The Great Unravelling has started and will be part of our story for the rest of our life. It is an ineluctable dismantling of the fabric of life as we know it, leading to rapid and at times violent, changes to human societies. It is the result of humans pushing the boundaries of our planet beyond sustainable levels, leading among others to climate change, but also rapid loss of biodiversity, pressure on freshwater, and more. We are currently going through an acceleration of the Great Unravelling due to the confluence of the environmental crises with other crises. While the 2020-2030 decade will be affected by disasters of unprecedented scale, it will also be the decade of unprecedented societal transformation as a way to adapt to these. In Australia, there has been an enormous wave of community activities that have sprung since the Black Summer bushfire season and Covid-19. The confluence of crises have led to a realisation that we can’t continue living the way we do. Mindfulness, resilience and regeneration are emerging as key ways to navigate the Great Unravelling. There is a thirst for social and environmental connection and as a result an innumerable amount of grassroots community initiatives are springing.
About Dr Jean S. Renouf
Jean is an academic at Southern Cross University, a firefighter and a dad. Prior to this, Jean spent years implementing emergency relief projects in disaster zones and countries at war, including Afghanistan, Congo, Haiti, Iraq, North Korea, etc. All of this informs his passion for climate change, community regeneration & resilience and non-traditional security, and led him to found Resilient Byron.
Key takeaways
“Grieve and accept, let go.”
“Don’t envision the future of life through the prism of our parents’ experience, the century is different and you have to see it through new eyes”
“This is what it is, what can we do for security?”
“There is no perfect community and every community has challenges because this is who we are as humans […] we kind of let go of trying to control and accept the pits and flow of living together”
“Every single person I talked to about Resilient Byron joined on board because it just makes sense”
“In Western societies, we have this longing for reconnection”
“We focus our energy on the world we want to build”
“We provide a more engaging way of life and a sense of reconnection with what life is, with what being alive means, with oneself. What are you here for, and what does a sense of deeper achievement mean to you, and how does it affect your family, your community?”
Show notes
How to deal with our fragile mental health when facing these questions?
Resilient Byron’s structure an subgroups
Partnering for funding resilience
How to get people to agree on a vision of the future?
Caring for each other, true compassion
On RESPONSIBILITY, WISDOM and POWER
The Great Unravelling has started and will be part of our story for the rest of our life. It is an ineluctable dismantling of the fabric of life as we know it, leading to rapid and at times violent, changes to human societies. It is the result of humans pushing the boundaries of our planet beyond sustainable levels, leading among others to climate change, but also rapid loss of biodiversity, pressure on freshwater, and more. We are currently going through an acceleration of the Great Unravelling due to the confluence of the environmental crises with other crises. While the 2020-2030 decade will be affected by disasters of unprecedented scale, it will also be the decade of unprecedented societal transformation as a way to adapt to these. In Australia, there has been an enormous wave of community activities that have sprung since the Black Summer bushfire season and Covid-19. The confluence of crises have led to a realisation that we can’t continue living the way we do. Mindfulness, resilience and regeneration are emerging as key ways to navigate the Great Unravelling. There is a thirst for social and environmental connection and as a result an innumerable amount of grassroots community initiatives are springing.
About Dr Jean S. Renouf
Jean is an academic at Southern Cross University, a firefighter and a dad. Prior to this, Jean spent years implementing emergency relief projects in disaster zones and countries at war, including Afghanistan, Congo, Haiti, Iraq, North Korea, etc. All of this informs his passion for climate change, community regeneration & resilience and non-traditional security, and led him to found Resilient Byron.
Key takeaways
“Grieve and accept, let go.”
“Don’t envision the future of life through the prism of our parents’ experience, the century is different and you have to see it through new eyes”
“This is what it is, what can we do for security?”
“There is no perfect community and every community has challenges because this is who we are as humans […] we kind of let go of trying to control and accept the pits and flow of living together”
“Every single person I talked to about Resilient Byron joined on board because it just makes sense”
“In Western societies, we have this longing for reconnection”
“We focus our energy on the world we want to build”
“We provide a more engaging way of life and a sense of reconnection with what life is, with what being alive means, with oneself. What are you here for, and what does a sense of deeper achievement mean to you, and how does it affect your family, your community?”
Show notes
How to deal with our fragile mental health when facing these questions?
Resilient Byron’s structure an subgroups
Partnering for funding resilience
How to get people to agree on a vision of the future?
Caring for each other, true compassion
On RESPONSIBILITY, WISDOM and POWER
