Summer 2023

My Climate Journey

I used to think tackling the climate and ecological crisis was the domain of government or people with a hard sciences brain. Meanwhile I was just trying to survive emotionally and financially in this world, so: no bandwidth or interest in engaging. All the warnings stayed out there in the ether — I just didn't see how any of it had much to do with my life.

It was as I grew as a person and became more aware of my connectedness with the entire living world, that things changed.

As I slowed down, I became fascinated with plants and trees. They used to be way too boring for fast-paced me, but now, I revere and even relate to them: the long process of growing roots deep where no one can see, but that gives you the resilience you need to weather storms; or the slow delightful wonders of everyday growth and learning. 

I’ve been a water and ocean person all my life, still am; but now I love the trees and the mountains, too. 

I used to aspire to a globally mobile life where I can work from anywhere I want and travel at the same time; now I'm happy wherever I am, value rest and relaxation, and aspire to a life where I can live the permaculture way in harmony with nature. 

I used to focus on how to earn more so I could afford a certain lifestyle; now, I'm interested in how to live in collaboration with nature, which naturally reduces my expenses and therefore my need to earn.

I used to dream of living in New York City or San Francisco — and I did in both, briefly — their global glamor mesmerized me; but now, I aspire to live closer to nature, and I appreciate Taiwan more than ever.

I used to have the Silicon Valley mindset of making everything fast and scaleable; now I recognize there's a balance to things, that what goes up must come down, what goes too fast will be forced to stop or slow down. I now see the value of slow, small, steady.

I never did have an aptitude for the machinations of finance; now I don't need to. Living in harmony with the earth and getting my needs met that way makes much more intuitive sense to me.

I now see that I was raised in a society with a western capitalistic view of the world that defined my values and aspirations and modus operandi in life; now, I see that life is indeed easy, we're the ones who make it hard.

So, as I began to see our one-ness with nature, I began to devote my time and energy accordingly. I'm still learning: learning permaculture design, learning the landscape of climate action beginning with Taiwan, so that I can find out how I can best contribute. I want to integrate my love of nature, inner and outer, so my transformation work with people will include recognizing our one-ness with the natural world. And, I am considering dusting off my community-building skills and gathering folks to learn, grow, and take action together, while approaching it all in a balanced way, slow, small, and steady.

At the bottom of this page I share resources that have helped me on my climate journey, and learning more everyday.

If you're interested in joining me or having a chat around any of this, please get in touch!

Autumn 2023

I’m now passionate about degrowth, just transitions, and wellbeing economies. We need root-level, systemic change — societal transformation. Anything less — anything that allows us to stay within our limitless growth + profit-driven mindsets — will not avert catastrophe. The climate crisis is to humanity as a life-threatening illness is to a person — if we reflect deeply, heal at the root, and transform our approach to life, then there is hope. Only then. I’m co-organizing a ‘glocal’ degrowth movement in Taiwan. Stay tuned.

Winter 2023

Unexpectedly, I was invited to give a talk on degrowth at a business conference, so I took the opportunity to also share a list of ways to learn more about degrowth (see comments). A few days later, I boarded my first flight in three years to attend the Kincentric Leadership Retreat in Auroville, India. “Kin”-centric means centering the more-than-human world as our kin, with whom our lives on earth are inextricably linked. It’s precisely the loss of this knowing that has made possible capitalism’s objectifation and destruction of nature. A wilderness solo at the heart of this retreat inspired me to align my lifestyle further so as to deepen my relationship with the more-than-human world through experience. I will continue co-experimenting in this way of being via the Kincentric Leadership Programme which continues through 2024.

Spring 2024

The Auroville retreat made me realize, even as there is already much death and destruction from climate change and biodiversity loss, there is rebirth too, and I want to be a part of it.

I’ve been inspired to check out places where one can practice resilience and regeneration in community. One such place I visited was Shengou Village (深溝村), a community of part-time farmers, and also stayed in Yilan next to the ocean for 10 days. For the first time in my life, I feel drawn to move out of the city into nature.

But I know it will take time to find the right community, so for now, I’m newly volunteering at Taipei Hakka Farm, where every Sunday morning I tend to a shared plot, together with my team, and get to take home fresh veggies that we grow ourselves.

As for degrowth, I was blown away by this MOOC sharing what people are doing around the world to reclaim the commons. And we’ve discovered another group working on degrowth in Taiwan! I also have been feeling a need to lean back to regain perspective, and began reading I Want A Better Catastrophe as part of my reflection. Stay tuned.

The other day at the pond, I came upon these poor creatures hiding under the only patch of shade they could find. It’s a heartbreaking reminder that we humans in the comfortable, convenient, developed world have only lulled ourselves into complacency for now thanks to air conditioning; one day we will experience the heat just as animals already do. Will there be a reckoning then?

Summer 2024

It’s been HOT! After a period of reflection, there are now quite a few degrowth projects in the works: co-teaching a degrowth course at a renowned university in Taipei, beginning in September, which we hope to roll out at other universities here + condense into an interactive workshop for other orgs; hosting a Wellbeing Economy Forum in 2025; and hopefully screening this excellent short film Closer To Home. A government official who works on Taiwan’s global collaboration has also invited us to propose the topic for a city challenge competition that invites students to come up with degrowth-aligned solutions.

