“As someone seasoned in working with dangerous situations, deep adaptation seemed to me to be an eminently sensible and simple framework for reducing harm and suffering and being able to adapt to uncertain situations.”
This article in the Irish Times by Fred Ehresmann offers a concise and easily understandable summary of the Deep Adaptation movement and the 4 R’s. Resilience, Restoration, Relinquishment, Reconciliation.
It’s been good to see DA getting into the mainstream press. The title of the above-linked article is “Response to climate emergency set to shape our children’s future.” But as the author himself points out, it’s not just about the future and not just about our children (or ourselves); it’s about helping people all over the world to mitigate and adapt to emergency conditions that many are experiencing right now.
On a personal note regarding efforts to raise awareness … Last week, I used the citizens’ comment time at my City Commission meeting to draw people’s attention to COP-26 and the climate crisis. I wore pieces of burnt toast clipped to my hat and shirt, and carried a cutout painting I’d made of a thermometer in flames. I pointed out that there’s only so much big government can do to build real resilience (which as I see it includes both mitigation and adaptation); that the real power to build resilience rests with neighborhoods and local communities.
The visual/theatrical sort of approach got people’s attention; I may use a similar approach in subsequent efforts to boost my community’s climate awareness and willingness to face the situation.
Speaking of a visual/theatrical approach, a friend and fellow activist has dressed up as a “toxic mermaid” (complete with sickly green face paint) to raise awareness of pollution and wildlife deaths in our waterways.
If you try (or have tried) anything of this sort, drop me a line and let me know what you did and how it went!