I’d heard and read a fair bit about Transformative Adaptation (TrAd) over the last year or so and still hadn’t quite managed to grasp its essence, so I was delighted to be asked to review this book with the hope that it would finally help me put the pieces together.
Transformative Adaptation is a collaboration between philosophers, activists, visionaries, educators and more. Bringing well-thumbed PM articles, books and podcasts up-to-date alongside the many lessons learnt through XR’s incredible journey. I could sense the dreaming, the questioning, the tenacity and the immensely courageous depths that these humans had reached into to gather TrAd together and heave it out into the light so that everyone can see it shine in all its beautiful power.
And, like permaculture, the ideas are not necessarily new in their own right. This is more about how we choose to push into new worlds of possibility and act on mass and at scale at this very particular moment in human history. It is full of examples of what I’ve seen my XR buddies doing since the necessary move on from trying to make change from the top down – finding ways to get on with bringing the more beautiful world into being. But crucially it speaks to the need for us to do this in a way that brings the emerging climate majority together using the commonality of our deepest core values as the warp threads on which to weave a strong and beautiful fabric that will stand the test of time.
As the authors explain, Transformative Adaptation intentionally has no clear conclusion – how can it have? TrAd is emerging and evolving. What it does end with though is the TrAd declaration with which I wholeheartedly align and I know I will be joined by many.
My plan is to buy a number of copies and share them around locally with a suggestion that we then gather together to see what emerges as we dream a new world of ‘unimaginable promise’ and then we act. The wisdom of this little book reminding us that we may not feel that we have the answers inside us but they are there bubbling up between us. The collaboration that is TrAd is proof that that’s where the magic happens.
Ele Waters, www.tregovenek.org.uk