Eco-anxiety and Hope

  Music is one of the most important means for encountering climate emotions for myself, together with spending time outdoors, socializing with others, and doing embodied practices.   This playlist is an emotional journey. The atmospheres (a suitable word for the the topic, huh?) are more important than the lyrics, but some tracks have also been selected because of their lyrics. The playlist does follow roughly a process of crisis. There are fluctuations of sorrow and anger, but also of hope and beauty – as in our lives amidst the ecological crisis.   I would recommend listening to the playlist first without reading my comments about the songs, but many methods are suitable here.   1. Moby: Why does my heart feel so bad (reprise version) Reprise: the heart feels so bad again. The playlist starts with the situation where many people have found themselves in: asking why does it feel so bad. Especially when I started my work around eco-anxiety in the ea...

  Would it be better to use the formulation “climate emotion” or “eco-emotion”? This question surfaced again in relation to the Ecopsychepedia project , which is led by some very insightful Climate Psychology people . The ‘Pedia is a very promising project and I’m glad to participate in it. The question at hand is a complex one and I have been thinking about it a lot (see e.g. my recent article about climate emotions ). I think that both kinds of words are needed, and I’ll try here to explain my view. My broad definition of eco-emotions (sometimes called environmental emotions, and see also the Earth Emotions framework by Glenn Albrecht) is that they are emotions / feelings / affects which have been significantly evoked by ecological issues. There’s bound to be many factors which affect people’s emotions at any given moment, but it is very important to notice that ecological issues do cause and shape emotions. I define climate emotions as eco-emotions which are significantly re...

  A very big news day for me: 1) my article about Taxonomy of Climate Emotions was published and 2) a new Climate Emotions podcast was launched by Dr. Thomas Doherty and me ( http://climatechangeandhappiness.com ). Please give them a try and share the word if you find them useful! In the article, (1) I provide a large taxonomy of various emotions and feelings which can be connected with the climate crisis, and (2) I discuss these emotions in the light of interdisciplinary research. Two tables are offered which include references to research. The effort is quite ambitious and it is clear that more research is needed, but hopefully this article helps both emotion work in practice and future research. For a quick look, please see this table of various climate emotions . The title of the podcast is provocatively “Climate Change and Happiness”. We know that for numerous people, a logical title would be “CC and misery”. We wish to be sensitive to justice issues and we do discuss lots of...