In the end, the worst case scenario became a ghastly reality, and the survivors had to adapt. The implications include an increase in the intensity and frequency of climate induced natural disasters, flooding, drought, and disease, severely reduced agricultural production and fish stocks, massive internal and international migration, civil disorder, conflict over diminished resources, and a loss of biodiversity on a par with other global extinctions.Įzekiel pulled Extinction Rebellion type stunts and no one listened to him. Some of those standing here will not taste death before they see…. In any case, we have seriously to consider the implications of it being, in Bendell’s words, “too late to avert a global environmental catastrophe in the lifetimes of people alive today.” This doesn’t take into account the possibility of unpredictable “runaway change” or a “cascade of inter-related tipping points.” We have some control over emissions but none over how the natural world responds to warming.

The outlook is grimīack in 2018 the scientific literature pointed towards “near term societal collapse.” Since then there has been some progress on reducing emissions, but I notice that a Climate Action Tracker report published this week, in the middle of COP26, says that a “massive credibility, action and commitment gap… casts a long and dark shadow of doubt over the net zero goals put forward by more than 140 countries.” The current 2030 targets “put us on track for a 2.4☌ temperature increase by the end of the century.”

Many will dislike or dispute the pessimistic view that Bendell takes, and he is honest enough to admit that he could be completely wrong but I think that there are important lessons to be learned regardless from his deep adaptation agenda. It’s fairly long, so I’ll summarise the main points as best I can, leaving out most of the technical detail, and then briefly consider its implications both for our reading of the Bible and for the “mission” of the church today. The revised version can be downloaded here. The paper was originally published in 2018 and revised in 2020. Helge Seekamp recently drew attention to a paper by Jem Bendell, Professor of Sustainability Leadership at the University of Cumbria, entitled “Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy.” He suggests that Bendell gives us a “secular agenda for an apocalyptic time.” I think that the idea is worth exploring.

Bendell deep adaptation