discuss where we are at with Deep Adaptation five years since the movement took off. Balazs Stumph-Biro, Jem Bendell, and other leading figures in DA will attend. ֎ Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 14-16th March – A 3-day retreat involves Satish Kumar, Virginie Raisson-Victor, Pablo Servigne and Jem Bendell. This is followed by a one-day conference on the 17th, which also includes Adélaïde Charlier. ֎ Online, 16th September to 3rd October – an 8-day online course on ‘Leading Through Collapse’ co-hosted by Katie Carr and Jem Bendell. The course is favoured by activists and executives who want to adapt their leadership and communications activities for an era of societal disruption and collapse. ֎ San Francisco, USA, October 14th-17th – a 4-day course on ‘Leading Through Collapse’ co-hosted by Katie Carr and Jem Bendell.֎Details of more relevant courses and events can be found in the calendar provided by the DA Forum team. Complete our form to submit details of your own online event or course for consideration in our next DA Review. Winner, 2023 Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award. Ice Bed/Credit: Nima Sarikhani, Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Source. ARTS AND CULTURE Events like the COP conferences signal the collective failure to imagine the next steps. Let’s inspire with new ways of seeing, open windows to innovation, and reach through to people’s hearts.Looking back on the year in music, The Guardian newspaper noted that apart from Taylor Swift, the music scene was dominated by songs that addressed themes of loss and grief. Alexis Petridis wrote that “outside of personal losses, other albums suggested that we are living in an era defined by loss.” He reflected on what this might tell us. “Perhaps it has something to do with living in a post-pandemic world, where life has more or less returned to normal, but remains haunted by the sense that things aren’t quite the same as they were; things have changed, but looking at the news, it’s hard to conclude that they’ve improved. The experience of living amid the climate crisis, its existential questions sat beneath even more immediate wars and human frailties, will find an expression somewhere.” Once again, the creative arts are the place where people can share their feelings and views, while the managerial classes in charge of mainstream media won’t allow for a deep discussion of the difficult theme of collapse. More poetry is emerging to explore the emotions of an era of collapse. ‘There Are Still Woods’ is an award-winning book of poetry by Hila Ratzabi that offers a haunting elegy for all that is being lost. Her poems bear witness to the force and fragility of the natural world and grapple with the complexities of being a human in that landscape: being implicated, vulnerable, humbled, dazzled. They explore our enduring loss, personal and collective and cultural, real and potential and anticipated. Grief and Grace by Birju Panda Bone dry, they say the summer takes its toll then summer turns the wheel across seasons and ‘climate’ is a term used Bone dry, they say calculators come out it’s a crisis, bring your ‘fixing’ energy My body spasms, as i let out a gasp this is what heartbreak feels like the tears fall out drops from the sky What is it that we have not allowed ourselves to feel? what is not ok? if we only knew, the piercing unlocks the clouds let it rain NEWS FROM DEEP ADAPTATION FORUM The Deep Adaptation Forum emerged soon after Jem Bendell’s paper, Deep Adaptation, was published in 2018. DAF is a living, evolving digital space for collapse-aware people to gather, find support, introduce ideas, engage in deep inner work ,and connect with projects around the world – all to enable and embody loving responses to our predicament. The following text is provided to the Review by the DAF Communications Circle. The Deep Adaptation Forum’s new volunteer-led Governance is underway! As of September 2023, the six Functional Circles (Weavers, Tech, Finance, Communications, Moderators, and Facilitators) have been finding their feet, hearts, and intentions. These generous people are tending to the day-to-day activities necessary to physically, emotionally, spiritually, and practically maintain and guide our unique digital domicile. Always open to new, dedicated energies, you can contact any of these circles by clicking on the link above.Complementing DAF’s vital core practices, (Deep Relating, Deep Listening, Earth Listening, The Four Rs, Grief Circle, Death Café, and Wider Embraces), two new events have emerged most recently: (I am) Modernity’s Playground is an experiment to discover, witness, and express how modernity works within us; and the Angrrrr Circle (come if your feelings about collapse include anger, rage, or frustration). You can find, register for, and take part in these (and any) events on the (NEW!) DAF Events calendar. In December 2023, the Facilitators Circle took a decision to build synergy and provide more resources to people in need of support and community: they included Partner Events to our Events calendar. Partner Events align with DAF values and are hosted or co-hosted by a group other than DAF. Now on the calendar are: Collapse Club meetings, which offer supportive circles in three time slots each week; and the Eye of the Storm Book Group meetings, which are co-hosted with the Post-doom community. The small, intimate Diversity & Decolonization Circle opened and moved on to carry their work to a broader sphere. You can read their statement and experiences here. The Solidarity Experiment, a monthly call, continues to deepen and broaden our awareness of the inner and outer sense-fulness of solidarity, response-ability, decolonisation, and diversity. The monthly D&D newsletter, Composting Times, has been warmly invited to add its voice to the DAF newsletter, Inside DAF. Pertinent articles are most welcome! Send your input to blog@deepadaptation.info. Support the Deep Adaptation Forum Help the Forum to continue to embody and enable loving responses to our predicament! Although DAF is volunteer-led, we have running costs like everyone else. If you feel you can and would like to, please donate to our OpenCollective page.  “Deep Adaptation,” Peru. Photo: Jessica Groenendijk GRATITUDE We are grateful to the following for contributions that help us keep this review free: Mr Alan Heeks, Dr Brian Lavendel, Dr C Pieroni, Dr Fran Martin, Dr Kay Trainor, Dr Mary Campbell, Fr Reed Tibbetts, Mr Alberto De Capitani, Mr Andreas Williams, Mr Andy Horsnell, Mr Charles Phillips, Mr Christopher Sassano, Mr Claude Schryer, Mr Kamil Pachalko, Mr Niall Glynn, Mr Owen Davies, Mr Peter Vertigan, Mr Robert Buhr, Mr Stuart Basden, Mrs Susan Starkey, Mrs Teresa Belton, Ms Betti Moser, Ms J A Witford, Ms Julia Mountain, Ms Maggie Burlington, Ms Patricia Duke, Ms Priscilla Auchincloss, Ms Ramey Rieger, Dr Amanda Shuman, Dr Elizabeth Bolton, Dr Jeffrey Douglass, Mr Matthew Painton, Mr Niall Glynn, Ben Stollery, Marissa Bingham. To join them in covering the costs of our research, formatting, and emailing for 2024, please visit: https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/20458. We will keep the newsletter free for everyone and won’t accept organisational sponsorship or advertising. Connect with others on Facebook Connect with fellow professionals on LinkedIn Connect with fellow academics on Scholars Warning Seek guidance or emotional support Learn about the Deep Adaptation Forum Join our mailing list Deep Adaptation Review archive DEEP ADAPTATION Resilience | Relinquishment | Restoration | Reconciliation Not subscribed to this newsletter? Like what you see? Sign up |
