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.