It is written that a culture grows wise when old men plant trees they will never sit in the shade of. There are no maps to where we now find ourselves. We are all making this up as we go along. There’s a truth worth telling.

But there are lessons from history and wisdom from people in the Global South that have already lost their worlds to our madness and greed; these are cultures that co-operate to adapt to harsh futures and collaborate to lessen the effects of industrialised civilisation. Adapt or die has always been nature’s lasting invite to life and that is now an urgent demand as our oceans rise, our crops fail, our forests burn, the air toxifies and countless species are destroyed.

Regenerative culture cannot be a just another lifestyle choice or faddish therapy. It needs to become what we live and breathe, how we love our lands, how we see the world, how we stand up for those being oppressed.

It’s how we create a vision of the future so that our children might just have a chance at making a home amid a ruinous future.

Ultimately we must feel this vast dying of life, must suck it deep into our bellies and let it shake the earth we stand on and then take action on behalf of the life remaining to us.

SIMON BRAMWELL