As exciting as that all may be, our theory of change is local and down-to-earth. We don’t need to worry about policy and protests yet; best get local grassroots awareness and support first. We plan to work with local officials and community colleges to build wellbeing economy initiatives on the ground, as well as live out degrowth through building a) a permaculture community and local economy that we ourselves will live in, and b) housing cooperatives.

It’s a lot, but we’ll move forward with a degrowth ethos: slow is good and less is more. So even if we don’t do all of it, we trust that what we do and how we do it will provide a sanctuary and real solutions for a world that desperately needs somewhere to turn in this heat.

Autumn & Winter 2024

It has been a transformative season of harvest and new seeding; death, and rebirth.

The biggest harvests have been through the degrowth university course. My favorite part of it all is how, like in the natural world, it has all unfolded organically, better than any strategy we could’ve come up with: co-teaching gave us a chance to learn from one another, cross-pollinate, organize and share each of our own ideas, and build community through weekly dinners after class.

Cross-pollination has spawned new projects for 2025: a book club; monthly “picnics” (in the works); and plans to create a “degrowth for dummies” kit, a 3-hr workshop that can be shared in communities (which we think will be more effective at this time than the Wellbeing Economy Forum we had considered), a land course to reclaim the commons, and more.

Because we needed a way to invite the public to our book club, the Transformation Collective has also taken form on the worldwide web for the first time. And a clearer vision for it is taking form as well. Exciting!

Personally, preparing and teaching the classes in the university course was a delicious opportunity to merge two of my passions: personal growth & transformation, and degrowth & wellbeing. I have come to realize they are one and the same, that each has a context in the other and is incomplete without the other. It is now my passion going forward to show people how our personal wellbeing — those day-to-day worries, stresses, health issues, and even our desires and aspirations — is intimately connected to systemic wellbeing, and the crises in both require us to connect the dots and wake up so we can take action.

So, my work, heretofore focused on humans, now incorporates the more-than-human and ecological realm, because all is connected. In addition to the university course, I’ve begun facilitating the Biodiversity Collage — it illustrates simply yet profoundly how, as humans we are so intimately connected to plants, animals, and the living world, and if they are dying en masse, why do we think our fate will be any different?

In daily life, a penchant for getting things repaired, rather than buying new stuff, has brought delightful new community. A broken second-hand electric fan propelled me to Taipei’s only repair cafe, open on weekend mornings, run by a team of volunteers, mostly retired gentlemen who are whizzes at fixing things. That fan was so hard to fix I had to go back six or seven times! It became a great excuse to hang out with these fun uncles and grandpas — enjoying old Mandopop songs on a rainy morning, shooting the breeze, greeting other community members who brought things to fix.

My mother has also urged me to buy a new jacket already, but to me, the ol’ thing just needs ‘a new design’ sewn onto both sleeves. Even the couple that runs the sewing shop shook their heads, bemused that I would insist on getting this old jacket sewn up rather than just buying a new one. But to me, I got to make new friends with them, plus I don’t have to waste time and money buying something I already have. (I also introduced the repair cafe to them, they’re intrigued.) It all makes me walk around town these days feeling a new fondness for this place, its people. For a third culture kid (TCK) like me, it’s a precious sense of place.

As for death and rebirth: what’s died has been any remaining naïveté I didn’t know I still held towards authority, the current system, and the timeline for facing consequences. I grew up believing democratic governments do a mostly adequate job of taking care of things, even if they can be corrupt at times; overall, we’re safe. Through eye-opening books like Breaking Together and A People’s History of the United States, podcasts like Unmasking Empire, conferences like AI and Neoliberalism at National Taiwan University (NTU), and illuminating conversations with degrowth colleagues, the scales have finally fallen from my eyes.

I may have had an idea, but now I see deeply just how much of an empire the US is and has been throughout its history — giving me disturbing new insight on current events. I may have grasped the hubris of Silicon Valley, but I didn’t quite realize the extremity — why the likes of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel would support Trump I never understood, but now I see they have contempt for democracy as “mob rule” and they believe only they are fit to rule, not just the tech world, but all of humanity and beyond. I may have known that the consequences of unbridled neoliberal growth have befallen the Global South already, but I hadn’t known quite how cruelly; I may have known even Taiwan & the Global North will face consequences soon, but I hadn’t realized just how soon.

My reborn view of the world is brilliantly summed up in this article re: the history of the systems that brought about “two very different reactions to two murders”, of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, and of Jordan Neely. If reading it you think, come on, it’s not quite that bad (and only a short while ago I might have had the same reaction), I invite you to check out the resources I shared above, and do a bit of digging on your own.

And since the consequences are nothing less than an intensifying slides-and-shocks collapse of our industrial consumer way of life (as I learned from Breaking Together), knowing how to survive outside this system — i.e. via a full permaculture lifestyle in community — is now essential; a focus of mine this coming year.

At the same time, our movement is yielding its first blossoms, creative energy and inspiration bubbling up and flowing forth. From within me as well. Rebirth.

As 2024 turns into 2025, I am settling into a period of rest, reflection, and reading. More transformation, with its death and rebirth, is in store for us this new year. Let us hibernate well and build rootedness and resilience. Peace be with you.

Resources