What is Climate Grief?

What is Climate Grief?

Have you ever felt hopeless or scared about the future of the planet? A sense of loss due to the changes in the environment like the loss of green spaces, the disappearance of familiar plants and animals, or the increase in forest fires or smoke? In this episode, we learn how climate grief and feelings associated with it manifest, processes of grief, and ways to deal with it productively.

Finding the words

Sometimes I find myself struggling with the words to say here in this space. Discussing topics that feel extremely heavy, knowing we don’t equally carry the burden of climate change on this planet, all the while doing what I can to inspire you to continue to have hope as I try to find the good and hope myself. As you know this is a journey towards sustainability and that journey comes with many ups and downs, and can include climate grief. I’m pretty active on social media as well as Reddit and find myself hearing others feeling the same way, regardless of whether they call it climate grief or not. Because I don’t have the words to help, I went searching for someone who would.

Climate and mind

I stumbled upon the work of Andrew Bryant, a clinical social worker, and psychotherapist, living and working on the traditional land of the Duwamish People, in Seattle, Washington. Andrew manages the website Climate & Mind, a resource hub for exploring how climate change impacts our thoughts, emotions, and behavior. In addition to work on this project, Andrew is a therapist at North Seattle Therapy & Counseling. Andrew graciously makes his content available for free. So what I am going to read to you today is a piece you can find one climateandmind.org titled “What is Climate Grief?” by Andrew Bryant and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. I encourage you to visit other resources linked on Climate and Mind and consider donating. I hope this piece helps you to understand what you or someone you know might be going through, and how you might be able to move forward. Bryant, A. (2019, August 25). What is Climate Grief? Climate & Mind. Retrieved from: http://www.climateandmind.org/what-is-climate-grief