Ecological grief

(blue) and Republicans (red) differ in views of the seriousness of addressing climate change, with the gap widening since the late 2010s mainly through Democrats' share increasing. Usage of "ecological grief" dates back to at least 1940, where Aldo Leopold used the term to refer to the pain of environmental loss. In A Sand County Almanac, Leopold wrote that "One of the penalties of an ecological education is to live alone in a world of wounds". The phenomena of ecological grief became more widespread in the 21st century along with the worsening climate crisis. Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht coined the term solastalgia, publishing the first academic paper on the idea in 2005. A survey was conducted to measure the eco-guilt, anxiety and grief on mental health and its effect on the likeliness of pro-environmental behavior based on sociodemographic characteristics. Participants were asked a series of pro-environmental questions and asked to rate on a 5 point scale - 1 being almost never and 5 being always/almost always. Communicators such as the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication have often addressed the question of grief by stressing the importance of describing solutions. Attempting to channel climate anxiety into action for solutions is consistent with the approach described by Sherman H. Dryer, Director of Radio Productions at The University of Chicago, in his manual for World War II propaganda, in which radio communications about the war always end with a message on how the listener can support the war effort. However, it is not clear that encouragement to channel anxiety and despair into action is an adequate response for people who have experienced concrete personal losses, such as Greenlanders who have had to euthanize sled dogs. Cunsolo, an ecologist active in Nunatsiavut, in Canada's Far North, described grappling with this question in an article titled, "To Grieve or Not to Grieve?". Some discussions in the media have focused on the question of whether presenting the negative aspects of climate change is making people despair and give up. A 2016 Scientific American article posed the question, "Is a traumatic sense of loss freezing action against climate change?" More recently, research has indicated that emotional responses to crisis and disaster are inherently adaptive, and with appropriate support in reflecting on and processing the experiences, these emotions can lead to resilience. Climate change's impact on mental health can range from acute to chronic forms of distress. Common feelings were listed as a sense of powerlessness, despair, and grief. Three main have been attributed to ecological grief. 1) Past physical losses like firsthand extreme weather events, species extinction and habitat loss. 2) From the disruption of ones own cultural identity in relation to their surrounding environment. 3) The anticipation of future loss and climate anxiety. == Symptoms ==

Some symptoms of ecological grief are not limited to but can include eco-anxiety, eco-guilt, and eco-paralysis. Research related to solastalgia is being recorded on an environmental distress scale by accessing grief that is associated with environmental loss and anxiety tied to anticipation of future losses. Eco paralysis is an emotional response triggered by the shock of environmental events and the inability to give a physical response due to an overwhelming feeling of conflict. ==Impacts==

Individual acts On April 14, 2018, civil rights attorney David Buckel, 60, self-immolated without witnesses at about 6 a.m. in a Brooklyn, N.Y., park, after having sent an email notifying news organizations. On April 22, 2022—Earth Day—Wynn Bruce, 50, self-immolated in front of the U.S. Supreme Court Building, apparently to protest climate inaction, after having edited a comment on a 2021 Facebook post about a course on climate change, writing "4/22/2022" next to a fire emoji. Eco-tourism As for the case of eco-tourism, there have been disheartening impacts made in Bama Yao Autonomous Country located in Guangxi, China. Bama Country is referred to as a longevity town due to the high percentage of centenarians residing in the area. Place identity is referred to as the sense of self and attachment established from living in a certain area. A Survey was conducted to establish whether individuals who hold a stronger place value with the Great Barrier Reef are more likely to show signs of ecological grief from habitat decline. Study used four groups, 1st group being local people, 2nd was tourist, 3rd was travel operators and 4th was fishery companies. When all groups were asked to rate "Thinking about coral bleaching makes me feel depressed" on a 1-10 scale, residents scored the highest of 7.14/10, followed by tourist with a 6.9/10, and commercial travel operators scoring 6.3/10, and fishery companies scoring a 4.66/10 The residents and tourists were next asked a series of 6 questions related to identity, resource pride, place attachment, aesthetic appreciation and lifestyle. There was a positive correlation shown between having a high value of place identity and biodiversity between both tourists and residents Young people and females were more likely to report having feelings of "reef grief". The commercial operators and fisheries only reported high levels of ecological grief when worrying about the negative impacts of climate change. Overall place attachment is found to play a meaningful role in perceptions of climate change impacts. == Groups of people affected more than average ==

Young people In an open letter to the Swedish government, a group of psychologists and psychotherapists said, "A continued ecological crisis without an active solution focus from the adult world and decision makers poses a great risk that an increasing number of young people are affected by anxiety and depression." One advocacy group manager says, "Those of us who work in the climate change world see young people mourning the losses that are coming ... These reactions are real and valid." Renee Lertzman, a social scientist who "studies the mental health and emotional components of environmental degradation ... likens the climate-related stress now plaguing teenagers and 20-somethings to the oppressive Cold War fears that gripped young baby boomers, many of whom came of age under the threat of nuclear annihilation." A study done on climate anxiety in children and young adults collected data from 10,000 individuals from countries in Australia, Brazil, Finland, France, India, Nigeria, Philippines, Portugal, the UK, and the USA all between ages of 16–25 years old. Relationship with worldview People express differing intensities of concern and grief about climate change depending on their worldview, with those holding egoistic (defined as people who mostly care about oneself and their health and wellbeing), social-altruistic (defined as people who express concern for others in their community like future generations, friends, family and general public) and biospheric (defined as people who are concerned about environmental aspects like plants and animals) views differing markedly. People who belong to the biospheric group expressed the most concern about ecological grief i.e., a form of grief related to worries about the state of the world's environment, and engage in ecological coping, – which includes connection to community, expression of sorrow and grief, shifting focus to controllable aspects of climate change and being close to nature – people who belonged to the social-altruistic group engaged in ecological coping but did not express ecological stress. ==As a secondary impact of climate adaptation on women ==

Grief may be directly associated with the secondary impacts of climate adaptation. These secondary impacts have been observed in women according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC AR5 WG2 TS notes that == See also ==