Resilience and wisdom to stay happy in the years ahead
Why organic navigation is better than analytical prescription In recent years, I’ve spent quite a lot of my time exploring the future outlook: recently, I feel I’m getting some valuable insights, at a time of massive change and uncertainty, when it seems that most people (and governments) can’t or won’t consider the future and how … Read more
Are we facing collapse, or merely huge disruption? This is an important, useful book which should help you think more clearly about the future outlook, and about the complex systems that we all depend on (climate, economy, food supplies and more), which are all under stress and may change radically. I’ve had some involvement with … Read more
An ecosystem view on human societies Of all the many books on future outlook I’ve read, this is a rarity: it offers a scenario which I find plausible and even encouraging. John Michael Greer wrote The Long Descent, on how civilisations decline, and he combines these insights with his experience as an ecologist and organic … Read more
Why down to earth beats fishtank modernity This is a very helpful, illuminating book, though not in the ways I hoped. The idea of ‘solutions’ to the climate crisis is long gone for me, but I am thirsty for guidance on practical adaptation in local communities. Dougald’s book only hints at this, but it has … Read more
Insights from new Future Risks report It’s hard to make sense of the future outlook: there are so many issues, risks and trends which could worry us, at every scale from local to global. And we have to discern real news from fake news, objective facts from mountains of self-interested spin. So I’m pleased … Read more
Don’t despair! Choose your climate response from our wide range of options.
A bigger view of our possible future… Alan Heeks writes: Palden is an old friend, who plays a Merlin-like role in my life, popping up periodically with cryptic insights. He’s a deep thinker out of the box, a seer and astrologer, who usually offers a radically different point of view There is no rational basis … Read more
If you want to understand how our future could unravel… I highly recommend this book: it will give you a clear sense of why societies might well collapse, what that could look like, and to some extent how we could prepare for this, or adapt if it happens. Originally written in French, the book has an engaging tone of voice, despite … Read more
I’ve just had a rare visit to London, and one of my treats was a classical music concert in St Martin in the Fields, the beautiful old church on Trafalgar Square. Right across the road, in the big central area, was a vigil and protest for Ukraine, which is happening nightly. It was moving to … Read more
In the past two years, the world has been rocked by three huge events: covid, the rapid acceleration of the climate crisis, and now by Ukraine. Most of us did not see any of this coming: a few people did, and the ones I know are telling us to brace for more major shocks ahead. … Read more