Resources

Living in the Time of Dying

Facing the truth about climate change

From the film’s website: “Why is acceptance of overshoot, abrupt climate change, and the inevitability of collapse vital for living meaningfully and vibrantly? How did we get here and what attitudes and actions make sense now? Michael Shaw explores these questions through 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.”

New Serenity Prayer: Emotional Support for Climate Anxiety and Environmental Dread

This 25-minute video was created to help people experience as little suffering as possible, now and in the near-term future, by providing a clear and compelling guide for “accepting what we cannot change, changing the things we can, and having the wisdom to know the difference.” This short video is a basic primer on how to stay sane, sober, heartful, and on-purpose in contracting, crazy-making times. It is also now the main introduction to this “post-doom” website and resources related to climate change, ecological overshoot, true vs. faux sustainability, and how to discern what to accept & what to passionately engage in.

Facing Adversity: Choosing Earth, Choosing Life

Explores the speed, depth and magnitude of our growing planetary crisis, and the opportunity to meet this crisis consciously. The film begins with a visual exploration of key adversity trends facing humanity (climate change, economic growth, inequity, and more) and offers a wider whole systems perspective and a deeper inquiry into what is being called forth from humanity. Learning to work with this paradox — an unfolding global crisis and the opportunity to awaken to and care for the well being of all of life — is the work ahead. Stories of impact and resilience are woven throughout. The film includes in order of appearance: Duane Elgin, Victoria Santos, Jack Kornfield, Joanna Macy, Nate Hagens, Beena Sharma, Lynne Twist and more. You can watch it here.

Unstoppable Collapse: How to Avoid the Worst (66 min)

The stability of the biosphere has been in decline for centuries and in unstoppable, out of control mode for decades. This “Great Acceleration” of biospheric collapse is an easily verifiable fact. The scientific evidence is overwhelming. Evidence is also compelling that the vast majority of people will deny this, especially those still benefitting from the existing order, those understandably concerned about the effects of collapse, and those who fear that “accepting reality” means “giving up.” (Yup, that means most of us. 🙂 The history of scores of previous boom and bust (progress / regress) societies clearly reveals how and why industrial civilization is dying. Accepting that Homo colossus’ condition is incurable and terminal may be key to not making a bad situation catastrophically worse.

Pro-Future (Wise) Living: Beyond Hope and Fear

These two visually rich multi-media videos, created and narrated by Michael Dowd, are a “crash course” in understanding the Big Picture of our global predicament — how we got in this mess, what is inevitable or likely now, and how to live fully and love the life you live in contracting times.

The first video, The Big Picture: Clarity, Compassion, and Love-in-Action, is an 80-minute program focusing on (A) key differences between sustainable cultures and unsustainable civilizations, (B) why progress can never be everlasting, (C) the nature of abrupt climate change, (D) what is inevitable (98-99% certain) and what is still possible and deeply soul-nourishing, (E) who, what, and where we really are, and (F) practical tools and exercises for living meaningfully and courageously in contracting and challenging times.

The second video, Sustainability 101: Indigenuity Is Not Optional, is a 70-minute exploration of the fundamental differences between genuine sustainability (indigenous ingenuity) and faux, or delusional, “sustainability”. The three main sections deal with: (A) the nature of symbolic language and why true sustainability requires being “faithful” to both future generations and to our biophysical creator, sustainer, and end (the biosphere); (B) the evolutionary and ecological purpose of myth and the religious necessity of science; and (C) using Christianity as a case study, Dowd shows how any religious or philosophical tradition can become more pro-future by interpreting its core concepts in an ecocentric (life-centered) way.

RECOMMENDATION: Given the visually rich and multi-disciplinary nature of the information packed into these three programs, watching at normal speed and without multi-tasking (rather than merely listening or skimming) is advised.

The Big Picture: Clarity, Compassion, Love-in-Action
• Where we are • What lies ahead • Practical tools for Thriving in Hard Times

1. Sustainable vs. Unsustainable: Why Progress Breeds Ecocide & Denial

2. Abrupt (Unstoppable) Climate Change

3. Ten Certainties / Ten Inevitabilities

4. Sobering Inspiration: Who, What, Where We Really Are?

5. Now What? Living Meaningfully & Courageously at TEOTWAWKI

Sustainability 101: Indigenuity Is Not Optional
• Why naming reality matters • Fidelity to time & nature? • Ecocentric reframing

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. Unnatural vs. Undeniable — Anti- vs. pro-future religious interpretations

Audio Playlists

Post-doom readings – Hundreds of hours of freely available audiobooks and essays. To learn about these authors and subjects, see HERE. To listen, the audio playlists are on Soundcloud HERE. Those wanting the convenience of having their audio files on a thumb-drive can see here.

SOUNDCLOUD PLAYLISTS: (A) All “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) Robert Hunziker and Britt Wray and 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) Max Wilbert and Adam Sacks, (Y) Walter Youngquist, and Why technology won’t save us or the environment, and, (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.

Collapse / Pro-Future Grace Limits / Deep Sustainability readings at TheGreatStory.org

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. (AUDIO VERSION)

Visit

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)

Facing Adversity: Choosing Earth, Choosing Life (2021: 70 min)

Lectures

The Human Predicament by Nate Hagens (2019)

2020-2030 — Navigating a Path Between Fantasy and Doom by Nate Hagens (2020: 35 min presentation, 35 min Q&A)

Impermanence & 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.

Post-doom, Collapse-related Live Presentations