Jem Bendell, pictured, is an emeritus professor of sustainability leadership with the University of Cumbria in the United Kingdom. He is well known for his extremely pessimistic views about the impacts that global warming will have on human civilization. Here is a quote from an academic paper he published in 2020:
The purpose of this conceptual paper is to provide readers with an opportunity to reassess their work and life in the face of what I believe to be an inevitable near-term societal collapse due to climate change (emphasis added).
Bendell's views have not changed since then. I subscribe to Bendell's periodic blog postings on Substack. Here is an excerpt from his blog posting on July 3, 2024:
As chronicled in my book Breaking Together, the evidence for the unfolding process of societal disruption and collapse is becoming overwhelming. In recent years we have learned that senior role holders do not want to admit this, preferring tactics of delay. What they are delaying are urgent efforts at adaptation, economic redistribution, justice, and reconciliation. The delayers include some of the most senior climate scientists and environmental executives. Therefore, those of us who are aware of the situation are now focusing on helping each other cope with the difficulties that are unfolding around us.
I will never stipulate to "inevitability," in the way Bendell does. Not in the "Human World," anyway, the world in which we most immediately live. The "World of Nature" is different. We are, ultimately, dependent upon the "World of Nature," which we can think of (and picture) as Planet Earth. Various "laws" determine how the "World of Nature" operates, and we can't change those "laws." We ignore them at our peril. This is, in fact, the point that Bendell is properly making.
One more time: The laws that govern the "World of Nature" are not susceptible to human change. The "Law of Gravity" is a good example of how that "World of Nature" works. Another example can be found in those laws that determine how much the planet will heat up if greenhouse gases are added to the atmosphere.
Human action is different. Human action is not constrained by laws that mandate and determine what must, and will, inevitably, happen. It is not inevitable that human beings will continue to load the atmosphere with heat-trapping greenhouse gases. We are doing that now, but it's not "inevitable" that we continue. Human beings are free to change, and to do something new, something never done before.
I am publishing this blog posting about Bendell's July 3rd message in order to highlight something that IS true. Bendell says that "societal disruption and collapse" will occur, as what we think of as our "climate" changes in ways that floods cities, and burns them, and that will eliminate our ability to find food on land or sea. In other words, OUR world, the "Human World," the world created by human action, is definitely dependent on the "World of Nature," so that if the "World of Nature" changes, so will the situation within our "Human World."
Bendell is sounding the alarm. He is certainly right to do that. Let me join him! However, when an "alarm" sounds, the proper reaction is not to sit down and wait for social collapse. The proper reaction is to change what we are doing to avoid what will otherwise happen.
When the fire alarm goes off in an apartment building, people don't quickly text a goodbye message to their friends and family, and then sit down and wait for the fire to consume them. They call the fire department, and do what they can, individually, to prevent the worst impacts of the fire. They escape the flames and help others to do so, too.
Bendell is right. Our world is "on fire." The alarm has sounded.
What we do about that is not "inevitable." We are not "doomed" unless we decide there is nothing we can do.
The "alarm" having sounded, doing nothing, and bemoaning the "inevitable" collapse of human civilization, is one possible response. That is, in fact, what Bendell is doing.
Let's try something different from that, shall we?
