Ep 223, Jem Bendell's Dangerous Ideas - What if Sustainability Is Just a Big Green Fairytale?
Okay, brace yourselves...
Brands love to set sustainability goals. But what if it's all nonsense? What if net zero, the obsession with carbon, and the idea that renewables are taking over from fossil fuels, are all part of a fake green fairy tale that we tell ourselves because the alternative is too difficult to imagine. Or that corporations tell us so that they can keep on with business as usual.
WTAF? We know. It's... a lot.
Is it true? You decide, after listening to this week's guest.
Jem Bendell is an emeritus professor of sustainability leadership at the University of Cumbria, the author Breaking Together and founder of the Deep Adaptation movement, as well as Bekandze Farm school and folk band Barefoot Stars.
If it sometimes feels like everything's collapsing around us, Bendell argues that's because it is. From the climate and cost of living crises to rising geopolitical tensions, and don't get us started in the widening gap between rich and poor. He says, it's not a sudden thing, like we see in Hollywood movies about the end of the world. Rather, he argues, collapse is a process, and one that's already begun. The question he's asking is: what can we do on the other side?
Some people, he writes, are already: "dramatically changing their lives to prioritise creativity and social contribution. They are worrying less about their career, their financial security or following the latest trend. They are helping those in need, growing food, making music, campaigning for change and exploring spiritual paths. That is happening, because they have rejected the establishment's view of reality and no longer expect its officers to solve any of the worsening problems in their society." Others are just pretending nothing's wrong.
Can cats help? Do doomsters really have more fun? Where does hope come into all this? Clare sat down with Professor Bendell after his keynote at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney to ask all this and more.
VILLA KITTY is a refuge for Bali’s abandoned cats and kittens. Cats and kittens of all ages are found on the streets of Bali, in garbage bins and in the grounds of hotels, villas and restaurants. The organisation “provides a place of sanctuary and healing”.
They say: “In addition to the rescue, sterilisation, medical treatment and ultimately adoption of Bali’s cats and kittens, yes and dogs and puppies, Villa Kitty Foundation is also actively involved in educating the local community. We run workshops and classes for school children, routinely involve them in dog-walking schedules, recruit them as kitten cuddlers and support a program for children in the SOS Children’s Village with the care and socialisation of cats and kittens they have rescued.” Donate here.
NOTES
FESTIVAL OF DANGEROUS IDEAS co-founded by The Ethics Centre and the Sydney Opera House in 2009. In 2024, it took place at Carriageworks in Sydney, and speakers included Jem, Roxane Gay, Jean Twenge, Masha Gessen, and the creators of The Witch Trials of JK Rowling podcast, Megan Phelps-Roper and Andy Mills.
FURTHER LISTENING As mentioned by Clare in the intro, Ep 97: No Fashion on A Dead Planet (series 3), Episode 152., Fashion Act Now (Series 6). Disover BAREFOOT STARS here.
Jem’s new book is BREAKING TOGETHER, A Freedom Loving Response to Collapse.
Satish Kumar, the great Indian environmentalist peace activist, calls it "prophetic"... The philosopher Charles Eisenstein talks about it's "healing" aspects. Clare Farrell, the co-founder & former former fashion designer who's you hear on Episode 97, says it's a book for you "if you want to save some of the world, but hate being told what to do"... Jem talks about "collapse as a process, not an event”, and says it’s already happening. Just as in the field of ecology EARLY WARNING SIGNALS show that a full collapse, or a total system shift, is coming, we can see see the our current human-made systems begin to buckle. Better get ready then…
FURTHER READING Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy is available in pdf form here. The paper went viral and was downloaded half a million times.
This is Not A Drill is a 2019 “handbook for climate rebellion from the movement that's galvanising a generation” published by Penguin.
BEKENDZE FARM (above) is a permaculture project in Bali, that offers free farmer training and programs for high school students, undergraduates and local women’s cooperatives. Discover here.
ECOLIBERATARIANISM “'As a political philosophy, I suggest that ecolibertarianism includes a return to a balance between consequentialist ethics and virtue ethics, where the latter approaches mean we act because we believe it to be right. Passion for the work but non-attachment to the outcome is key.... means we need to identify what is right, no matter what inducements there might be to do otherwise, or whether we think it will succeed. To do what is right without attachment to outcome will allow ourselves a more fulsome engagement with reality. That means acting while knowing there might be certain failure, individually or collectively. That is not doing what’s right only because of a slim chance of succeeding. Of course, knowing what is right to do in any given circumstance requires some wisdom.” (Quote from Breaking Together, by Jem Bendell.)
DOOMSTERS “They let go of false hopes that they will be saved, they can move through grief and begin living creatively again, with an awareness of how every day is a blessing. This doesn’t mean they don’t grieve, worry or feel sad and angry, but that their feelings of wonder and gratitude about life don’t immediately trigger those other difficult emotions or keep them stuck there. Instead, they are living life more fully, according to what they value. It is precisely because these people regard modern societies to be breaking down that they are living more freely. They need neither an underground bunker nor a fairy tale of a better tomorrow as they live, today, for truth, love and beauty. Who are they? I call them doomsters. I am one of them. Perhaps you are, too?" Do they really have more fun? Look, probably not, let’s be real here. But here’s the T-shirt…
Jem argues that PROGRESS is a myth, a false narrative that we’ve only fairly recently invented. “It starts with the idea that we are in charge, on Planet Earth, and from that we will continue to advance making ourselves better individually and collectively,” he says on the podcast. “[That] we will continue to gain more knowledge, more technology [and] everything will get better. It’s even a religion I would say, because it is so assumed. To say things that go against that, for some people, it elicits disgust.”
Read the rest on Jem’s blog THE FAKE GREEN FAIRYTALE here.
HOPE Jem might prefer “non-attachment to outcome” but Clare stands firmly on the side of hope. Better still, hope in action. Because no one wants to join a gloomy movement. For some hope-filled listens, try Episode 161 RADICAL HOPE CLUB with the radiant ZOE GAMEAU, also GREENPEACE’S DAVID RITTER sharing his galvanising thoughts in Episode 113.