Norfolk-based climate activist Rupert Read has co-edited a new book, Transformative Adaptation, launched to coincide with the COP29 Climate Summit in Azerbaijan which starts today. Here, Dr Read explains how the book offers a glimmer of hope
Amid widespread reports of the dire state of our planet, a new book co-edited by a Norfolk-based climate activist offers a glimmer of hope. News of the deadly flooding in Spain follows recent warning calls over the potential collapse of the Gulf Stream and the weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc) , which could have disastrous impacts on our climate, including leading to a new Ice Age.
Published to coincide with the COP29 Climate Summit in Azerbaijan this month (November 11-22, 2024), where world leaders meet to discuss plans for limiting global emissions, Transformative Adaptation – Another world is still just possible, is edited by Rupert Read and Morgan Phillips with Manda Scott.
Dr Read, Emeritus Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia and co-director of the Climate Majority Project, whereas Morgan Phillips is Global Action Plan’s Director of Education and Youth Engagement, and a former co-director of climate change adaptation charity, The Glacier Trust, with whom he continues to volunteer.
Dr Read says: ‘We’ve pinned our hopes on the COP system for more than 30 years and yet here we are. We have entered a truly terrifying period; we’re out of the safe zone and into the age of consequences.
‘So far we’ve been lucky here but our luck won’t hold. This part of the country is used to dealing with water but we won’t be used to what’s coming.’
One of the agreements of previous COPs was a commitment to containing global warming within 1.5C but this target has already been breached. The latest UN Emission Gap report continues to suggest that if only “current policies” are implemented, the world could warm by up to 3.1C. This means adaptation, preparedness and resilience-building are no longer optional. ‘When COP29 fails, as it inevitably will, I hope people turn to this book for a glimmer of hope,’ he adds.
Transformative Adaptation (TrAd for short) is adaptation that works with, not against nature. It reduces greenhouse gas emissions in the same breath as it guards us against the impacts of those emissions. This helps transform our civilisation to be in readiness and in the direction that it needs to be and makes life worth living.
This book, published by Permanent Publications, sets out TrAd as a theory and a practice, a community and an attitude in a series of essays by various contributors.
Transformative Adaptation, Another world is still just possible, Edited by Rupert Read and Morgan Phillips, with Manda Scott, is available to order from all good bookshops, it can also be bought direct from the publisher, Permanent Publications.
Featured images – supplied
Leave a Reply