Transformative Adaptation - by Rupert Read & Morgan Phillips (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"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

About the Author

Rupert Read is co-director of the Climate Majority Project and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia, UK. He is the author of several books, developed the concept of Transformative Adaptation and also invented the term 'Thrutopia'; an act of imagining the actual mechanics of how we transition from this broken, collapsing world to one that is in a process of transformation and healing on all levels. Since then he has been building Thrutopianism into his creative and scenarios work, including his viral internet short Out of the Ashes.
Rupert Read resides in Rockland St Mary, Norfolk, England.

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. Morgan has worked internationally in the environmental sector for over 20 years. Having returned home to Wales in 2022, Morgan is now governor at his local primary school and a member of the education committee at Black Mountains College. Morgan's 2021 book Great Adaptations - In the shadow of a climate crisis has since been published in Japanese.
Morgan Phillips resides in New Quay, Ceredigion, Wales.

The book includes a comprehensive chapter from Manda Scott, formerly a veterinary surgeon, is now an award-winning novelist, podcaster and regenerative smallholder. Co-creator of the Thrutopia Masterclass, she is committed to laying the foundations to a future we'd be proud to leave behind.