Gail Bradbrook, UK scientist and co-founder of Rising Up/Extinction Rebellion, gives a clear-eyed update on where we are in the process of climate collapse and what is required of people of good faith now.

This 57-minute video covers two main things: The ecological crisis – the latest science on what risks there are and our current trajectory which includes the possibility of abrupt (ie near-term dramatic climate change) and human extinction. And second, understanding our emotional response and about getting to an appropriate responses. Her goal is to tell the truth and ask us all to act accordingly and consistently with the information, including our understanding of what actually enables change to happen in the world.

Bradbrook concludes with organizing strategy for strategic nonviolent social disruption to apply pressure on governments and institutions for substantive change.

I wonder if this tactic meets the scale of the disaster? Gandhi strategist Pietro Ameglio in Mexico says we must build a “permanent firmness” or “grounded defense” in nonviolent obstructive or constructive actions that “are implemented in proportion with the level of violence and impunity we were up against.” This is what leads to the next phase in the history of social movements in nonviolent civil resistance: non-cooperation and civil disobedience. When there is such a high level of violence, impunity, and state complicity, if other scales of greater moral and material radicalization are not activated, the pressure of mass mobilizations and public dialogue with authorities are not sufficient, because they allow the government margins for dissembling.”

Bradbrook mentions Jem Bendell’s work on “Deep Adaptation.” Bendell writes: I hope the deep adaptation agenda of resilience, relinquishment and restoration can be a useful framework for community dialogue in the face of climate change. Resilience asks us “how do we keep what we really want to keep?” Relinquishment asks us “what do we need to let go of in order to not make matters worse?” Restoration asks us “what can we bring back to help us with the coming difficulties and tragedies?”

The key question I’m wrestling with now: What does Deep Adaptation/metanoia look like in our Discipleship communities?

Key Resources:

What Lies Beneath: The Understatement of Existential Climate Risk by DAVID SPRATT & IAN DUNLOP with foreword by HANS JOACHIM SCHELLNHUBER (adviser to Pope Francis on climate collapse) — updated August 2018

Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy by Jem Bendell (July 2018)