Published: May 2020 (5 years ago) in issue Nº 369-370
Keywords: Climate change, Water crisis, Water management, Villages, Bioregion, Collapsology, Extinction Rebellion, School Strike for Climate, Forest Group, Borewells and YouthLink
References: Greta Thunberg and Joanna Macy
Deep adaptation and Auroville
Auroville, 1968: the desert landscape
Is Auroville prepared for an uncertain future? In 1968, Auroville was a desertified plateau. Since then, the landscape has been greened by millions of trees and fauna and flora have exploded. But could Auroville return to that former state in the foreseeable future?
It seems highly unlikely. Yet Auroville and the bioregion are threatened by a potential water crisis while the world outside its boundaries at present is wobbling on its axis due to the coronavirus. In addition, mutually reinforcing challenges like climate change, large-scale species extinction, pervasive pollution, serious geopolitical tensions and a precarious global economy – the extreme vulnerability of which is presently being tested by the coronavirus and an oil price war – all suggest that the future is, to put it mildly, extremely uncertain. One school of thought, basing itself on worrying statistics like those released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, believes that we have already surpassed a tipping point, and that wide scale ecological, social and economic collapse is now inevitable in the not so distant future. Jem Bendell in his paper Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy and Pablo Servigne and Raphael Stevens in their book How everything can collapse: a small manual of collapsology for the use of present generations, are in the forefront of this.
Others dispute their gloomy prognostication, pointing out that it is ‘bad science’ and undervalues the ability of humans to rise to the challenge. And, from a spiritual perspective, Mother has made it clear that a new transfigurative Force is at work in the world. But Mother also pointed out that its eventual triumph could take many years and that in the interim “falsehood rises in full swing”, guaranteeing a great deal of disruption and uncertainty.
The world, particularly the young, is waking up to this. School Strike for Climate, Extinction Rebellion and Greta Thunberg with her speeches that lambasted leaders at the U.N. and Davos for their inability to do anything effective about climate change are the most visible manifestations. But is Auroville prepared for such a future? Or are we complacent, believing that we are in some way insulated from the travails of a world in crisis?
We tried to find out by talking to the Auroville Deep Adaptation group and to Aurovilians in the key fields of farming, energy, water, shelter and the economy. We also discover how the Findhorn community in Scotland, which has deep links with Auroville, is responding to the challenge.
In Auroville, the Deep Adaptation group is focusing on providing information about climate change and its consequences for Auroville and the bioregion and to stimulate appropriate action. An Auroville WhatsApp group on the topic has over one hundred members. But what does the group stand for? And, practically, what is it setting out to do?
We spoke to some of the core team, along with other Aurovilians who have an interest in making the community more aware of the possible existential threats to the environment and our present lifestyles.
Auroville Today: Can we begin by defining deep adaptation and collapsology?
Daniel Rodary: Jem Bendell says there is going to be a collapse, a near-term environmental and social collapse, so deep adaptation is about adapting to that reality. The UN speaks of the need for resilience in a climate-changed world, but most of the time they do not imply the collapse of most of the global systems. Deep adaptation starts from this premise and tries to find ways of preparing us for this and reducing the damage. Collapsology is about basically the same thing, but we stopped using this term in Auroville when we realised that it has a negative effect on people.
Dave Storey: I’m working for UNDP at the moment on an adaptation project and from my perspective it’s interesting to see how the UN funding has shifted in a significant way from mitigation to adaptation [mitigation addresses the causes of climate change, like accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, whereas adaptation addresses the impacts of climate change eds]. It feels like mitigation is not as important anymore because there is recognition, particularly in places in Africa, that collapse is already happening and they can’t afford to be spending a lot of energy and time on mitigation.
Do you feel that this is in contradiction to what Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have expressed in relationship to the action of a new consciousness in the world? Mother said a New World is born.
Dan Greenberg: I’ve had a lot of discussions with people in Auroville about deep adaptation and a common response is all we have to do is meditate and achieve supramental consciousness and then all our problems will be solved. I’m not so sure. For me it is clear that, as Sri Aurobindo said, we are on the brink of an evolutionary leap in consciousness, but I think the leap is going to happen through our engagement with climate change and other manifestations of our collective consciousness.
We are at a fork in the road. We have been playing out the story of ego, of separation, for millennia and I’m convinced that if we continue with that story we will go extinct. So now we have the opportunity to make the next step, that of unity. I think those who survive the emerging climate catastrophe, and I hope some will come through, will be a changed species with a changed consciousness.
How did you introduce deep adaptation to Auroville?
Daniel Rodary: In 2018 there was a request to do a conference in the French Pavilion on collapsology and we presented it in French and then in English. Later we organized a series of ‘collapso-coffee’ sessions where we gathered our insights and feelings about collapse and we’ve also held workshops on the water situation. We’ve tried to get the message across, but it is quite a heavy message…
Dan Greenberg: The baseline message of deep adaptation is that collapse is inevitable, catastrophe is likely or probable, and extinction of the human species is possible.
How have Aurovilians responded to this message?
Eric Chacra: I read the book of Pablo Servigne on Collapsology last year and I got very depressed because I realised that humanity might crash. I had to do a lot of inner work and I am still not clear. After identifying an emergency it is important to act. But Mother and Sri Aurobindo tell us to find our true nature before we act.
