The Rise Of Eco-Grief

Worry about climate change is so common, it’s sparked a new mental-health epidemic: ecological grief. But there are two groups of people proving hope is another option.

- Anna Spargo-Ryan

Summer 2019: Massive fires race across Tasmania, destroying thousands of hectares of majestic Huon Valley forest. Record-breaking rains flood Townsville, with lethal bacteria in the water contributing to the death toll. A tiny rodent from Bramble Cay in the Torres Strait becomes the first-known mammal driven to extinction by human-induced climate change. And that’s just in our own backyard.

We’re living in a time of serious uncertainty. Our feeds are overflowing with doomsday prophecies: pictures of starving polar bears, terrifying clips from climate change activists, stats that tell us the past five years were the hottest ever recorded. It’s information overload, forcing the message on us over and over until we feel powerless to help. Even when the news is good, it’s overwhelming. Footage from climate change rallies gives the sense we should be doing more. Cries for action from young activists like Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish girl who started the global school strike for climate action movement, clang against the denial of governments.

We’re working through emotions such as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, fear, angst, regret, hopelessness. Sounds like a kind of mourning, right?

Actually, so many people are feeling this way that there’s now a psychological term for it: ecological grief. It’s the sensation of losing something important – or knowing we might – because of climate change.

Dr Susie Burke is a senior psychologist from Melbourne with a focus on environment and disaster response. “Regardless of the cause,” she says, “those mental health conditions are painful and distressing and difficult for people to manage. The feelings are real. Is it rational for people to be feeling that intensity of emotions in response to the vicarious threat of climate change? Yes, it is very rational.”