View source for Biology:Deep Adaptation

{{Short description|Concept of coping with climate collapse}}

'''Deep Adaptation''' is a concept, agenda, and international social movement. It presumes that extreme weather events and other effects of climate change will increasingly disrupt food, water, shelter, power, and social and governmental systems.  These disruptions would likely or inevitably cause uneven societal collapse in the next few decades. The word “deep” indicates that strong measures are required to adapt to an unraveling of western industrial lifestyles. The agenda includes values of nonviolence, compassion, curiosity and respect, with a framework for constructive action.

== 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 [[Biography:Jem Bendell|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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Ahmed|first=Nahfeez|date=November 22, 2019|title=The Collapse of Civilization May have Already Begun|work=VICE|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/8xwygg/the-collapse-of-civilisation-may-have-already-begun|access-date=October 8, 2021}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Bendell|first=Jem|date=July 27, 2018|title=Deep adaptation: a map for navigating climate tragedy|url=https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/4166/|url-status=live|access-date=October 8, 2021|website=University of Cumbria|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200508011354/http://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/4166/ |archive-date=8 May 2020 }}</ref> 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.<ref name=":10">{{Cite news|last=Bromwich|first=Jonah E.|date=26 December 2020|title=The Darkest Timeline|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/26/style/climate-change-deep-adaptation.html|access-date=October 8, 2021}}</ref><ref name=":2">Bendell, Jem (2021) "Deep Adaptation: a Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy" In Bendell, Jem; Read, Rupert (eds.). ''Deep Adaptation''. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. pp. 211-223. {{isbn|978-1-5095-4683-1}}.</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" /> The paper has been translated into a number of languages.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|last=Hunter|first=Jack|date=16 March 2020|title=The 'climate doomers' preparing for society to fall apart|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-51857722|access-date=8 October 2020}}</ref>

=== Content of original paper ===
[[File:Jem_Bendell_Keynote_Address.png|thumb|Jem Bendell, 2019]]
In the 2018 paper, Bendell asserted that “near term social collapse” (which he later called [[Social:Societal collapse|societal collapse]]<ref name=":2" />) due to climate change is inevitable.<ref name=":10" /> 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.”<ref name=":1" /> He reviewed scientific research on climate change, stating that he emphasized recent unpublished results and factors such as [[Earth:Tipping points in the climate system|tipping points]].<ref>{{Cite journal|first1=Timothy M. |last1=Lenton |first2=Johan |last2=Rockström |first3=Owen |last3=Gaffney |first4=Stefan |last4=Rahmstorf |first5=Katherine |last5=Richardson |first6=Will |last6=Steffen |first7=Hans Joachim |last7=Schellnhuber|date=27 November 2019|title=Climate tipping points — too risky to bet against|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03595-0|journal=Nature|volume=575 |issue=7784 |pages=592–595 |doi=10.1038/d41586-019-03595-0 |pmid=31776487 |bibcode=2019Natur.575..592L |s2cid=208330359 |hdl=10871/40141 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name=":14">{{Cite news|last=Green|first=Matthew|date=10 April 2019|title=Extinction Rebellion: inside the new climate resistance|work=Financial Times|url=https://www.ft.com/content/9bcb1bf8-5b20-11e9-9dde-7aedca0a081a|access-date=9 October 2021}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tait|first=Adrian|title=Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos|publisher=Polity Press|year=2021|isbn=978-1-5095-4683-1|editor-last=Bendell|editor-first=Jem|location=Cambridge, UK|pages=105–122|chapter=Climate Psychology and its Relevance to Deep Adaptation|editor-last2=Read|editor-first2=Rupert}}</ref> 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,<ref name=":0" /> and has been described as autoethnographic.<ref name=":4">{{Cite news|last=Giangrande|first=Naresh|date=29 July 2020|title=Is Deep Adaptation Good Science?|work=Ecologist|url=https://theecologist.org/2020/jul/29/deep-adaptation-good-science|access-date=8 October 2021}}</ref> With dark humor, he noted that his conclusions make his academic field of specialization, [[Earth:Sustainability|sustainability]], unviable.<ref name=":14" /><ref>{{Cite news|last=Tsjeng|first=Zing|date=27 February 2019|title=The Climate Change Paper So Depressing It's Sending People to Therapy|work=VICE|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/vbwpdb/the-climate-change-paper-so-depressing-its-sending-people-to-therapy|access-date=9 October 2021}}</ref> 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.”<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite news|last=Meador|first=Ron|date=15 October 2018|title=New outlook on global warming: Best prepare for social collapse, and soon|work=MinnPost|url=https://www.minnpost.com/earth-journal/2018/10/new-outlook-on-global-warming-best-prepare-for-social-collapse-and-soon/|access-date=9 October 2021}}</ref>

