At the end of 2023, I made the mistake of exploring the topic of climate change. I read writings by folks like Jem Bendell (who wrote the Deep Adaptation paper) and Dougald Hine (who wrote the Dark Mountain manifesto), and got sucked into doomscrolling on Reddit. As a result, I became “Collapse-aware“, which dragged me into a mild existential crisis. Then, in early 2024, I had to close my company. My old life as a videogame entrepreneur came to a grinding halt, resulting in a “hard reset” of my working life and potentially my personal life as well.

I set out to answer two questions:

1. What is actually going on
2. What am I going to do now

The answer to question 1 is that we find ourselves in a “poly crisis” that, in my view, can be traced down to three root causes, and the answer to question 2 is to fix those root causes in my personal life. I wrote this essay to structure my thinking and to spark dialogue and possibly some constructive actions. I am happy to report that it indeed helped with the former goal, and I hope it will succeed with the latter goal.

TLDR: The world as we know it is in early stages of collapse. There is simply no scenario where everything will be as it used to be. Our lives will change significantly in the decade ahead: we have peaked on comfort and convenience. But there is some good news too. There are many people working to preserve and restore what deserves to be preserved and restored. I have found that the Regeneration and Eco Village movements are growing stronger every year. These people are actively working on a different way of living, and they are forging a way forward for the rest of us. I believe that the root causes for many of the problems we see today are plain and simple: we disconnected from our hearts, the land we live on, and our local communities. In order to improve our circumstances, both personally and regionally, we can reverse it: Connect to our heart, connect to the land, and connect to our local community. This creates more resilience, independence and sustainability. It means going back to basics, back to what’s actually real.

The poly crisis

Let’s start with where we are now. The world today is facing a poly crisis. This is a term coined by Adam Tooze and covered in many publications and books. In short, we are part of an intricate global machine with many moving parts. This machine is growing every day, and it works like magic – until it doesn’t. When part of it stops, the effects can be dramatic. Think of the blockade of the Suez canal in 2021, which blocked $9.6 billion worth of trade every day and disrupted 12% of global trade. Like the Suez canal, there are several other key systems that make this society-machine work. Several of those systems are at risk of disruption, and in several cases the disruption has started already.

For example, our food security relies on crop harvests, and harvests rely on predictable weather. In the past 20 years, extreme weather events have risen 75% compared to the 20 years before. We see floods in the sahara desert, tropical temperatures in the arctic, draughts and wildfires across the globe and all kinds of unpredictable weather in general. This increases the risk of a “multi breadbasket failure“, which is an event where several key crop-producing regions fail to deliver. This could impact the food security of billions of people, resulting in suffering, social unrest and geopolitical tensions.

Other areas that could trigger disruptions are geopolitical fault lines, a slowing global economy, increasing energy needs, dependency on critical minerals, and political polarization causing social unrest.

These are just some examples. The poly crisis is here, because there are several potential points of disruption, each with their own set of dependencies. Collapse, in this way, might not be a linear process: If something breaks, the cascading effects can be wildly out of proportion. In other words, when things break down, it is likely to be faster than expected and worse than expected. The COVID-19 pandemic is a good example, which caused rapid global lockdowns and disruptions, affecting billions of people.

Three Pillars

The list of dependencies goes on and on, and it’s easy to get lost in the ocean of scientific reports and scary news stories. But you don’t need the news to see what’s happening right in front of you. As I look around, talk to people, and reflect on my own life, there is a sense that “something is wrong”. The world is getting more complex and unpredictable, there is more tension in the air, and we seem to be poorer than before. Something is clearly wrong, but it’s not clear what that something actually is, because the symptoms are so complex and varied.

I simply want to find a better way forward for all of us, so I am not interested in a rational or scientific analysis of the state of the world. We need wisdom, not data points. So I tried to get to the root cause of the issues, to identify what we can work with today to improve our lives and environment. Immediately, three core issues emerged. These root causes are very close to home, and as a modernist city dweller I am “guilty” of all of them. That’s good news, because means there is potential for improvement in my life and most likely in the lives of folks living a similar life as myself. I also suspect they hold the keys to solve many of the world-scale issues we’re dealing with, although at that scale it would take a critical mass of adoption that’s beyond my wildest imagination. The good news: we don’t have solve the global poly crisis. Taking small steps like these makes us (and our immediate environment) more resilient to deal with whatever comes our way.

I believe the three areas to focus on are:

• The connection to our Heart
• The connection to the Land we live on
• The connection to our local Community

These three pillars are foundational for a good life, and they bring resilience and sustainability with them. To the extend that we have lost connection with them, it is now time to restore these connections.

The Heart

The first pillar is the connection to the Heart. It is the most fundamental part of our being, our core essence. Are you in touch with your true self? Are you in touch with your feelings? Are you in touch with the empathy and compassion? Those parts of yourself that appreciates beauty and connection? Are you in touch with your soul, your spirit? With the sacred? Do you experience meaning, purpose and self-worth in your life?

When we live in our heads most of the time, our brains tend to create (or imagine) as many problems as they solve. We tend to get sucked into dopamine escapism, whether it is through substance abuse, digital media, or any other addiction of choice.

