The biophysical carrying capacity of the Earth is subject to natural limits and peril, but well-governed adaptation in tune to those limits offers promise and the possibility of a better future with greater justice, equality, recognition, and diversity. The ordeal of adaptation will involve nothing less than bending humanity's will and the arc of history in order to respect natural limits that have been largely ignored during the past two centuries of political economic carbon addiction. The mission of adaptation is to achieve future political economies that promote rather than diminish human flourishing by respecting ecological limits, managing without unsustainable economic growth, but still offering social plenitude in other forms. The fine details and directions of climate adaptation cannot be foreseen. But initial guiding conceptions can be developed now as resources for ongoing discussion and debate. This article focuses first on the notion of adaptation as a practice of recognition, and second on deliberative civic learning and planning as a means of realizing the norms of right recognition inherent in human social and ecological adaptation to climate change.
Jennings, B
The Ordeal of Adaptation: Recognition and Relationality in a Climate Changed World
Journal Of Theoretical And Philosophical Psychology