=== 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.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite news|last1=Nicholas|first1=Thomas|last2=Hall|first2=Galen|last3=Schmidt|first3=Colleen|date=14 July 2020|title=The faulty science, doomism, and flawed conclusions of Deep Adaptation|work=openDemocracy|url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/faulty-science-doomism-and-flawed-conclusions-deep-adaptation/|access-date=8 October 2021}}</ref>  Climatologist [[Biography:Michael E. Mann|Michael Mann]] was scathing in his assessments of Bendell’s scientific conclusions, and [[Biography:Gavin Schmidt|Gavin Schmidt]], head of NASA's [[Organization:Goddard Institute for Space Studies|Goddard Institute for Space Studies]], asserted that previous climate trends of gradual change would continue.<ref name=":0" /> 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."<ref name=":0" /> Responding to Nicholas, Hall and Schmidt,<ref name=":5" /> 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.<ref name=":13">Servigne, Pablo; Stevens, Raphaël; Chapelle, Gauthier; Rodary, Daniel (3 August 2020). [https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/deep-adaptation-opens-necessary-conversation-about-breakdown-civilisation/ "'Deep Adaptation opens up a necessary conversation about the breakdown of civilisation"]. ''Open Democracy''. Retrieved 8 October 2021.</ref>

Bendell published a response to critics of his 2018 paper in mid-2020.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Bendell|first=Jem|date=31 August 2020|title=To criticise Deep Adaptation, start here|work=openDemocracy|url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/criticise-deep-adaptation-start-here/|access-date=9 October 2020}}</ref> Bendell also issued a revised version of the original paper in 2020.<ref name=":2" /> 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.”<ref name=":0" /> Since the paper’s publication, numerous scientific measures of the pace of climate change have exceeded predictions.<ref>{{Cite news|date=9 August 2021|title=Climate change widespread, rapid, and intensifying – IPCC|work=IPCC Newsroom|url=https://www.ipcc.ch/2021/08/09/ar6-wg1-20210809-pr/|access-date=8 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last1=Dennis|first1=Brady|last2=Kaplan|first2=Sarah|date=10 August 2021|title=Humans have pushed the climate into 'unprecedented' territory, landmark U.N. report finds|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/08/09/ipcc-climate-report-global-warming-greenhouse-gas-effect/|access-date=9 October 2021}}</ref> 

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.<ref name=":5" /> Michael Mann,<ref name=":3" /> and science journalist Ronald Bailey in Reason<ref>Bailey, Ronald (29 March 2019). [https://reason.com/2019/03/29/good-news-no-need-to-have-a-mental-break/ "Good News! No Need to Have a Mental Breakdown Over 'Climate Collapse' "]. ''Reason Magazine''. Retrieved 8 October 2021.</ref> have voiced similar concerns.

Environmental activist and professor [[Biography:Rupert Read|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|precautionary principle]].<ref name="DA Book">{{Cite book|last=Read|first=Rupert|title=Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos|publisher=Polity Press|year=2021|isbn=978-1-5095-4683-1|location=Cambridge, UK|pages=240–261|chapter=Riding Two Horses: The Future of Politics and Activism, as we Face Potential Eco-driven Societal Collapse}}</ref> Naresh Giangrande, a founder of the first [[Earth:Transition town|Transition Town]], called the paper an important part of a [[Social:Collapsology|growing field]] of credible scholarship on the real risks of societal collapse from impacts of climate disruption.<ref name=":4" /> 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?"<ref name=":11">{{Cite news|last1=Lavelle|first1=Brooke|last2=Walsh|first2=Zach|date=11 August 2019|title=Responding with love to a civilization in crisis|work=openDemocracy|url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/transformation/responding-love-civilization-crisis/|access-date=9 October 2021}}</ref>
[[File:DeepAdaptationForumLogo.png|thumb|Logo from the Deep Adaptation Forum in 2020]]

