1. John BarryQueens University Belfast j.barry@qub.ac.uk

2. This is the logic of free-marketcapitalism: the economy mustNew Scientist, 16 October 2008grow continuously or face anunpalatable collapse. With theenvironmental situationreaching crisis point, however,it is time to stop pretendingthat mindlessly chasingeconomic growth is compatiblewith sustainability. Figuringout an alternative to thisdoomed model is now apriority. Why politicians dare not limiteconomic growth TimJackson, pp. 42-3. 3. Jerome K. Jerome, It is always the best policy to tell thetruth.....unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar. 4. Grassroots/ Local responses to peak oil and climate changePositive, creative, apolitical, practicalInspiring and hopeful 5. Well be transitioning to a lower energy future whether we want to or not. Far better to ride that wave rather than getting engulfed by it. 6. What would a post carbon world looklike?Back to the future? . 7. Resilience normatively neutral concept simply denoting thecapacity to respond to, anticipate perhaps, a shock (externalor internal) and recover, cope with and bounce backCapitalism is/has been (will continue to be?) resilientA system can be resilient but not sustainable (in the senseindicted earlier)Need to link resilience to sustainabilitys normative ends?Resilience as a means (a design principle in Permacultureterms) to sustainability ends? 8. Seems less un-defined than sustainability more robust, measureable and operationalisable?Offers alternative principles to maximisation and simple efficiency in built redundancy , head room, slack , useful unemploymentCorresponds/underpins/links to socio-economic principles of sufficiency and enough .Distinguishes employment and the formal/GDP economy from work and a wider conception of the economy, including the social/informal economy. 9. Evolution of greencritiques from 1970sLimits to Growth1. Ecological limits2. Well-being limits3. Equity /social justice4. Economic growth asan ideology 10. Uncivilisation: The Dark Mountain ProjectCollapsonomicsIndividuals/thinkers/writersJames Howard Kunstler, Derrick Jensen, Richard Heinberg, DavidKorowicz,Older eco-authoritarians : William Ophuls, Robert Heilbroner, Garrett HardinFilms, litertature and documentariesCormac McCarthys The RoadLife after People (documentary)Collapse (documentary)What a way to go: life at the end of empireThe End of Suburbia and Escape from SuburbiaOur dominant carbon-based, climate changing economic systemIs heading for inevitable collapse it is a matter of whenand how not if. 11. 1.We live in a time of social, economic and ecological unravelling. All around usare signs that our whole way of living is already passing into history.2. We reject the faith which holds that the converging crises of our times canbe reduced to a set of problems in need of technological or political solutions.3.We believe that the roots of these crises lie in the stories we have beentelling ourselves. We intend to challenge the stories which underpin ourcivilisation: the myth of progress, the myth of human centrality, and the mythof our separation from nature. These myths are more dangerous for the factthatwe have forgotten they are myths.4.We will reassert the role of story-telling as more than mere entertainment.It is through stories that we weave reality.5.Humans are not the point and purpose of the planet.6.We will celebrate writing and art which is grounded in a sense of place and oftime.7.We will not lose ourselves in the elaboration of theories or ideologies. Ourwords will be elemental. We write with dirt under our ngernails.8.The end of the world as we know it is not the end of the world full stop.Together, we will find the hope beyond hope, the paths which lead to theunknown world ahead of us. 12. Is it brave, realistic and/ or defeatist and anti-human to contemplate andprepare for civilisation collapse?Unreasoned (and ideologically or otherwise motivated) scaremongering ?Contemplating the fragility of civilisation and our current ways of lifeA post-human vision to be welcomed to challenge the arrogance of humanism and (potentially) re-enchant our disenchanted world or at least recover its intrinsic and not just instrumental value?Post-collapse thinking what forms of knowledge, tools, concepts, ways ofworking do we need?Thinking in a time of triage and turbulence: can democracy, justice, equalitysurvive a collapse?Revisiting and learning from history: what lessons and coping mechanismscan we learn from studying the collapse of previous societies, cultures andcivilisations ? 13. Few of us are eager to contemplate, let alone truly face, these looming changes. Just the threat of losing chunks of the comfortable way of life were accustomed to (or aspiring to) is a frightening-enough prospect. But theres no avoiding the current facts and trends of the human and planetary situation. And as the edges of our familiar reality begin to ravel, more and more people are reacting psychologically (Edwards and Buzzell, 2008).the journey towards sustainable living [is] a therapeutic journey (Rust, 2008:19).Both positive (Transition) and realistic/negative (Dark Mountain) forms ofgreen thinking and practice share this attention to psychological (andcultural) dimensions of the great transitionAlso strong conceptual links to resilience thinkingFrom breakdown can come breakthrough?? 