Author: jembendell

I'm a British national living in Indonesia. I am known for my work on societal collapse risk and response. That includes the Deep Adaptation paper and Breaking Together book. I cofounded Scholars’ Warning to help academics communicate about a post-Sustainability agenda for reducing harm in the face of catastrophic ecological change. I cofounded Bekandze Farm School to enable smallholders to switch to organic and resilient farming methods. Last year I quit my full Professorship to focus on deep adaptation to societal disruption and collapse.

Aspirations for Life

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Expectations reduce joy. Aspirations attract it.

Sometimes the pain of observing the news, or anxieties as our situations worsen, or just the heaviness of knowing the wider suffering to come, can stifle our ability to feel joy and aspire to what’s wonderful. That isn’t always the case, as collapse acceptance can be very liberating. But even people who have fully integrated their conclusions into their lives, becoming ‘doomsters’, can feel low at times. I think there are some similarities in our romantic lives. Understandably, hurt can close us down, rather than open us up. As the new year beckons, with time off, so the change in the calendar can become a moment for us to reflect on how we might aspire to live. We don’t need to cling to any aspirations, and we don’t need to turn them into expectations. But we can decide that we don’t want to shelter ourselves from potential disappointments. Instead, we can aspire to an equanimity where we can allow excitement and aspiration to flow, unattached to outcome, and undaunted by the certainty that everything we love will disappear one day. I write these lines to remind me of this truth, as much as to share with you.

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Have you ever seen a relaxing X/Twitter thread?

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Have you ever seen a relaxing X/Twitter thread? No, me neither. I hardly ever write them. And when I do, it’s usually about bad news. But I recently tried to transmute some upset into celebration… here is the text of that x/twitter thread. 1/29

A surprise to end the year was @JustCollapse founders Tristan and Kate posting across social media that I am a “far right promoter”. Unfortunately, they didn’t yet reply to my emails about their misunderstandings. But I realised I could take that as an invitation to publicly celebrate my decades of Leftiness 🙂 You might not admire that, but it’s a big part of who I am, so here begins an indulgent Lefty thread! 2/29

A highlight was in 2017, co-writing with Jeremy Corbyn and Marc Lopatin the first speech Corbyn gave about why he sought to become Prime Minister. Biographer Alex Nunns thought his best ever. It was part of a 6 week General Election campaign that gained about 20 points in the polls.  Watch here:  https://youtu.be/P0Cr8CVkdMs 3/29

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Some reasonable essays on collapse

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In my annual personal update (not the Deep Adaptation Review), I included a summary of the essays I wrote in 2024. I thought it useful also to post these to my blog. I group the essays by topics of: integrating collapse awareness into your working life, the broad trends in Deep Adaptation, the political implications of collapse awareness, making sense of the latest climate data and science, plus personal reflections on motivations in this age of consequences. Next year I will be writing less, as I focus more on the organic farm school (please help!) and music (new single: Aspirations). I hope that both my book and these essays will support your own life choices. For more support, consider joining our online short course. Thx, Jem

Integrating collapse awareness into your working life

The essay “Keeping your job at the end of the world (as we know it)“ addresses the conundrum facing many people who are questioning everything due to collapse anticipation, but can’t quit their job, for financial or other reasons. Written to coincide with a speech at Griffith Business School, where he was an Adjunct Professor, Jem Bendell discusses ideas rarely, if ever, heard in professional contexts. That is because he not only mentions people who have chosen to “keep serving (reveal and recommit in post)” or “repurpose your job (refocus in post)” but also those who de-prioritise their employer’s interests. This includes “quit quietly (retire in post)” and even to “sabotage non-violently (rebel in post).”

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Collapse-relevant publications in 2024

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The Deep Adaptation Review is an independently produced look back at the year on the topic of collapse readiness. There are a few sections in it, with one of them covering interesting new publications. I want to share with you that part, below. The full review is available here, where you can also subscribe to receive it once a year. Thx, Jem

Publications in 2024

Perhaps the most important paper on climate in the past year was co-authored by a range of leading climate scientists, including those who have actively vilified scholars whom they consider to be too alarmist or doomist. The 2024 ‘state of the climate report’ was co-authored by Professor Michael Mann and concluded “We find ourselves amid an abrupt climate upheaval, a dire situation never before encountered in the annals of human existence.” It should be noted that even the analyses so despised by Mann and others just six years ago, such as the Deep Adaptation paper, did not conclude that the planet is already experiencing abrupt climate change. Don’t expect apologies, however, or a depth of reflection into why so many climatologists undermined the more alarmist and radical response to the science over recent years. That’s despite very real negative consequences in the lives of activists and others. 

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Holding Space for Strong Emotions

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“I wanted to punch the guy, but when I realised I couldn’t do that, I just switched off.”

This was certainly a new kind of response to giving a speech. I’d just left the stage at a conference on adaptation to climate change, and was surrounded by people wanting to exchange a few words and contact details. “You really stimulated the audience, as we hoped you would,” one of the organisers said, smiling as he told me of the guy who liked my views so much that he wanted me to connect with his knuckles.

I’d already heard enthusiastic praise from another organiser, so I reacted to the negative feedback in dismissive fashion. “Anger is a way of responding to difficult information, situations and emotions. It gets us out of fear,” is more or less what I said. I continued with my mini lecture by saying “Fight or freeze are two normal responses to fear. It’s why I talked about the benefit of getting better with allowing, witnessing and working through difficult emotions. It’s also why we must recognise so much of our conversation in professional circles is to avoid conflict and emotional difficulty, using convenient narratives, that stop us from facing reality.” This all tripped off my tongue because being intellectual and slightly combative is my go-to response when under threat. However, I’m writing this essay because I was on the cusp of noticing that go-to response, and chose a different way to engage when experiencing conflict. If you also navigate strong emotions about the state of our world, I hope the following thoughts may be of use.

