Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
At Lowimpact we’re interviewing people who are working to build a new kind of world. We want to promote what they’re doing, and find ways to work together. Today I’m talking with Shaun Chamberlin.
Shaun left the board of the Ecological Land Co-op as I joined - https://ecologicalland.coop/
He’s been involved with the Transition Network and wrote the Transition Timeline - lowimpact.org/categories/transition/books
His website is Dark Optimism - darkoptimism.org
He took on the work of David Fleming after his death, and produced the wonderful ‘Lean Logic: a dictionary for the future and how to survive it’ - lowimpact.org/categories/new-economy/books
You can join his upcoming course, Surviving the Future here - https://www.ce.sterlingcollege.edu/surviving-the-future
Transcript of interview, with links to organisations mentioned in the video: lowimpact.org/posts/where-are-we-headed-physics-doesnt-negotiate-shaun-chamberlin.
We’re interviewing key players in the new economy, to:
a) bring their work to a wider audience
b) try to find ways to co-ordinate their efforts
c) stimulate debate
d) help to build the new economy.
Here’s what we mean by new economy - lowimpact.org/lowimpact-topic/new-economy
Lowimpact.org: lowimpact.org
Hhighlights
1. We face a rift in realism. People on both sides paint themselves as realists – but there seem to be different realities. One reality states that humans are as they are, and unlikely to change, and the other sees ecological and physical reality, and states that unless we change, things will be done to us that will damage us. Physics doesn’t negotiate.
2. Lifestyle change is too small-scale, and if you try to lobby politicians, you get ignored – again, because you’re too small. For me, operating at the community level is most effective – the human scale. It’s large enough to affect your locality and the people who live there, but small enough for your voice to be heard.
3. Movements that catch the zeitgeist have room for people who want to make society better, and people who are preparing for collapse. Nonetheless, the things that it makes sense to do are very similar. They’re not opposing camps. Protecting ecology and community makes sense whatever you think will happen.
At Lowimpact we’re interviewing people who are working to build a new kind of world. We want to promote what they’re doing, and find ways to work together. Today I’m talking with Shaun Chamberlin.
Shaun left the board of the Ecological Land Co-op as I joined - https://ecologicalland.coop/
He’s been involved with the Transition Network and wrote the Transition Timeline - lowimpact.org/categories/transition/books
His website is Dark Optimism - darkoptimism.org
He took on the work of David Fleming after his death, and produced the wonderful ‘Lean Logic: a dictionary for the future and how to survive it’ - lowimpact.org/categories/new-economy/books
You can join his upcoming course, Surviving the Future here - https://www.ce.sterlingcollege.edu/surviving-the-future
Transcript of interview, with links to organisations mentioned in the video: lowimpact.org/posts/where-are-we-headed-physics-doesnt-negotiate-shaun-chamberlin.
We’re interviewing key players in the new economy, to:
a) bring their work to a wider audience
b) try to find ways to co-ordinate their efforts
c) stimulate debate
d) help to build the new economy.
Here’s what we mean by new economy - lowimpact.org/lowimpact-topic/new-economy
Lowimpact.org: lowimpact.org
Hhighlights
1. We face a rift in realism. People on both sides paint themselves as realists – but there seem to be different realities. One reality states that humans are as they are, and unlikely to change, and the other sees ecological and physical reality, and states that unless we change, things will be done to us that will damage us. Physics doesn’t negotiate.
2. Lifestyle change is too small-scale, and if you try to lobby politicians, you get ignored – again, because you’re too small. For me, operating at the community level is most effective – the human scale. It’s large enough to affect your locality and the people who live there, but small enough for your voice to be heard.
3. Movements that catch the zeitgeist have room for people who want to make society better, and people who are preparing for collapse. Nonetheless, the things that it makes sense to do are very similar. They’re not opposing camps. Protecting ecology and community makes sense whatever you think will happen.
