Transformative Adaptation

Another world is still just possible

Transformative Adaptation
Pages:112 pages
Size: 5 x 8 inch
Publisher:Permanent Publications
Pub. Date: September 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781856232258

Transformative Adaptation

Another world is still just possible

Edited by Morgan Phillips
Edited by Rupert Read
with Manda Scott
Availability: Available on backorder

Paperback

$15.95



Read this book to be ahead of the curve and to be able to bend the curve. Transformative Adaptation (TrAd) 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.

We are out of the safe zone. Transformative Adaptation (TrAd) helps us to transform our civilization to be in readiness for the future and makes life worth living.

Impacts beyond 1.5oC, the agreed maximum limit-target for global overheating, are already here. In this context, adaptation, preparedness and resilience-building are no longer optional. They become central, pivotal to whether we survive, let alone flourish.

The struggle to define adaptation will be the defining struggle of the coming decade. TrAd 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 book sets out TrAd as a theory and a practice, a community and an attitude. Creating a flourishing future even in the jaws of adversity requires us first to imagine it together. Thrutopias are TrAd boldly and concretely imagined. Thrutopian stories show how we can get through by adapting to what is coming at us by transforming our systems. This book unpacks the theory of thrutopias and offers existing practical examples.

Transformative Adaptation is the quintessential idea whose time has come.

 

Reviews & Praise

"Those of us who can see the poly-crisis unfolding are still a minority, with the majority still blinkered thanks to our economic overlords. We know the collapse is coming, and that our attempts to avert the collapse by demanding change have not worked. It is clear that those directing the economic nonsense cannot avoid the collapse they have been orchestrating, nor are they willing to take action to cushion the fall. This hopeful and inspiring book sets us on the path of adapting to the collapse in real time, and simultaneously creating ways of being, doing and organising that clear a path towards a new civilisation."—Diana Finch, author of Value Beyond Money

"The same global economic system that is responsible for ecocide is impoverishing the middle class and driving them into the arms of demagogues. We need a big picture to unite a people’s movement, focused on bringing about fundamental systems change. I am hopeful that the essays in this book contribute to drawing exactly that picture."—Helena Norberg-Hodge, founder and director of Local Futures

"As the collapse of our once stable climate accelerates, it is mind-boggling that many politicians and business people still think we can adapt to what is coming with a little tinkering here and there. This is dangerous drivel. If we are to have any chance of surviving the prehistoric climate that global heating is certain to bring, we need a complete transformation of how society and economy function and how we live our lives. It is a colossal ask, but we can do it. In this marvellous and inspiring book, Morgan Phillips, Rupert Read, and others, paint an optimistic picture of what this transformation will look like."—Bill McGuire is Professor Emeritus of Geophysical & Climate Hazards at UCL, and author of Hothouse Earth: an Inhabitant's Guide
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