Future outlook: overview of resources

This is Alan’s shortlist of useful resources on Future Resilience.

Impacts of Climate Change

It seems that there is little research on impacts, using the latest data on the acceleration of climate change itself. Many experts expect food supplies ot be the major impact of accelerating climate change: this is explained in a 2019 paper written by Jem Bendell: click here for paper. This also includes many useful references.

I asked a colleague to write a short paper on Food Impacts due to Climate Change, which includes indicators of likeliest geographic impact. To see it, click here.

Responses A – Food Provision

There are two issues here:

Fair distribution: currently the world produces enough food to feed everyone, if it was more fairly shared, and waste and over-consumption were reduced.
Increasing production: future impacts of climate change imply that increased supply will be urgently needed. Jem Bendell’s paper (see above) hints at ways to do this.

Responses B – Community Resilience

There’s plenty of evidence from recent and longer history that food shortages quickly lead to riots, civil unrest, extremism and more. Raising resilience and cohesion at community level is important to reduce this risk. Here are some initiatives addressing this:

Transition Network: has local groups in many countries, and has a large range of online resources. See https://transitionnetwork.org/
Future Conversations: A new UK project, led by Alan Heeks. Now running pilot programmes in 4 disadvantaged communities: each is 6-8 facilitated conversations to build skills and collaboration and face fears about future issues, including climate change. See www.futurescanning.org
UK: https://seedsforchange.org.uk/resources
International: https://www.trainingforchange.org/tools/ , https://350.org/resources/
Community Organisers: https://www.corganisers.org.uk/

Responses C – Nature dialogue

The view that many people have lost contact with Nature, and don’t feel humanity’s destructive impact on it, is widely held. Here are a couple of specific approaches to recovering and learning through Nature dialogue:

Thomas Berry: The Dream of the Earth. Berry believes that mankind needs to feel part of Nature, and that transformation must start at the level of vision, myth, and dream. See Alan’s blog, and www.thomasberry.org.
The Seven Seeds of Natural Happiness. Since 1990, Alan Heeks has created a 130-acre organic farm and a 70-acre conservation woodland where people can learn in and from Nature (see www.hazelhill.org.uk). Alan’s Seven Seeds model shows how people can grow their own wellbeing and resilience through analogies with cultivated ecosystems. See www.naturalhappiness.net

Responses D – Spiritual Resilience

Alan Heeks comments: Resilience to future challenges has been the focus of my work since 2012. A summary of this work is my Eight Dimensions of Super-Resilience (see www.naturalhappiness.net/resources). The scale of future pressures means that we all urgently need a quantum rise in our resilience, and I believe the spiritual dimension offers most potential for this. I’ve explored this in my recent paper, Believing in Better. If you’d like to see this, email me at the address below.

Contact Info: Alan Heeks: e: UK tel: 07976 602787fobr-resource-sheet-april-19 DOWNLOAD

Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom

A Sufi way to discern reality

Resource Toolkit: Creative Conflict Resolution

Current Events

Faith, Hope, Resilience | Saturday November 9

A reflective day With Alan Heeks and Simon Lockett How can we find our steady centre in these uncertain times? Where do we place our faith and our hope? What would spiritual resilience look like, for us and our communities? This day of exploration and support will include times of prayer, meditation and sharing, with periods outside for walking contemplation as a micro pilgrimage, and for communing with Nature as a micro vision quest: recognising the power of space and silence. Our venue is Garn Farm, a conservation smallholding and woodland near Longtown, in a beautiful valley overlooking the Black Mountains. We’ll have a warm indoor group room with woodburner and kitchen, and wonderful spaces outside. See more at www.warmthandwonder.co.uk. Alan Heeks has many years’ experience exploring Nature and faith as sources of resilience, and is deeply interested in how communities can deepen to help us adapt to climate change. Simon Lockett is a pioneer in re-introducing pilgrimage to Herefordshire, and has a long-standing love for contemplative prayer and spiritual connection with the natural world. Practicalities Cost: £40, concessions £25. Bring lunch to share. Timing: Arrive 9.30am for 10am start. Finish 4.30pm. Venue: Garn Farm, near Clodock, Longtown, Herefordshire HR2 0PD. There is some overnight accommodation at Garn Farm: contact Alan about this. Bookings/enquiries: Contact Alan Heeks, , 07494 203014. Group size limited to 12 people.

Featured Blog

Nourishing body and soul

Reinventing spiritual community We live in a time of impending crisis, when I hear many people urging the need for sanctuary, hospicing, and a deeper sense of community. Implicit in such words, but rarely discussed, is the huge spiritual vacuum in our relentlessly materialistic society. Role models for what we need aren’t obvious, but I’d like to describe some of the spiritual communities which have inspired me. Walking the Camino San Benedetto in Italy for two weeks, I’ve learned what a crucial role monasteries played in the chaos of medieval Italy. Amid times of frequent civil strife, sickness and uncertainty, the monasteries were places of support, trust, stability. They would mediate in disputes, provide food and health care, and just as importantly, nourished the soul. Whilst there was some corruption in monasteries too, this shouldn’t blind us to the ways they mostly served. A Ricostruttori monastery One of the reasons I have found Jem Bendell’s Deep Adaptation approach so valuable is that he sees the climate crisis as a spiritual crisis: it calls into question the meaning and purpose of our lives, and asks us to face into our mortality. I’ve been exploring spiritual paths for 30 years, so I’m painfully aware of how original teachings have been distorted and overlaid by patriarchal religion, in Christianity and other faiths. Many people miss out because they confuse spirituality with religion, and reject both. One modern role model which may be relevant is the Findhorn Foundation: this is a spiritual community in Scotland where the main shared practices are silent meditation and connection with Nature. It’s an inclusive, welcoming place for people of all faiths and none. This was the approach we followed when six of us set up a ‘spiritual’ cohousing community in 2004, the Threshold Centre. Here’s another role model, also from Italy, which is a modern reinvention of the monastery as a welcoming spiritual community with a Christian core and an interfaith flavour. The Ricostruttori di Pace (Reconstructors of Peace) were founded in 1978 by a Jesuit priest, Father Cappelletto, who wanted to offer a spiritual path for young people, very different from mainstream Catholicism. He drew on Eastern spirituality through meditation, as well as devotional movement. A Ricostruttori monastery I have visited one of their 30 monasteries several times, and find it very inspiring. The Ricostruttori take on derelict rural buildings with land, restore them beautifully, grow much of their food, and practise crafts like stained glass and fine woodwork. My impression of the Ricostruttori is that they are living as Jesus lived: in poverty, simplicity, and close to the land. A typical monastery will have two or three ‘monks’, who have taken vows of poverty and chastity, and include men and women, plus a lay community of 20-30 people, mostly young, who may live there for weeks, months or years. In our current crisis times, I believe there’s a widespread thirst for spiritual meaning and purpose, but most people don’t know where to turn. Although there is a new monasticism movement, I believe that monasteries feel too remote, otherworldly, and formal for most people. Instead, I am exploring a vision to create a Searching Spirit Centre, which would be an accessible spiritual community to support people in their exploration, staying for a week to six months. See our vision statement here. If this vision appeals to you, and you’d like to help create it, please contact me.

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