Post-doom

Postdoom, also post-doom, is a concept articulated by Michael Dowd in 2019 in his quest to "find the gift" beyond mere acceptance that ongoing climate change would inevitably lead to civilizational collapse. As Dowd reflected in a 2022 essay, "Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance: where are you in the vaunted stages of grief? And is doom automatically the end point?" He continued, "I began to explore (with others) the possibility of compassionate 'post-doom' forms of awareness." By the time of his death, Dowd had conducted more than fifty conversations with colleagues exploring the topic of post-doom, which are documented online in both video and audio formats.

Others who subsequently have used the term 'postdoom' as a descriptor of their own trajectory in moving through climate anxiety and a sense that societal collapse is inevitable include Shaun Chamberlin, Paul Ehrlich, and Meg Wheatley. Jem Bendell, who named and established the concept of Deep Adaptation in 2018, has also accepted post-doom as a relevant descriptor. Rupert Read, a leader of the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion, contrasted post-doom with the doom perspective in his 2022 book. He wrote, "They are rather post-doom. They contain a willingness to undertake a full-spectrum active response to what leads 'doomers' by contrast to give up and to resort to desperate rants and survivalist 'prepping' only."