Climate Adaptation - Interview with Prof. Rupert Read

Arkbound Foundation interviews Prof. Rupert Read, experienced activist and philosopher, to discuss transformative adaptation and the importance of facing up to the future. Rupert is one of the authors of the upcoming Climate Adaptations, a brave examination of climate change from worldwide perspectives.

Professor Rupert Read is an environmental philosopher based in Norwich, and an expert of the Precautionary Principle. He was previously the spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion, and a councillor for the Green Party. He is the co-founder of Green House Think Tank, and the author of several books, including This Civilisation is Finished: Conversations on the End of Empire - and what Lies Beyond, and Extinction Rebellion: Insights from the Inside. He has also written articles for major media outlets, such as The Guardian, The Independent, and The Conversation. 

[kristinamelnichenko]

‘Being Salmon Being Human’ by Chelsea Green is a good book on this. Thank you so much for articulating this. I believe the growing problems of depression and anxiety are the result of continuing and participating in a system that causes so much horror. we medicate these feelings away and maybe that’s why this system has been able to continue

[Rusalka]

Well done, Carolina, great interview, brilliant questions. Prof Read - hats off for courage to spell out the unspeakable

[em]

Great interviewing Caroline, thanks. So glad RR is talking about the land and regeneration of it all as a major player.

[tastemaker_]

Upvote if you ordered his book "Deep Adaptation"

Even if COP26 was a greenwash at least it raised awareness of altruistic academics like Rupert. Thanks for the video!

[keith]

We are most likely fucked as a species, functionally extinct.
Feedbacks are only discernable after they begin. There is a great big one going on in the arctic. Ergo, a positive, irreversible loop has begun. On its own, regardless of how the world reacts ( and the past 30 years have been a stunning example ), this single process means we are fucked. Just don't have a timeframe.
When the food runs out, so does civilisation. When wet bulb temperature force migration, add famine brings war. And all the while, temperatures keep going up.
You can't adapt quick enough, neither can nature. Even the Permian didn't happen this quick.

[kimwelch]

Societies do not collapse all at once. They collapse in stages or steps. Each unmet crisis erodes a bit of specific adaptation, and the society drops a level. We are already going through this process. We are already collapsing. However, adaptability is inversely proportional to the level of specific adaptation. A society cannot adapt to a changing environment until it has lost or given up the specific adaptions it has to the old environment. A radical new adaptation requires a radical loss of old specific adaptation. We will not be successful in readapting to climate change or to a society that can avoid extinction from climate change until we have lost sufficient existing specific adaption. While it is a very bad idea to encourage collapse, it is also a bad idea to put much work in avoiding it as it is unavoidable. We should look to cushion the effects on the general population for each drop in societal level, and direct people towards constructive adaptations.

[ernestmac]

I recommend people read the books by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAffe, as I am currently reading their book The Second Machine Age. In this book they discuss the technology revolution we have already entered which goes by many names from The Singularity, to the New Renaissance, Digital Revolution 2.0, and of course The Second MAchine Age. This book along with my own experiences with technology going back to when I was a kid in the 70's to now, gives me a lot of hope. I also think the consequences of listening to political and religious leaders over medical and scientific experts will have impacted many people and their families to such a degree;we will see a society far less tolerant of conspiracy theories, of the corporate and political mouth pieces, and of those who claim some divine knowledge of the truth. Such a social change will be necessary for humanity to accept the reality of global warming, and to support the social and technological advances that will be necessary to help humanity adapt to global warming and hopefully reverse it.

[jessenoell]

What actions does deep adaptation undertake or propose given that rate of planetary uptake of heat by earth’s climate system has doubled since 2005; is deep adaptation best accomplished via rapid drawdown of carbon in combination with carbon neutral emissions? At the individual level, are our remaining hours probably best spent using hand tools to get biochar into the soil, or are there better adaptation actions to take now?

[bartroberts]

Climate adaptation right now involves preparing to move inland 10 meters of elevation, and changing distribution of food in a world with famine growing 14% a year. Bad, but manageable.

If we don't act successfully now, IPCC AR6 starkly warns the end of conventional farms, fisheries and forests:
1. Energy efficiency, 100% switch from inefficient fossil fuels by 2030. 12%
2. Cut fossil extracts on emission paths 1% of today's level/month to zero by 2030. 80%
3. Drawdown like 4 new trees/person/year (2/Canadian/week in Canada). 3%
4. Ecosystem stabilization, like depaving, conservation, and restoring wetlands. 3%
5. Super-GHG reduction, like adding seaweed to feed to slow cattle methanogens, harvesting trees before they rot, refrigerant and foaming gas controls, and ending aboveground methane processing. 2%

[geofffriend]

Aerosol masking effect.
Exponential growth in methane emissions
Collapsing crop production
90% insects gone
50% plankton
Prof Read is not speaking the grim truth.
We dont have one decade and nothing can be done to stop the collapse.
We should be completely focussed right now on how to manage the oncoming catastrophe. The next El Nino will see temperatures increase radically.
The critical factor is the impact on agriculture and so food

[petersmith]

Had a car full of xr folk last year at the Travelodge hotel in Salford they went to the take away and Mcolls store. Bought there food, drinks and snacks for the weekend. When they left to go home they dumped their garbage in the parking lot on the floor🤷‍♂️. So much for being eco warriors

[celestialteapot]

In the 70's we were denounced as Communists and tragically still are.

[cestparti]

GLOBAL WARMING IS A PROBLEM NOT THE END OF THE WORLD - Bjorn Lomborg

[carinwiseman]

Rupert read, there isn't going to be an adaptation to the climate, at least not a long one. This is hopium and wishing.

[johnjones]

ECO is the new religion and if you don’t believe you are evil. Why are these people always middle class and patronising, somebody else is paying their bills. You would have a greater respect if you gave a balanced view of both sides of the argument. Make a video and discuss your global warning science with Piers Corbin and see how you get on. You won’t because you know that you are wrong.

[thisisnumber]

"Environmental philosopher"
Give me strength...🤣
Anyone who has been involved with Extinction Rebellion has no credibility.

[charliebrandt]

My take on transformation is a return to the land. We have destroyed half the viable soil since the industrial revolution. Firstly through growing population, ignorance and poverty. But since the growth of agribusiness with its attendant poisons and monoculture deserts the soils have turned from CO2 absorbers to CO2 emitters, and they now control half the worlds soil. Regenerative farming needs land,
people, knowledge and the funding to turn the land to viability which should be provided by the rich north that are the main drivers of our catastrophy.. this needs to be undertaken worldwide. But at the same time at grass roots. It would also lift people out of poverty but long term. Most countries have some desert. Look at USA almost half the country is actually desert!. Also poverty is growing apace there! A new generation of farmers could be the heroes saving the planet! The interesting thing is that desert or ruined land is worthless so could be taken over easily.