Dr. Jem Bendell - The Meaning and Joy of Inevitable Social Collapse

Emerge: Making Sense of What's Next

Today I'm speaking with Dr. Jem Bendell. Jem exploded onto the internet with the release of his 'Deep Adaptation' paper, which has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. The paper makes a very persuasive argument for what Dr. Bendell calls 'Inevitable near term social collapse' due to climate change. In this conversation we talk about non-linear self-reinforcing negative feedback loops in climate systems, Dr. Bendell’s experience of grief in coming to terms with the reality of collapse, Extinction Rebellion as an expression of fierce love, the meaningfulness and joy on the other side of collapse acceptance, collapse as an invitation to face the reality of our own inevitable death, how to approach the idea of collapse in a helpful way, and whether the United States and Europe will escape the worst impacts as systems de-cohere. Deep Adaptation Paper Positive Deep Adaptation Facebook Group