What is Climate Grief?
In recent years, people have been experiencing a deep grief regarding the losses with regard to the nature. This feeling goes beyond scientific reports, graphics, and news headlines. What we are experiencing is now considered not just “conscious anxiety,” but a kind of mourning.
So, “climate grief” emerges at this point. The name of that traumatic feeling that comes from losing nature, watching species go instinct, and thinking about the future of the planet: climate grief.
In this blog post, we will talk about what climate grief is, how it emerged, and how can we deal with this feeling.
“Climate grief” describes the emotional reaction of people in the face of environmental losses. In other words, the grief we feel in the face of big and some irreversible losses such as forests burning, species going extinct, habitable areas being flooded.
This concept is based on the term of “solastalgia”, first developed by Glenn A. Albrecht, an Australian philosopher. Solastalgia is the name of a kind of melancholia a person feels due to the destruction of nature while living at their home. In other words, you are at home, but your home is no longer familiar.
Climate grief is an emotional response to the loss of nature. This feeling can emerge both on personal and social levels. You feel like you lost a relative. Because what you lost is actually the feeling of future. This feeling is experienced not only as an individual, but also a collective mourning.
Climate grief is often mentioned alongside a concept that is frequently confused with it: eco-anxiety. However, these two feelings are not the same. Eco-anxiety is a fear about the future. It is a state of anxiety caused by the possibility of disasters that have not yet occurred. Climate grief, on the other hand, is much more silent and heavier. It is the mourning of what is lost.
Eco-anxiety starts with the question of “what if?” Climate grief, on the other hand, grows with the feeling of “it will never come back.” Sometimes, eco-anxiety brings people into action; it can be expressed in various ways such as volunteering, campaigning, protesting, etc. But climate grief can cause a person to withdraw into themselves. It can turn into silence, melancholia, even despair.
Please check out our blog post about eco-anxiety from here.
However, both are natural and valid feelings. It is no longer possible to live in this world and act like nothing is happening. And there are no clear boundaries between these feelings either. Many people can feel both fear and grief at the same time.
Understanding the difference between climate grief and eco-anxiety is important in terms of defining our emotions. Because when we know what we are dealing with, we can see the ways to deal with it in a better light.
Climate grief is silent most of the time. It shows up in little moments in our daily lives.
For example, you see the trees being cut down where you grew up. Sometimes, this feeling comes up when you are watching the news. Images of a burning forest, animals dying of thirst, or houses swept away by the floods... You watch but there is nothing you can do. You immediately feel guilty, desperate, and sad.
Sometimes you feel the mourning when you are thinking about the future. You find yourself alone with the questions such as “Is having children a selfish thing to do?” or “What will tomorrow bring?” These questions arise out of fear, but also a kind of loss. Because the world we know, nature we are familiar with is slowly dying.
Climate grief is not a feeling that is easy to deal with. It can grow inside us in silence, drawing us into itself. However, running away from this feeling, ignoring, or repressing it would create a bigger load in the long term.
Losses that are not mourned make people numb in time. This feeling mixed with despair turns into disinterest or denial at times. You start to say, “It is already too late for everything.” And this paralyzes us at individual and social levels.
But to get to know grief, to stay with it and to share it can be transformative. Because feeling sorrow when we lose something actually shows how much we love it. A person who feels sad for the forest, for water, for birds is still connected. And this is a beginning for hope.
Facing climate grief is both a personal therapy and a political stance. Mourning is not a passive action. On the contrary, it means to have the courage to ask new questions in the silence that follows accepting and staying with this feeling. The question of “what can I do?” usually emerges from here. Mourning does not only remind us of the loss. It also points to love. And love is the most powerful motivation for taking action.
Climate grief is a feeling. There are some ways for opening up a space for this feeling, expressing it without repression, and transforming it.
First step is to name this feeling. In other words, accepting that what you are feeling is not just a “bad mood” but real mourning. Because knowing what you feel enables a person to regain control of that feeling. Being able to say “I am experiencing climate grief” is a key step also in terms of realizing that you are not alone.
Secondly, sharing this feeling. Talking, writing, coming together with a community. Grief lightens as it is shared. In some countries, people establish climate grief groups. People come together to share not only data, but their feelings as well. Mourning creates a collective memory.
Expressing this feeling in numerous ways, such as arts, literature, music, can also be a strong tool in dealing with it. Some people write poems, some paint, some only go out for a walk. Spending time in nature, reconnecting with it can also be healing.
Finally, turning grief into action. Not everyone needs to be an activist, but even minor changes can be meaningful. Creating a garden with your neighbor, beginning recycling in the building you live in or just encouraging a friend to talk about this subject would create a significant difference. The solution to deal with climate grief is not destroying this feeling. It is getting to know it, accepting it, and passing through it to find a way.
Living with climate grief has become one of the inevitable facts of this age. But this grief is not only a personal matter. It is not a feeling we can handle solely within ourselves. Because grief should be collective if the loss is collective.
We are losing a world we all live in collectively. And feeling alone in the face of this loss can drive people into despair. And this is exactly why we should talk about this grief, carry it together, and open up spaces for each other. This feeling should not drive us to paralyzing withdrawal. On the contrary, it should be the beginning of solidarity, connection, and collective action. Because even the deepest grieves lighten when they are shared. And if there are still things that can be restored in this world, it is us that will restore them. We are not alone.