Climate Grief

[Me.]

I can totally relate to this, especially after hearing what they are trying to do to the endangered species act.

“Sometimes, when I think of the climate crisis, my thoughts flood with fear. When I think of this devastatingly beautiful planet we live on, threatened by vast environmental destruction, my limbs fill with heavy sadness. These feelings are painful, but I’m not alone in them. Climate grief and anxiety — mental health issues that arise amid environmental change — will only worsen as temperatures continue to rise.

An Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released on Aug. 8 said that the climate crisis and harmful agricultural practices threaten humanity’s ability to feed itself. A May 2019 report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), showed that one million of the planet's eight million species are at risk for with extinction as a result of human activity.

This constant loop of dire news — although there are bright spots, like the rise of young climate leaders, massive reforestation efforts in Ethiopia, and the increase of rail transportation in Europe — can lead people to feel despair for the future. For people already experiencing the impact of the climate crisis — like Greenland residents, who lost 197 billion tons of ice in July or people experiencing historic heat waves in India — the fear is much more immediate.

Anjali Enjeti, a political columnist for ZORA Magazine, says that her climate grief is informed by love for her children. “I find myself constantly thinking about the state of our planet, and I worry that my children's major decisions in adulthood — where they will live, whether they will have their own children — will be completely controlled by our rapid destruction of the earth,” Enjeti tells Bustle.”

https://www.bustle.com/p/climate-grief-is-a-more-common-emotion-than-youd-think-18656107

[Me.]

1. More

“Part of climate anguish is also guilt. Personal actions — like flying less, recycling, or going vegan — can help reduce emissions. But for a variety of reasons, it’s hard for everyone to commit to these actions consistently, or even at all. That can lead to a lot of guilt. But as climate essayist Mary Annaïse Heglar wrote for Vox in May, climate change conversations have failed society in this regard, telling us that “climate change could have been fixed if we had all just ordered less takeout, used fewer plastic bags, turned off some more lights, planted a few trees, or driven an electric car. It says that if those adjustments can’t do the trick, what’s the point?,” Heglar wrote.

In light of an IPCC report that showed 100 companies are responsible for over 71% of emissions, for Heglar, it’s important that people not wallow in guilt over feelings of inadequacy. “We need to let go of the idea that it’s all of our individual faults, then take on the collective responsibility of holding the true culprits [fossil fuel companies] accountable," she wrote. "In other words, we need to become many Davids against one big, bad Goliath.”

It’s important to remember that the fight against the climate crisis is not hopeless, although anything resembling success will take a lot of effort from everyone. But it can be done, and has been done before — notably in the case of the ozone layer — as essayist Lacy Johnson pointed out on Twitter:”

[cilla4progress]

2. Absolutely.

Our whole family has it. We live outside most of the time. All our activities and passions involved being outdoors.

We are trying to soak it up as much as possible while we still can.

[Me.]

3. This Is So Important

[Me.]

4. The Amazon

such an indescribable loss.