=== Emergence of a broader movement ===
Bendell's paper popularized the term "Deep Adaptation" and catalysed the emergence of associated online communities.<ref name=":6">Flavelle, Christopher  (26 September 2018) [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-26/new-climate-debate-how-to-adapt-to-the-end-of-the-world "New Climate Debate: How to Adapt to the End of the World".] ''Bloomberg Businessweek''. Retrieved 11 October 2021.</ref> 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"<ref name=":10" /> through the principles of Deep Adaptation. BBC presenter John Humphrys notes that the paper influenced the founders of [[Organization:Extinction Rebellion|Extinction Rebellion]].<ref>Humphrys, John (17 April 2019) [https://yougov.co.uk/topics/science/articles-reports/2019/04/17/john-humphrys-extinction-rebellion-noble-and-neces "Extinction Rebellion: Noble and Necessary or a Pointless Nuisance?"]. ''YouGov''. Retrieved 9 October 2021.</ref>

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."<ref name=":0" /> The group's website<ref>{{cite web |title=About the Deep Adaptation Forum |url=https://www.deepadaptation.info/about/ |website=Deep Adaptation Forum |access-date=16 September 2023}}</ref> lists guiding principles including compassion, curiosity, and respect,<ref>{{Cite web|date=21 March 2021|title=DAF Charter|url=https://www.deepadaptation.info/daf-charter|access-date=9 October 2021|website=Deep Adaptation Forum}}</ref> and a stance of non-violence.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=DAF Non-violence Statement|url=https://www.deepadaptation.info/daf-non-violence-statement|url-status=live|access-date=17 October 2021|website=Deep Adaptation Forum|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211017233150/https://www.deepadaptation.info/daf-non-violence-statement |archive-date=17 October 2021 }}</ref> 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.”<ref>{{Cite web|title=Deep Adaptation Forum|url=https://www.deepadaptation.info|url-status=live|access-date=17 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190214220849/http://www.deepadaptation.info:80/ |archive-date=14 February 2019 }}</ref>

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.<ref name=":0" /> A LinkedIn group titled 'Deep Adaptation' includes professors, government scientists, and investors.<ref name=":6" />

== Development of the Deep Adaptation Concept and Agenda ==
Bendell added a fourth “R”, reconciliation, to the Deep Adaptation framework in 2019:<ref name=":3" />

* ''Resilience:'' what do we most value that we want to keep, and how?
* ''Relinquishment:'' what do we need to let go of so as not to make matters worse?
* ''Restoration:'' what could we bring back to help us with these difficult times?
* ''Reconciliation:'' with what and whom shall we make peace as we awaken to our mutual mortality?<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bendell|first=Jem|title=Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos|publisher=Polity Press|year=2021|isbn=978-1-5095-4683-1|editor-last=Bendell|editor-first=Jem|location=Cambridge, UK|pages=42–86|chapter=Deep Adaptation: a Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy|editor-last2=Read|editor-first2=Rupert}}</ref><ref name=":3" />

Deep Adaptation is part of a wider public conversation about the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events, global food insecurity, and the existential threats they pose.<ref>{{Cite news|last=UN Security Council Press Release|date=23 February 2021|title=Climate Change 'Biggest Threat Modern Humans Have Ever Faced', World-Renowned Naturalist Tells Security Council, Calls for Greater Global Cooperation|url=https://www.un.org/press/en/2021/sc14445.doc.htm|access-date=October 9, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Murphy|first=Heather|date=3 August 2021|title=Will These Places Survive a Collapse? Don't Bet on It, Skeptics Say.|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/us/collapse-of-civilization-study-new-zealand.html|access-date=9 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Herrington|first=Gaya|title=Update to limits to growth: Comparing the World3 model with empirical data|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jiec.13084|journal=Journal of Industrial Ecology|year=2021|volume=25|issue=3|pages=614–626|doi=10.1111/jiec.13084|s2cid=226019712|via=Wiley Online Library}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Kuper|first=Simon|date=1 July 2021|title=How to cope with the climate apocalypse|work=FT Magazine|url=https://www.ft.com/content/b7c0310c-bf03-4f26-9d12-e6af37264931|access-date=9 October 2021}}</ref> Several authors have asserted that whether one takes the pessimistic view of Deep Adaptation for the likelihood of societal collapse or a more optimistic view, the Deep Adaptation response of love-based action is appropriate, so that pessimists and optimists should work together.<ref name=":4" /><ref name="DA Book" />

The topic of societal collapse can generate overwhelming emotional responses.<ref>Kieft, Jasmine and Bendell, Jem (2021) [https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/5950/ "The responsibility of communicating difficult truths about climate influenced societal disruption and collapse: an introduction to psychological research"] ''University of Cumbria.'' Retrieved 9 October 2021.</ref> Bendell and Carr have sought to constructively address these strong emotions.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Carr|first1=Katie|last2=Bendell|first2=Jem|date=24 November 2020|title=Facilitation for Deep Adaptation: enabling loving conversations about our predicament.|url=http://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/5792/1/Bendell_FacilitationforDeepAdaptation.pdf|url-status=live|access-date=9 October 2020|website=University of Cumbria|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123141747/http://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/5792/1/Bendell_FacilitationforDeepAdaptation.pdf |archive-date=23 January 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Bendell|first1=Jem|last2=Carr|first2=Katie|date=2 June 2021|title=Group Facilitation on Societal Disruption and Collapse: Insights from Deep Adaptation|journal=Sustainability|volume=13|issue=11|page=6280|doi=10.3390/su13116280|doi-access=free}}</ref>

