Living in the Time of Dying

Living in The Time of Dying is an unflinching look at what it means to be living in the midst of climate crisis and ecological catastrophe and finding purpose and meaning within it. Recognising the magnitude of the climate crisis we are facing, independent filmmaker Michael Shaw, sells his house to travel around the world looking for answers. 

Featured in this documentary are founder of the Deep Adaptation movement and former Professor of Sustainability Jem Bendell, award winning journalist and author of The End of Ice (2020), Dahr Jamail, Dharma teacher and author of “Facing Extinction” Catherine Ingram and Stan Rushworth, a Native American Elder, teacher and author who brings an especially enlightening viewpoint to these questions. 

Catastrophic ecological changes are now opening up whole new sets of questions about how to make sense of these troubled times and live our lives accordingly. Many of the folks interviewed in the documentary argue it's too late to stop most of what is coming but in no way is it too late to regain a renewed, life giving relationship with others and the planet. 

Watch the documentary here: 

For my part, I find purpose in working with friends and neighbors to cultivate locally adaptive alternatives to the faltering and toxic extractivist-industrial systems of today. Living and dying in a time of endings is made more meaningful and bearable by developing the skills and strategies for adaptation at the personal, family, and levels, all the way to whole regions. We can reestablish past ways and create new relations and structures ready to receive the changes to come. .   

To be sure, there have always been troubles in human history, in different places, and at different times. There have been cycles of abundance and scarcity, with many shifts and events in the realm of politics -- but this age of consequence and trouble is very different. The scope and scale of the fragility of current ways of doing things is unprecedented.