We can see this crisis in the world through rising consumerism, nihilism, polarization, ideology, depression, and authoritarianism.

So it is time to reconnect to our hearts. There are many approaches to do this. Sometimes it’s good to take a step back from your daily life and go on a holiday in nature or a retreat, even if it’s only for a few days. It can also be smaller and more immediate: I have found journaling, listening to music and nature walks to be a big help. Then there are a myriad of spiritual practices, ranging from meditation to things like singing circles, psychedelic ceremonies, and ecstatic dance. Just do something. Anything at all. All the little things add up, and no honest effort is ever lost.

The Land

The second pillar is the connection to the Land. This is the ground we stand on, the lands that provide our food, water and fresh air. Are you in touch with nature, with the weather, with Mother Earth? Are you exposed to the elements? Do you have plants in your home? We are inextricably part of the natural world and depend on it for our physical and general wellbeing. When you buy food (and semi-food) from the supermarket, you don’t know where your food and water comes from. This cut you off from the circle of life.

This crisis can be seen by the loss of ecosystem resilience and climate change in general. Sure, we can keep some of it at bay by hiding in airconditioned city apartments, but the closer we get to nature, the more obvious it becomes that things are not all that well with Mother Earth. Storms, wildfires, draughts, floods, coral bleaching, mass extinction events – the ecosystems that we depend on for our food and general wellbeing are at risk. It will not be long before we will clearly see the effects in our wallets (rising food prices) and bellies (your favorite foods running out of stock).

We need to reconnect to the land and restore our relationship with nature. It doesn’t need hectares of wild forests (although that wouldn’t hurt). It means living closer to the seasons, going outdoors, experiencing the weather, working with the land and creating some resilience. Growing and processing our own food is very much possible (indeed, 70% of the food worldwide is grown in the “peasant network” for self consumption). It is also a powerful step towards autonomy and resilience. Become the guardian of a piece of land, even if it’s a tiny back yard, indoor mini-garden or rooftop terrace. Work it, live from it, and nurture it so that it is part of the greater ecosystem. We need healthy soil and good biodiversity, in cities as much as in the countryside. Working with Permaculture principles and general Regeneration practices will achieve just that.

The Community

The third pillar is the connection to our Community. Are you in touch with our neighbors? Are you taking part in the local fabric of life? Do you give help and ask for it? We may have many distant “friends” online, but nothing can replace the real-life conversations and rituals that form long-lasting relationships. In many places, the institutions for community have crumbled. Where I’m from, the church and the community centers were the public spaces where people came together to share all of life. Today, many public spaces are struggling. Offices, schools and “social” media are the modernist alternative, but they are poor substitutes for a vibrant local community.

Sadly, it is a rare and precious neighborhood where people get together regularly and know each other. As we live online, in a world of fancy words and pretty pictures, we alienate ourselves from the real world that’s directly around us. Our workplace may provide some sense of belonging, but it is colored by the needs of the business. We need to sing, dance and make music around a fire – this is not just something silly but a core human need that goes back thousands of years.

As we reconnect to our community, we reconnect to the reality of being human. As social animals, our relationships define us: our peers are mirrors of our souls. As we prioritize local friendships, we can become less dependent on online connections. This has a big benefit: Online, we are beholden to the whims of billionaires and big tech corporations. Their algorithms favor “engagement”, which breeds polarization, the creation of content bubbles, and addiction.

Offline, we can connect across age, interests, ideas and anything else based on one simple fact: We live here, now. Let’s meet each other in that place.

Slow down, fast

The solution to these three crises come down to one thing: We need to re-establish connection to reality. Not some out-there-someday “reality” filled with data points and projections. Not some online “reality” of picture-perfect lookalike peers and virtual worlds. This is about the realness of being present with what’s going on at this very moment at this very place.

We have a massive poly crisis on our hands, and like it or not, our life will change dramatically in the next decades. I, for one, believe that more technology is not going to save the day. We’re not going to innovate our way out of this mess. But while we can’t stop these changes, we can choose how to prepare and respond to them. We need to slow down, fast. This is an invitation to reconnect to what’s real. Resilience, joy and sustainability are a pleasant side-effect of it – but fundamentally, it’s about getting real about what’s right, and then doing that.

The good news is that, wherever you are, you can make a change, right now. You can take a deep breath and become aware of your heart, your feelings. You can become aware of the food you’re eating and the land you are living on – and perhaps take care of a plant or two while you’re at it. You can do a digital detox and invite your neighbor for a cup of coffee and a chat. These things you can do today, and it will 100% make today a bit better.

I am a city-dweller, guilty of most of the “accusations” outlined above. But I know the way forward is not more of the same. I will grow and adapt as time proceeds, doing the best I can, even though it will never be enough. I’m starting to reconnect to the heart through music and singing. I’m on the hunt for a place to live closer to nature. And I’m reconnecting with my local communities by volunteering and helping local initiatives. No matter the crisis, I know these pillars will hold.

I am curious to hear your thoughts!

With love and respect,
Derk