Transformative Adaptation with Rupert Read and Morag Gamble

In this episode of Sense-Making in a Changing World show,  it is my delight to welcome Rupert Read - public scholar and climate activist. He is based in England, but I spoke to him in France where he was leading a residency on eco-spirituality and the moderate flank (something you’ll hear more about)

Rupert Read is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, former spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion and co-founder of the Green Activists Network, GreensCAN. He is the author of several books, including This Civilisation is Finished and Parents for a Future. His new book, Why Climate Breakdown Matters, is due to be published in the summer.  The book he is working on with  Permanent Publications is about Transformative Adaptation. He has also written for The Guardian, The independent, The Ecologist, Permaculture Magazine, Resilience (and many more) and a frequent guest on BBC radio and TV. 

He was part of the group that catalysed the British governments declaration of a Climate and Ecological Emergency and a reviewer of the recent IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) report - one he describes as the scariest yet.

In the show we talk about  Transformative Adaptation, the Great Turning - and how we can turn faster, taking action vs being an activist, Thrutopia - stories that can help us through the changes and disruptions that are our new normal, the kinds of messages that shine through the fear, despair and overwhelm.

Rupert says, our world needs a positive and radical change - quickly - emergency transformative adaptation. Civilisation as we know it is over, but collapse is not inevitable. We need a new way of thinking, about politics, about philoso