Daniel Rodary: For some, the first reaction to the news of a coming collapse is “We’ve known that for a long time”. However, people assume it’s in the future, not something that can happen suddenly, and soon. We also had the Aurovilian kind of denial which says that The Mother and Sri Aurobindo predicted some kind of upheaval, but they created Auroville as an answer to that so as we live here we will be O.K.
Laurence: When we had a conference on water and talked about an impending water crisis, people said, “We were told about water scarcity 15 years ago, and we still have water, so it’s all rubbish.”
Dan Greenberg: There’s a fair bit of climate denial in Auroville. My sense is that even in the climate movement there is an unspoken norm that you can talk about all these things, but you always have to end up with, ‘We still have time to put things right. Just change your light bulbs and we can get through this.’ I think this is why deep adaptation is a real rug-puller, because it says we won’t be able to ‘put things right’, and we have to deal with what is left after the collapse. This is very disturbing. We are confronting the possible extinction of our species and of all life on Earth, and to absorb that is really difficult.
How do you tread the fine line between immobilizing people through terror and getting them to act?
Daniel Rodary: What we try to do after we deliver the message is to get an experienced person to talk to people because many need psychological support.
We are also careful about how we deliver the message. We can say there is a certain collapse coming, but we can’t say it will come tomorrow, so people can start changing their lives without going into panic mode. At the same time, Sevigne says fear is a good catalyst when something urgently needs to be done.
Joanna Macy says that despair can actually be a trigger for personal and collective transformation…
Dan Greenberg: Joanna Macy said that despair can be healing, particularly when we realise that it comes essentially from a place of love, that we are feeling despair and loss because we love what we are losing. My experience of deep adaptation groups is that they are very heartfelt. When you strip off the layer of ‘We can do this and it will all work out’, and you recognise impending loss, it really connects us very deeply. Common suffering may be one of the ways we will find or deepen our connection with others.
Daniel Rodary: What we felt very strongly, and what has expanded our group very fast, is that this is something coming from the larger global consciousness, something which is reflected in movements like Extinction Rebellion and the School Strike for Climate. Promoting deep adaptation awareness and activities is happening in many places in the world.
So what is happening in Auroville?
Dan Greenberg: Some of us are adapting the ‘Awakening the Dreamer’ symposium created by the Panchama Alliance for the Auroville context, to help people see Auroville as part of a global movement for positive change.
Daniel Rodary: We found that the process Michael and Gail devised in Findhorn was interesting (see accompanying article), so we did a first run of what it could look like in Auroville. We gathered around 50 people and asked them four questions. In terms of the present global crisis, What do we want to keep? What do we want to let go of? What do we want to restore? And what do we need to make peace with?
We ended up with a series of responses for each question, which we prioritized. This has resulted in the formation of action groups on topics like food, water and emotional support.
Laurence: These are offering support to existing groups. For example, Eric is already part of the existing Water Group so he will introduce the ideas of deep adaptation there.
What are you bringing that is very different from what is being done at present?
Daniel Rodary: One thing is a sense of urgency. If you read Sevigne or Bendell you realize we don’t have ten years to start changing things. To prepare for a collapse we need to be more autonomous in terms of food, so we have to start achieving this today on a war footing. We have to start changing our diet, changing the economy, changing our land priorities. Everything we are doing at present has to be very much questioned. And the same for energy, water, transportation etc.
Eric: We cannot change people but we can constantly warn them that it is an emergency.
Regarding water, for example, what very practical things can be done that are not being done at present?
Eric: We could install water meters everywhere, and we can all give feedback on the source and state of our wells. In spite of the efforts of the water group, a lot of this data is missing at present, data that can help us design more sustainable systems, like interlinked wells.
Guilio from the Water Group made a presentation to the Forest Group. He pointed out that simply controlling the run-off is no longer sufficient given our present rainfall pattern, so now, as a short-term solution, we have to store the rainwater. But most of the people present did not get this; they felt that simply controlling the run-off was enough.
Daniel Rodary: Looking at the larger picture, there are 6000 wells on private land around Auroville over which we have no control and which are over-pumping the aquifers. The government of Tamil Nadu is unlikely to solve this water problem soon, so maximizing surface storage in Auroville makes sense. One suggested solution is a series of interlinked catchment ponds. When we cannot count on the existing authorities to deal with a problem, we have to do it ourselves.
Are there a few core principles of deep adaptation that can be applied everywhere?
Laurence: Yes. One of the best ways to survive collapse is to be part of a strong community, and this is where Auroville fits completely.
Daniel Rodary: We all have to simplify our lifestyle, which includes eating what is only grown locally and minimizing our carbon footprint. As the lifestyle become simpler, community tends to be strengthened. The message we need to get across is that this is not all loss: a simpler lifestyle can be more fulfilling. Auroville, a spiritual town, should be able to understand this but I’m not sure that it’s ready: the need to simplify the present lifestyle would be a major change for many people.
Laurence: But it’s worth noting there’s already a lot happening in Auroville along these lines. For example, there is the wild food movement and the Joy of Impermanence project. Then there are ongoing experiments in alternative governance and economy, like the Citizen’s Assembly and the online Aura platform [see Auroville Today February, 2020], which strengthen community participation and seek to make better use of our available resources.
Daniel Rodary: Youthlink has also given birth to a lot of projects based on the ideas of collapsology and deep adaptation. Their projects are low-tech and involve bartering etc. between Aurovilians.
Dan Greenberg: If Auroville continues along this trajectory, places like this will make complete sense when everything starts collapsing elsewhere. They can be the cells around which a new story, a story of interdependence rather than separation, can form.