In France, publication of the book ''Comment tout peut s’effondrer'' (''How Everything Can Collapse)''<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Servigne|first1=Pable|title=How Everything Can Collapse|last2=Stevens|first2=Raphaël Stevens|publisher=Polity Press|year=2020|isbn=978-1509541393|location=Cambridge UK}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Crichton|first=Danny|date=28 August 2021|title=Can the world really just fall apart?|work=Tech Crunch|url=https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/28/can-the-world-really-just-fall-apart/|access-date=9 October 2021}}</ref> established the interdisciplinary field of study called [[Social:Collapsology|collapsology]], which embraces Deep Adaptation.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":15">Servigne, Pablo; Stevens, Raphaël;  Chapelle, Gauthier;  Daniel Rodary (2021). "Reasons for Anticipating Societal Collapse". in Bendell, Jem; Read, Rupert (eds.).''Deep Adaptation''. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. pp. 87-101. {{isbn|978-1-5095-4683-1}}.</ref>  The majority of the general public in France regard societal collapse as likely "in the coming years."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Marion|first=Fabienne|date=28 July 2021|title=65% of the French believe in the imminent collapse of our civilization...|work=UP Magazine|url=https://up-magazine.info/en/decryptages/etudes/60576-65-des-francais-croient-a-leffondrement-imminent-de-notre-civilisation/|access-date=9 October 2021}}</ref> Collapsologists note that factors in addition to climate disruption  may contribute to societal collapse. They argue that even if one regards an existential risk as small, still prudence demands one prepare for it.<ref name=":15" />

The Deep Adaptation community is mostly white, well-educated, and middle to upper class,<ref name=":10" /> and is working to diversify and decolonialize.<ref name=":13" /> Gesturing Toward Decolonial Futures (GTDF), a collective of academics, activists and indigenous people, have engaged Deep Adaptation.<ref>{{Cite news|last=The Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective|date=24 August 2020|title=Preparing for the end of the world as we know it|work=openDemocracy|url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/preparing-end-world-we-know-it/|access-date=8 October 2021}}</ref> GTDF includes people who are already living through, or in the aftermath of, societal collapses, and have perspectives and resources for “the challenging work that we need to do together as we collectively face the gradual collapse of the house of modernity, or, in other words, the end of the world as we know it.” <ref>Suša, Rene; Stein, Sharon; Andreotti, Vanessa; Čajkova, Tereza; Siwek, Dino and the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective (2021). "Unconscious Addictions: Mapping Common Responses to Climate Change and Potential Climate Collapse" in Bendell, Jem; Read, Rupert (eds.). ''Deep Adaptation''. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. pp. 155-174. {{isbn|978-1-5095-4683-1}}.</ref>

