Resources
Living in the Time of Dying
Facing the truth about climate change
NOTE: If you only make time for one thing on this resource page, watch this short documentary. It’s the best of the best!
If we accepted the climate science was true, how would we choose to live? How did we get to a place like this in the first place and what actions, if any, make sense at this time?
Michael Shaw explores these questions and topics through a series of interviews featuring: Author of ” Deep Adaptation” Professor Jem Bendell; Dharma teacher and author of “Facing Extinction” Catherine Ingram; Journalist and author of “The End of Ice” Dhar Jamail; and Elder, teacher, author, and Citizen of the Chiricahua Apache Nation, Stan Rushworth. For more information visit www.livinginthetimeofdying.com
Collapse and Adaptation Primer
These two videos are a primer in ecological overshoot, the rise and fall of civilizations, and how to adapt to reality and live life fully (and love the life you live) even at TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it).
The first video, “COLLAPSE 101: THE INEVITABLE FRUIT OF PROGRESS” is a 75-minute visually stunning distillation of decades of scientific and historical research into cosmic, biological, and human evolution, highlighting the key differences between pro-future (sustainable) cultures and anti-future (unsustainable) civilizations. Special attention is given to (A) the evidence regarding the rise and fall (boom and bust) of unsustainable civilizations, (B) what is inevitable, what is futile, and what is nourishing and meaningful given our predicament, and (C) why human-centered notions of “progress and development” have always (with no exceptions) resulted in societal and technological simplification (i.e., collapse).
The second visually rich video, “POST GLOOM: DEEPLY ADAPTING TO REALITY” is a 60-minute “hope beyond hope” roadmap for staying sane, sober, and inspired in the context of the already well underway collapse of industrial civilization now being exacerbated by Covid-19, abrupt climate disruptions, and an economic downturn that may soon surpass the Great Depression of the 1930s.
BE FOREWARNED: this is SOBERING INSPIRATION!
Given the visually rich and multi-disciplinary nature of the information packed into these two programs, watching without multi-tasking (rather than skimming or merely listening) is advised.
Collapse 101: The Inevitable Fruit of Progress
• Where are we? • What lies ahead? • What causes ecocide?
1. The Big Picture — Understanding our predicament and our trajectory
2. What’s inevitable? futile? — Accepting reality, and avoiding frustration
3. Progressing Toward Ecocide?! — History’s Verdict Re Human-Centeredness
4. Problems vs. Predicaments — 5 Stages of Awakening / Post-doom Living
Post Gloom: Deeply Adapting to Reality
• Why living in integrity ain’t easy • Why death is a sacred necessity • What’s the essence of “post gloom”
Post-doom Thinking and Living 101
These two videos are a “crash course” in post-doom and deeply adaptive thinking and living. They contain a distillation of humanity’s best and most up-to-date collective intelligence regarding Earth system science, ecology, abrupt climate change, environmental history, and collapsology — notably, the key differences between genuinely sustainable (pro-future) cultures and self-destructive & ecocidal (anti-future) civilizations. Special attention is given to how we can support each other in staying sane, sober, and inspired in chaotic and challenging times. Given the visually rich and multi-disciplinary nature of the information packed into these two programs, watching without multi-tasking (rather than skimming or merely listening) is advised.
Finding Meaning in the Dark: Sobering Inspiration for Hard Times
• Where are we? • What lies ahead? • How then shall we live?
1. The Big Picture — Understanding our predicament and our trajectory
2. What’s inevitable? futile? — Accepting reality, and avoiding frustration
3. Post-doom inspiration — Remember who you are and what matters most
4. What can we do? — Engaging in meaningful & nourishing love-in-action
Embracing Our Predicament: Trading Confusion for Clarity
• How did we get here? • Why was it unavoidable? • What now?
1. First Things First — Our name for primary reality is a life or death issue
2. Sustainable = Faithful — The evo-eco purpose of religion and of science
3. Progressing toward Ecocide?! – History’s verdict: human-centeredness
4. Problems vs. Predicaments — 5 stages of awareness / ‘post-doom’ living
Audio Playlists
Post-doom readings – To learn about these authors and subjects, see HERE. To listen, most audio files are now on Soundcloud.
SOUNDCLOUD PLAYLISTS: (A) All of Michael Dowd’s “Grace Limits / Deep Sustainability / Deep Adaptation” playlists, (B) Post-Doom Soul Nourishment, (C) Jem Bendell & Deep Adaptation, (D) Bodhi Paul Chefurka, (E) Barbara Cecil & Dahr Jamail, (F) William R. Catton, Jr, (G) RIP Homo colossus, (H) William Ophuls, (I) John Michael Greer, (J) Richard Heinberg, (K) Tim Watkins, (L) Edward (Teddy) Goldsmith, (M) Vicki Robin, (N) John Halstead, (O) Richard Adrian Reese, (P) Paul Kingsnorth, Dougald Hine, and Dark Mountain Project, (Q) Damaris Zehner, (R) Erik Lindberg, (S) William E. Rees, (T) Adam Sacks, (U) Ugo Bardi, (V) Meteorologist Nick Humphrey, (W) Adam Sacks, (Y) Walter Youngquist, and Why technology won’t save us or the environment, and, finally, (Z) Dowd & Barlow’s two 2009-2016 podcasts: “America’s Evolutionary Evangelists” and “Inspiring Naturalism“, and Dowd’s two 2011-2015 podcasts: “Evolving Faith” and “The Future Is Calling Us to Greatness“.
Latest tracks can be found below.
Let’s Talk Collapse
A most helpful (and beautifully designed) single-page guide geared towards newcomers and those unfamiliar with collapse-awareness. It is a collection of the most relevant researchers, lectures, books, podcasts, and other resources as determined through an ongoing, collaborative sampling of the collapse community (r/collapse). It also serves as the wiki for the collapse subreddit community and others who are collapse literate.
Courses
Reality 101 – Video series (also easily accessible HERE) by Nate Hagens and The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future (4.5 hours) the fundamentals of the human predicament.
Documentaries
There’s No Tomorrow: Energy and Limits to Growth: (2012: 35 min)
What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire (2011 – 2:05)
The Age of Stupid (2009: 1:29)
Pumped Dry: The Global Crisis of Vanishing Groundwater (2018: 1:04)
Surviving Progress (2011: 1:22) A mind expanding documentary narrated by Ronald Wright, author of A Short History of Progress
Four Horsemen (2012 – 1:39)
Growing Pains: The Ecological Cost of an Insatiable Economy (2019: 48 min)
The Crisis of Civilization – Full Length Documentary (2012: 1:17)
Where Are We Going – Nate Hagens (2018: 1:18)
Blind Spot – Peak Oil and the Coming Global Crisis (2008 – 1:26)
Disobedience (2016 Full Movie: 41 min)
Final Warning Limits to Growth (2015: 42 min)
Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction (2010: 1:20)
The Cross of the Moment – by Jacob Freydont-Attie (2015: 1:24)
Climate Change Film: If You Love Your Children (2014: 22 min)
Lectures
The Human Predicament by Nate Hagens (2019)
Energy, Money, Technology: A View from the Superorganism (2018: 1:20) Nate Hagens
Impermanence, Mortality & Death Resources
A Scientific Understanding of Impermanence and Death as Sacred – Inspiring, evidence-based video, audio, and text resources and rituals related to impermanence, mortality, and death, created by Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow.
Videos
Michael Dowd’s 2014 TEDx Talk:
“Reality Reconciles Science & Religion”
Michael Dowd’s 2012 TEDx Talk:
“Why We Struggle and Suffer”