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A life changed by collapse (mine)

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For much of my adult life I’ve lived outside the UK, my country of birth. Therefore, I’ve been curious about the dynamics of social change occurring in different contexts, including the environmental movement and profession. That is why I wrote my book with an eye on how it might be useful to the environmental movement in parts of the Majority World, and therefore I look forward to learning from the responses after recently launching the Spanish and French editions, with a focus on how they may be received in Latin America and Francophone Africa. It also meant I was pleased to read recently that one of Indonesia’s leading environmental commentators, Jalal, is reading my latest work, and contextualising it with my previous decades working in corporate sustainability. I gave it attention, as Indonesia is the country I have chosen as home for the last few years, and where I’ve invested into a social enterprise for collaborative resilience in the face of collapse – Bekandze Farm School. His essay reviewing my intellectual journey was one of the best I’ve read, and so I had it translated into English, to share with you here. I don’t expect or ask you, or anyone, to change direction in the way I have done, but to allow an awareness of collapse to transform your own priorities, as and when you ready – as there is not one right response. But there are some benefits! If you are interested in exploring your own path with peers, then please consider our online course (next one starts late January).

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The Politics of Collapse: uncommon conversations for unprecedented times

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“Are you leaving just before the election in case there is trouble?”

I was asked this a couple of times in San Francisco, during the week before the US election. That told me of the anxiety that some people were feeling in the run up to the vote. Nearly every time my conversations turned to politics, I heard people express their incomprehension about others supporting a candidate that they do not. I did not hear merely a concern about different priorities. Rather, I heard the belief that other people are stupid or bad. The anti-Trump voters focused on the bad things about him and ignored the real grievances that were motivating people to vote Republican. The pro-Trump voters focused on the bad things that the current US administration has done and ignored the real concerns about the former President. In both directions there appeared to be a belief that they had superior information, intelligence and ethics. When I noted that people are demonising those they disagree with, in ways that ignore real concerns, everyone I chatted with agreed that such negativity towards fellow citizens is not helpful, and that the political situation in the USA is depressing. That got me thinking about how more of us need to be if we are to develop new forms of politics suited to an era of societal disruption and collapse.

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Not Sweating on Others Waking Up – thoughts after a Temazcal

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The analysis and message of Breaking Together has been resonating with some people who work closely with indigenous leaders across Latin America. That is one reason we published it in Spanish as Cayendo Juntos. Due to their work with indigenous elders, my hosts organised a Temazcal, or spiritual sweat lodge, for my birthday. It was led by Don Alvaro, a cofounder of the Elders of Teotihuacan. That’s the area where he and his ancestors have lived, which is famous for its Aztec Pyramids. My experience that day helped me to realise I still have a long way to go in ‘letting go’ of attachment to the impact of my efforts, and the importance of such letting go for my future in this era of collapse.

Don Alvaro’s comments before we entered the sweat lodge may have been influenced by the fact it was October 12th, the day when Columbus first stepped foot in the Americas in 1492. Some call it ‘Invasion Day’. Don Alvaro explained some of the basic ideas of his culture that have been suppressed in the 500 years since then. Such as the obvious fact that we are part of nature and not in charge of it. Plus, the reality that the natural world is itself sacred, rather than just parts of it, or those aspects that we imagine to be separate from nature. 

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The Freedom in Truth – launching ‘Cayendo Juntos’

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Transcript of speech given at the Monterrey Book Festival (Feria Internacional del Libro Monterrey), Mexico, 6th October 2024, to launch Cayendo Juntos, the Spanish edition of Breaking Together.

I am pleased to have reached you here in Monterrey just before the close of this remarkable event – one of the largest book fairs in the world. It is probably best that I was kept back until the final day, so that I wouldn’t spoil the mood of your previous days here. Because what I am going to talk about is not very fun. In fact, it is so heavy that I don’t talk about it much in public. But coming to Mexico felt important to me. That’s because I believe that Latin America, more generally, can play a significant role in softening the collapse of modern societies around the world. Three different areas of wisdom and struggle from this region offer signposts for how our human race might cope with the consequences of having overshot planetary limits and poisoned our living home. Those traditions are liberation theology, anti-imperialism, and indigenous cultures. So I’m honoured to be invited to offer my own ideas into your rich mix of intellectual traditions in Latin America.

For over 30 years this event has showcased a breadth of ideas in the Spanish language. Both fiction and non-fiction. I believe that is still a valid distinction, is it not? I know some people do wonder. I saw a sign in a bookshop that they had moved their apocalyptic fiction books into their current affairs section. Maybe one day they’ll move their current affairs books into the section for apocalyptic fiction.  

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The Francophone World in an Era of Collapse

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If modern societies are breaking down, is there a political movement ready to soften the collapse and begin anew? Or do we need new ideas and organisations for collective action? Might a local focus be the only meaningful approach as industrial consumer systems decline? Or is this a period that calls for greater international solidarity with those suffering the most? I think the conversations and initiatives in the Francophone world will provide us many insights on these questions, for a number of reasons, which I’ll come to in a moment. That’s why I will celebrate the release of the free ebook version of S’effondrer Ensemble, with a gathering in Grenoble, France on October 30th. I will be joined by some members of the translation team and other special guests who are leading in the field of climate adaptation. If you can make it to Minimistan for 6pm, it will be a chance to meet others who are taking this topic seriously (just come, you don’t need to register). 

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