Deep Adaptation

Origin

The concept of Deep Adaptation was introduced in the 2018 paper "Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy" by University of Cumbria sustainability leadership professor Jem Bendell. The paper was submitted to the Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, but reviewers requested major revisions. Bendell then chose to self-publish through the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability at the University of Cumbria. In the paper, Bendell stated that near term social collapse due to climate disruption was inevitable. He has since offered that as opinion, rather than fact, in a second version of the paper in 2020. The original paper was addressed to the corporate and academic sustainability community but found a large general readership, being downloaded more than 600,000 times as of November 2019. The paper has been translated into a number of languages.

Content of original paper

In the 2018 paper, Bendell asserted that “near term social collapse” (which he later called societal collapse) due to climate change is inevitable. He challenged the practice of business as usual in government, industry, and academia, announcing “the end of the idea that we can either solve or cope with climate change.” He reviewed scientific research on climate change, stating that he emphasized recent unpublished results and factors such as tipping points. In his view, these rendered published predictions of climate damage overly conservative.

Bendell then proposed the types of denial that prevent people from facing the likelihood of collapse. He shared his experience of coming to terms emotionally and existentially with the idea of collapse in his lifetime. The tone of the paper was personal, and has been described as autoethnographic. With dark humor, he noted that his conclusions make his academic field of specialization, sustainability, unviable. Finally, he challenged academics and policymakers to shift to a 'Deep Adaptation Agenda' of responses to climate change. He offered a framework for that agenda, characterized by three approaches: resilience, “what are the valued norms and behaviours that human societies will wish to maintain as they seek to survive?”; relinquishment, “letting go of certain assets, behaviors and beliefs, where retaining them could make matters worse”; and restoration, “rediscovering attitudes and approaches to life and organization that our hydrocarbon-fuelled civilization eroded.”

Reception and responses

Several scientists noted that Bendell’s conclusion of the inevitability of near term social collapse due to climate disruption was neither proven nor widely accepted. Climatologist Michael Mann was scathing in his assessments of Bendell’s scientific conclusions, and Gavin Schmidt, head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, asserted that previous climate trends of gradual change would continue. Scientists and environmental writers differed on their assessments of the likelihood of collapse. For instance, lead author of the 2019 UN global disaster risk assessment, Scott Williams, said that Bendell was closer to the mark than his detractors, as the UN report was "close to stating that ‘collapse is inevitable." Responding to Nicholas, Hall and Schmidt, biologist Pablo Servigne and colleagues found the Deep Adaptation work to be credible, and the criticisms often misleading. They noted that those criticisms do not invalidate the main message that collapse is a probability high enough to demand rapid and deep adaptation.

Bendell published a response to critics of his 2018 paper in mid-2020. Bendell also issued a revised version of the original paper in 2020. The original paper stated that “social collapse is inevitable.” The revision is “premised on the view that societal collapse is likely, inevitable, or already unfolding.” Since the paper’s publication, numerous scientific measures of the pace of climate change have exceeded predictions.

The paper also faced ethical criticisms. These criticisms start from the assumption that stating a dark view of climate change leads to despair and inaction. Researchers Nicholas, Hall and Schmidt asserted that Bendell's claim of inevitable societal collapse due to runaway climate change was not only wrong, but that it would undermine the cause of the climate movement. Michael Mann, and science journalist Ronald Bailey in Reason have voiced similar concerns.

Environmental activist and professor Rupert Read welcomed Bendell's analysis, suggesting that although the inevitability of societal collapse can be debated, its likelihood means that we must engage with the concept of Deep Adaptation because of the precautionary principle. Naresh Giangrande, a founder of the first Transition Town, called the paper an important part of a growing field of credible scholarship on the real risks of societal collapse from impacts of climate disruption. Social justice trainer Brooke Lavelle and sustainability researcher Zach Walsh asked, "What if our efforts to create a more just and caring world weren't separated from our efforts to adapt to near-term social collapse?"

Emergence of a broader movement

Bendell's paper popularized the term "Deep Adaptation" and catalysed the emergence of associated online communities. The BBC says that the paper "sparked a global movement with thousands of followers" who wish to "adapt their lifestyles to cope with the harsh conditions" through the principles of Deep Adaptation. BBC presenter John Humphrys notes that the paper influenced the founders of Extinction Rebellion.

In March 2019, Bendell and associates launched the Deep Adaptation Forum "for people who are seeking and building supportive communities to face the reality of the climate crisis." The group's website lists guiding principles including compassion, curiosity, and respect, and a stance of non-violence. Its stated purpose is “to embody and enable loving responses to our predicament, so that we reduce suffering while saving more of society and the natural world.”

The New York Times reported that a Facebook group titled "Positive Deep Adaptation" (since renamed "Deep Adaptation") had nearly 10,000 members as of March 2020 and was the most active site for the Deep Adaptation community, while 3,000 individuals participated in the official Deep Adaptation Forum. A LinkedIn group titled 'Deep Adaptation' includes professors, government scientists, and investors.