== Impact ==
Deep Adaptation and its framework of resilience, relinquishment, restoration, and reconciliation to reduce harm from climate and ecological devastation are being proposed for a variety of practical approaches to climate adaptation.<ref name=":6"/> Areas in which Deep Adaptation has been discussed include maritime economics.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Monios|first1=Jason|last2=Wilmsmeier|first2=Gordon|date=2 May 2020|title=Deep adaptation to climate change in the maritime transport sector – a new paradigm for maritime economics?|journal=Maritime Policy & Management|volume=47|issue=7|pages=853–872|doi=10.1080/03088839.2020.1752947|s2cid=219044869|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Political scientist Joost de Moor notes that while Deep Adaptation and related "post-apocalyptic narratives" are becoming increasingly prevalent within climate change activist movements, they are often marginalized in strategy-making.<ref name=":16">{{Cite journal|last=de Moor|first=Joost|date=1 September 2021|title=Postapocalyptic narratives in climate activism: their place and impact in five European cities|journal=Environmental Politics|volume=31 |issue=6 |pages=927–948|doi=10.1080/09644016.2021.1959123|doi-access=free}}</ref> Bendell and Deep Adaptation have been influential in [[Organization:Extinction Rebellion|Extinction Rebellion]].<ref name=":142">{{Cite news|last=Green|first=Matthew|date=10 April 2019|title=Extinction Rebellion: inside the new climate resistance|work=Financial Times|url=https://www.ft.com/content/9bcb1bf8-5b20-11e9-9dde-7aedca0a081a|access-date=8 October 2021}}</ref><ref name="DA Book2">{{Cite book|last=Read|first=Rupert|title="Riding Two Horses: The Future of Politics and Activism, as we Face Potential Eco-driven Societal Collapse," in Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos|publisher=Polity Press|year=2021|isbn=978-1-5095-4683-1|location=Cambridge, UK|pages=240–261}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Read|first=Rupert|date=8 February 2019|title=Climate change and deep adaptation|work=Ecologist|url=https://theecologist.org/2019/feb/08/climate-change-and-deep-adaptation|access-date=9 October 2021}}</ref><ref>Bendell, Jem  (2019). "Doom and bloom? Adapting deeply to likely collapse". In: Extinction Rebellion (ed.). ''This is not a drill: an extinction rebellion handbook''. Milton Keynes: Penguin, 73-80. {{ISBN|0141991445}}.</ref> The XR Handbook "spells out a broad call for adaptation, including not just material interventions to alleviate specific climate risks, but also social, economic, political and cultural adaptation that radically restructures society in the face of futures characterized by climate disruptions."<ref name=":16"/>

Deep Adaptation has been cited by several mental health professionals as a framework and community for addressing climate anxiety and ecological distress.<ref name=":7">{{Cite news|last=Chang|first=Connie|date=15 July 2021|title=Here's what you can do to cope with your anxiety about climate change|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/climate-change-anxiety-dread-cope/2021/07/14/471eb264-e4d4-11eb-b722-89ea0dde7771_story.html|access-date=8 October 2021}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{Cite journal|last1=Marks|first1=Beth|last2=Lewis|first2=Janet|date=10 December 2020|title=Group Interventions for Climate Change Distress|url=https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/group-interventions-climate-change-distress|journal=Psychiatric Times}}</ref><ref name=":9">{{Cite news|last=Hicks|first=Caroline|date=7 June 2019|title=What psychotherapy can do for the climate and biodiversity crises|work=THe Conversation|url=https://theconversation.com/what-psychotherapy-can-do-for-the-climate-and-biodiversity-crises-116977|access-date=8 October 2021}}</ref>   A clinical social worker in Seattle states that "Organizations such as the [https://www.goodgriefnetwork.org Good Grief Network], the [https://www.deepadaptation.info Deep Adaptation Forum] and others have cropped up in the past several years to offer support and education about the climate crisis, and to inspire political action.”<ref name=":7"/>  Noting the need for large-scale interventions to aid the large numbers of people experiencing climate distress, psychiatrists Beth Marks and Janet Lewis cite the Deep Adaptation community as a resource for those people.<ref name=":8" /> They note that:<blockquote>[Deep Adaptation] seeks to develop so-called collapse-readiness (ie, creating an equitable system for distribution of life essentials such as food, water, energy, and health care) and collapse-transcendence (fostering psycho-social-spiritual-cultural shifts to accept and live through collapse with some composure and stability).</blockquote>Social worker and educator Caroline Hicks speaks of providing a Deep Adaptation perspective, to help people understand their climate-related distress and grief as legitimate, and to empower them to act.<ref name=":9"/>

Buddhist scholar and ecological activist Joanna Macy, with professor Sean Kelly, characterize “speaking the truth” of Deep Adaptation as “like a tonic.” They now expect the inevitability of collapse, and they are compelled ethically to act “to ensure a softer landing, to minimize suffering, and to save what can be saved…”<ref>Kelly, Sean; Macy, Joanna (2021) "The Great Turning: Reconnecting Through Collapse". In Bendell, Jem; Read, Rupert (eds.). ''Deep Adaptation''. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. pp. 197-208. {{isbn|978-1-5095-4683-1}}.</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Earth:Post-doom|Post-doom]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*[https://jembendell.com/2019/05/15/deep-adaptation-versions/ Links to various versions of the ''Deep Adaptation'' paper, including the original blog post, a Kindle version, an audio MP3 file, as well as a variety of translations]
*[http://deepadaptation.info/ The Deep Adaptation community forum]
*[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2021.1959123 Joost de Moor (2021) Postapocalyptic narratives in climate activism: their place and impact in five European cities, Environmental Politics, DOI: 10.1080/09644016.2021.1959123]

[[Category:Climate change adaptation]]

{{Sourceattribution|Deep Adaptation}}