14. We are clearly now, living in a time of transition.Our stories are crumbling before our eyes., but wedont have new ones which we are yet prepared tobelieve in....We can see humanitys utterdegradation of the rest of nature, but we dontknow how to stop doing it or rather, we knowexactly how to stop doing it but we are notprepared to even contemplate making the changesnecessary, because they would break our storiesopen and leave them exposed to the wind(Dougald Hine and Paul Kingsnorth, 2011,Control and other illusions, Dark Mountain, Issue2, p. 2) 15. the inability to conceive of its own devastation is the blind spot of any culture. By and large a culture will not teach its young: These are the ways in which you can succeed, and these are the ways in which you will fail; these are the dangers you might face, and here are opportunities; these acts are shameful, and these are worthy of honour and, oh yes, one more thing, this entire structure of evaluating the world might cease to make sense. (Jonathan Lear, 2006, Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation , p. 83; emphasis added)Radical hope anticipates a good for which those who havethe hope as yet lack the appropriate concepts with whichto understand it (Lear, 2006: 103). 16. Empires and eras end. Ways of life end. But people mostly go on.And much of what is required to keep going on, to prevent theworse outcomes is simply to come to terms with the notion thata radical change in your way of life is not the same thing as theend of the world. We have always been wealthy andcomfortable and lucky here in the west and the loss of some orall of those things seems like a disaster of unimaginableproportions. But it doesnt have to be thats a way of thinkingwe can choose to discard, recognizing that those who live lesscomfortable lives often value them equally. The truth is that weneed to find a way to find pleasure and hope and joy in a muchsimpler, less consumptive lifestyle. That means sacrificingsome things we care about. It also means getting back somethings that truly matter. (Sharon Astyk, 2008, Depletion &Abundance: Life on the New Home Front, p.49; emphasisadded).The end of the world as we know it, is not the end of the world.... 17. Living and thinking with the possibility ofcollapseThe rise /re-emergence of hard green thinking and concrete utopianismRadical Hope, uncertainty and improvisationDissident thinking and the enduring necessity of utopianism 18. 1.Dont read beauty magazines. Theyll only make you feel ugly.2.One of the most radical political acts you can do in todays consumer society is to refuse toconsume.3.You are more powerful than they can possibly imagine4.Slow, down, relax there is wisdom in Winnie the Poohs words, Sometimes I sits and thinks.And sometimes I just sits.5.Commit serial acts of senseless beauty as often as you can.6.Dont wait for permission. Do it and if needs be apologise afterwards, but dont wait onpermission.7.Remember, hypocrisy is the tribute the vice pays to virtue.8.Political activism is the rent you pay for living on the planet.9.Be honest. Unlike dishonesty it means you have less to remember.10. Experts and expertise, no matter how well-meaning, should be on tap, not on top.11. Something should be desired because it is good, not good merely because it is desired.12. When you point your finger at someone else, there are three more pointing back at you.13. The map is not the territory.14. Dont sit on the fence, youll only get splinters on your arse.15. When running for elected office, dress to the rightand vote to the left.16. We know were making progress towards sustainability when our schools and hospitals arewell-resourced and it is the Army that needs bake-sales to raise money for weapons17. Never trust politiciansespecially Irish ones! 19. Villages are the basic government and economic unit of human society...Villages are the minimal level of complexity required for an enduring cultureand all the diverse political complexities of human society arose fromvillages. When we fall, we fall into villages, and when we rise, we risefrom villages. But successful village life places powerful behavioraldemands on people and visits harsh punishments on transgressors(Somma, 2009: 33; emphasis added)Brute survival versus democracy, justice, gender equality etc."The cry for bread will always be uttered with one voice. In so far as weall need bread, we are indeed all the same, and may as well unite intoone body. .. The political trouble which misery holds in store is thatmanyness can in fact assume the guise of oneness, Hannah Arendt(1963), On Revolution, (Penguin), p.94.In the struggle for survival our daily bread, pluralism, the precondition fordemocracy, is impossible, so non-democratic and often violent, coercivemeans are used