Climate Education: Friday, Sept. 11

 

TOPIC:  Deep Adaptation.      Friday, 9/11/2020  7:30-9 pm

   At this meeting we  examined Dr. Jem Bendells's thesis that near-term civilizational collapse is unavoidable. His paper, "Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy," has been read over 450,000 times and has engendered something of a movement. In other classes we have explored  the short time frame remaining for climate action, but the paper argues that collapse is inevitable.   Also, see the first reference (below) for strong counterarguments to "doomism" and Bendell's paper in particular.

 For the class, we watched parts of this video, a presentation on Deep Adaptation by two members of Scientists' Warning. Although the first part lays out very serious and dire climate threats, it doesn't actually argue that collapse is inevitable. The second part addresses the deeper economic roots of our status-quo pathway.
1)  0-16:30 minutes:  Sketches out civilization's prospects (Stuart Scott)
 ---  We will skip the middle (Alison Green) 
2)  27:00 to 39:53:  Examines the roles of "money" and "economy" in the systems that create this crisis. 

Video:  Scientists' Warning at Foresight Group, EU Commission, Jan. 19, 2019 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMbeYJgH_6g&list=WL&index=61&t=795s  

References: 

1.  I recommend this article, "The Faulty Science, Doomism, and Flawed Conclusions of Deep Adaptation." for its cogent pushback on the Deep Adaptation's premises.  In this article, you can get a very good idea of what is in Jem Bendell's 36-page paper, together with a strong critique of its scientific assumptions. While not contesting that the climate situation is critical and could result in societal collapse, it argues against its inevitablity, and points out many harms of the "doomism" argument. 
     Although the paper,  is 21 pages, this link,  on my Google drive, is highlighted for your speed-reading convenience:  
      Click here.    Or to see the article as originally published in Vice, go here

2. This article is about the academic paper but is not the academic paper itself. The subject of both is not just the science, but the argument that civilizational collapse is unavoidable. 
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vbwpdb/the-climate-change-paper-so-depressing-its-sending-people-to-therapy%20 (2-27-19)  “The Climate Change Paper So Depressing It's Sending People to Therapy:  On average, three people read an academic paper. At least 100,000 have read this—and a lot of them haven't taken it very well.”   

3.  This is the link to the webpage gateway paper,  Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy , and here  is the link to the 36-page PDF. 

Climate Education: One Last Chance

 

The topic of the WildEarth Climate Action Team's last climate education class was:

One Last Chance: The Defining Year for the Planet. 

Friday, August 14, 7:30 - 9:00 p.m. 

We considered some of these key articles from the July 20-27 special TIME Magazine issue on climate. (Links below). 

TIME MAGAZINE ARTICLES: 

     (1) “2020 Is Our Last, Best Chance to Save the Climate.” https://time.com/5864692/climate-change-defining-moment/  -this is a long essay, the central one of the issue.

     (2)  “Why the Larger Climate Movement Is Finally Embracing the Fight Against Environmental Racism”    https://time.com/5864704/environmental-racism-climate-change/
           -this is one of several shorter articles tying antiracism with climate change.

I was not able to access more of the TIME articles on the internet.  But these 2 short- to moderate-length articles also speak to the short time frame ahead of us:
(1)  https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48964736  “Climate change: 12 years to save the planet? Make that 18 months”
(2)   https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/18/world-has-six-months-to-avert-climate-crisis-says-energy-expert
   “Governments are planning to spend $9tn (£7.2tn) globally in the next few months on rescuing their economies from the coronavirus crisis, the IEA has calculated. The stimulus packages created this year will determine the shape of the global economy for the next three years, according to Birol, and within that time emissions must start to fall sharply and permanently, or climate targets will be out of reach.”

and then there’s this:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vbwpdb/the-climate-change-paper-so-depressing-its-sending-people-to-therapy  (2-27-19)  “The Climate Change Paper So Depressing It's Sending People to Therapy:  On average, three people read an academic paper. At least 100,000 have read this—and a lot of them haven't taken it very well.”   This article above is about the academic paper but is not the academic paper itself. The subject of both is not just the science, but the argument that civilizational collapse is unavoidable.