Adaptation: “We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails"

Welcome to a shorter-than-usual (!), more spontaneous episode featuring us (co-hosts Catriona and Elizabeth) as its guides! We had planned to release an episode on Beauty - but events beyond our control meant we’ve had to postpone this. However, we decided to embrace the change of plans, and pulled out our mics to explore the timely concept of Adaptation. We touch on:

Questions around individual and collective adaptations to new circumstances, both in our lifetimes and with future generations in mind.

The role of conscious choice and the ability to influence when considering if and how to adapt.

Examples from the natural world, including Emperor penguins, ants, and the human genome. 

Reflections on how we may want to adapt as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and how vision, creativity and resilience may play a part. 

Enjoy! And if you'd like to explore this and other topics further, you're very welcome to join our private Facebook group, 'Unfurling Podcast'.

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References:

~ Episode quote by Dolly Parton: “We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.”

~3: “Adapt”, Online Etymology Dictionary: Early 15c. "to fit (something, for some purpose)", from Old French, from Latin. Intransitive meaning "to undergo modification so as to fit new circumstances" is from 1956.

~4: Bruce Lee: “Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

~5: “Circle of Influence” mentioned in “Habit 1: Be Proactive” of the book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey.  

~6: George Bernard Shaw: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

~7: “A Project Supported by Bill Gates Is Set to Temporarily Dim the Sun” in Entrpreneur.com

~9: “Adaptation” in National Geographic Resource Library

~10: Types of Adaptations in “Adaptations” in BBC Bitesize 

~12: Viktor E. Frankl in “Man's Search for Meaning”: “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” 

~13: Ant behaviour in Royal Society Journal ‘Interface’, and specifically about behaviour in water in PBS blog ‘Nature’.  

~14: “Emergence” chapter in “So Far from home: Lost and Found in Our Brave New World” by Margaret J. Wheatley.

~18: “Why projects to adapt to climate change backfire” in News by the University of Oxford

~20: Carbon offset projects that can harm, e.g. World Bank and UN carbon offset scheme 'complicit' in genocidal land grabs - NGOs and Offsetting carbon emissions: ‘It has proved a minefield’

~22: “Himalayas seen for first time in decades from 125 miles away after pollution drop” in The Independent 

~24: “Why 2020 Has Reminded Us To Play The Infinite Game”, Forbes 

~24: Simon Sinek’s “Infinite Mindset” and “Infinite Game”. Note: The importance of a “just cause”. 

~25: The Foot of Cupid from the BBC television series “Monty Python's Flying Circus”

~25: “What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want” by Rob Hopkins 

~28: The 17 Sustainable Development Goals

~28: One Health concept

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