Growing the climate movement by centering transformative adaptation

Global heating is accelerating, but climate mobilization remains too limited to compel decision-makers to confront the drivers of ecological breakdown, including fossil capital and industrial agriculture, and to prepare for the impacts. Here we draw on the history of social movements, the social science of collective action, and our experience in the climate movement to make concrete suggestions for increasing climate mobilization. We add to recent proposals for organizers to center “transformative adaptation”, which puts emphasis on people’s immediate material interests. Unlike shallower forms of climate adaptation, transformative adaptation involves major changes to social and economic relations. We argue that campaigns for transformative adaptation have the potential to grow climate mobilization because they can deliver direct material benefits, foster democratic and equitable institutions, increase climate resilience, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and appeal to a politically diverse public. We make suggestions for how researchers and organizers can build on our proposal.