Mettre l'adaptation au coeur

Taking Climate Adaptation to Heart – talks by Jem Bendell Posted on January 22, 2021 by jembendell

To start the year I gave a talk for a climate adaptation conference at the University of Groningen (Netherlands) and also joined participants and volunteers in the Deep Adaptation Forum (DAF) for a Q&A on emerging issues. If you are interested in this agenda, then I recommend watching first my introductory lecture on Deep Adaptation, then the Groningen talk, then the Q&A. In the Q&A we covered a range of issues such as the decolonisation of the environmental movement, the need for developing policy ideas, and the new criticisms made about people who anticipate collapse.

In the talk for undergraduate students at Groningen University on Jan 22nd 2021, I made the following points about a heartfelt approach to climate adaptation:

• The science tells us adaptation to climate change is essential
• That adaptation must be collective in ethos and policy
• It must involve a break with past mistakes, oppression and ideology
• This kind of adaptation is going to require activism to make it scale quickly
• However, it is likely that you will be told to conform to authority and to ignore or scorn those who say otherwise
• You might postpone but not avoid making your own choice of what path to take in a world becoming more unstable
• So consider updating yourselves on the topic and then join an activist group, political party or any civil society group, where you can advocate or take action on adaptation – or just what you think is right
• Know that you can find positivity in living truthfully and lovingly, rather than expecting a specific outcome.