Deep Adaptation And The DA Forum

Deep adaptation, both as a concept and a movement started life in July 2018 with a paper written by Professor Jem Bendell of the University of Cumbria. It’s an academic paper so as a read not for the faint hearted, but I found it relatively accessible. Its basic idea is that humanity needs to prepare for a possible, or probable, or certain societal collapse in the face of a changing climate.

I found Jem’s work in 2019 and it had a profound effect on me. Up until then I think I had been swinging wildly between what I would describe as anger and denial. The writing helped me to realise that what I was actually doing was grieving for the planet and my contribution to it’s downfall. But I wasn’t moving through the grief toward acceptance (it might be useful to read about the grief cycle as developed by Kubler-Ross if you don’t know it). My introduction to the Deep Adaptation Forum helped me find acceptance, from where I was able to get into a more helpful mindset.

So Deep Adaptation is an idea or a concept that underpins what I mean by having an accepting mindset as part of being an eco-citizen. It doesn’t mean giving up, quite the contrary, it is about becoming unstuck and creating energy for action.

The Deep Adaptation Forum is a private community place, hosted on the ning platform, for collaborating with others who are exploring the implications of potential near-term societal collapse. Its purpose is to:

“Enable its members to envision the prospect of climate-induced societal collapse in a spirit of compassion, curiosity and respect, while networking, starting new projects, and co-creating useful resources for various fields of expertise and activity.”

There are sub-groups, focused around different tasks or discussion areas. And there are events and talks hosted or promoted. While it’s obviously an international organisation it was created in the UK and has a British feel to it.

There is also a Deep Adaptation Facebook group for people who are interested but not so actively involved in this work. Personally I get a lot of mental support from the Forum and intend to become more active within it. It can feel quite daunting and I’m still working my way through that. What I do know is the foundations on which it is built are for me rock solid, which is why I am using it as part of my own exploration of becoming and eco-citizen.