Amongst many other lessons from this past year for us at Post Carbon Institute is the reminder to stay humble. We have long warned humanity (anyone who would listen) that we were on an unsustainable, ruinous path that no amount of tinkering could correct. But we did not quite foresee the speed and magnitude of converging crises that made 2021 such a trying year.

While our work is shifting away from warning people about an impending reckoning to helping them navigate what our friend Joanna Macy termed “the Great Unraveling,” the focus remains on meeting a few core needs:

• making sense of the complex interactions between energy, environmental, economic, health, and social systems all undergoing destabilization or even breakdown;
• telling the truth about what’s required to put humanity on a truly sustainable, more just, and more resilient path; and
• amplifying the voices of a growing community of people who are developing alternatives that can be adopted and shared as crises hit.

Being outside what’s become mainstream environmentalism, Post Carbon Institute has always depended on the support of individuals and donors like you who value our systems orientation, analytical rigor, humility, and even humor.

Recognizing that the need is greater than ever, our friends at Mobius have generously offered to match every dollar we receive from donors before the end of 2021, up to $25,000.

As our ecosystems and communities continue to be buffeted by severe challenges, I’m keenly aware that there are ever more needs and organizations worthy of your support. But if you value PCI’s unique role of promoting systems thinking, truth telling, and resilience building—and have the capacity—we would deeply appreciate your help securing this matching grant.

With a relatively small team and budget, over the last year PCI has:

• Reached over 2 million people through our websites, podcasts, events, and publications.
• Published more than a thousand articles on resilience.org and elsewhere, exploring a range of issues related to the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, the energy transition, the pandemic, sustainable food systems, justice, and more.
• Published POWER: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival, which weaves together findings from a wide range of disciplines to explore how humanity came to dominate the planet, how some people exploit others, and how we can rapidly relearn the lessons of power if humanity is to have a thriving future.
• Enrolled nearly a thousand students in Think Resilience, our free online course.
• Began forming a diverse, global network of thinkers, practitioners, and influencers (including NGO leaders, grassroots activists, and professionals in government and academia) to better understand and respond to the accelerating, dynamically reinforcing environmental and social crises we face.

With humility, gratitude, and solidarity,

Asher Miller
Executive Director, Post Carbon Institute

Photo by Guy Bowden on Unsplash