Deep Adaptation
Professor Jem Bendell from the University of Cumbria published a paper Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy in which he concludes that
recent research suggests that human societies will experience disruptions to their basic functioning within less than ten years due to climate stress. Such disruptions include increased levels of malnutrition, starvation, disease, civil conflict and war – and will not avoid affluent nations. This situation makes redundant the reformist approach to sustainable development and related fields of corporate sustainability. Instead, a new approach which explores how to reduce harm and not make matters worse is important to develop. In support of that challenging, and ultimately personal process, understanding a ‘deep adaptation agenda’ may be useful.
Note he does NOT suggest we should stop trying to fight climate change.
His agenda is that we ALSO need to be planning for what happens if we fail.
There is a video of him talking about his ideas here.
His “Deep Adaptation Agenda” involves resilience to change, “relinquishment” and restoration.
Resilience is the capacity to adapt to changing circumstances so as to survive with valued norms and behaviours. This can involve psychological as well as physical adaptation to change. Resilience asks us “how do we keep what we really want to keep?”
What Bendell calls relinquishment involves people and communities letting go of certain assets, behaviours and beliefs where retaining them could make matters worse. Relinquishment asks us “what do we need to let go of in order to not make matters worse?”
Examples include withdrawing from coastlines, shutting down vulnerable industrial facilities, or giving up expectations for certain types of consumption
Restoration involves people and communities rediscovering attitudes and approaches to life and organisation that our hydrocarbon-fuelled civilisation eroded. Restoration asks us “what can we bring back to help us with the coming difficulties and tragedies?”
Examples include re-wilding landscapes, so they provide more ecological benefits and require less management, changing diets back to match the seasons, rediscovering non-electronically powered forms of play, and increased community-level productivity and support.
Bendell hopes the deep adaptation agenda of resilience, relinquishment and restoration can be a useful framework for community dialogue in the face of climate change.
How does this “deep adaptation agenda” relate to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals? According to Bendell:
the era of “sustainable development” as unifying concept and goal is now ending. [Deep adaptation] is an explicitly post-sustainability framing, and part of the Restoration Approach to engaging with social and environmental dilemmas.
Finally he concludes:
[Research in 2018] suggests that human societies will experience disruptions to their basic functioning within less than ten years due to climate stress. Such disruptions include increased levels of malnutrition, starvation, disease, civil conflict and war – and will not avoid affluent nations. This situation makes redundant the reformist approach to sustainable development and related fields of corporate sustainability that has underpinned the approach of many professionals. Instead, a new approach which explores how to reduce harm and not make matters worse is important to develop. In support of that challenging, and ultimately personal process, understanding a deep adaptation agenda may be useful.
Bendell is Professor of Sustainability Leadership at the University of Cumbria and Founding Director of the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS).
More Information
Deep Adaptation Forum: https://deepadaptation.ning.com/
Jim Bendell’s Deep Adaptation Page: https://jembendell.com/category/deep-adaptation/
Video of Jim Bendell on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAZJtFZZYmM
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