3.3. Environmental emotions

Many kinds of emotions pertain to environments and the changes in them. On one hand, people are in attached to their homes, their landscapes, flora, and fauna, and changes in familiar environments can cause various emotions such as confusion, grief, anger and anxiety. Major changes in living environments may also be traumatic. On the other hand, emotions can also be related to more distant environments and, for example, to the state of the planet that cannot be directly experienced. Climate anxiety is an example of this type of emotional state. Emotions related to environmental change are also linked to societal, economic, and cultural factors in many ways, and emotions are part of all the decision-making of human communities. Even when repressed and denied, emotions affect attitudes and choices. Therefore, it is important to learn about environmental emotions, not least because the collective denial of them is part of the current reality of the climate crisis and a contributing cause to the slow pace of the transformation.

Environmental anxiety and environmental grief

There are many types of environmental anxiety. The lack of climate actions causes anxiety in some, while the constant discussion of climate change causes anxiety in others. Some are vocal in their concerns, whereas in others psychological repression keeps the concern at bay. Suspicion and denial of scientific data on climate change is often related to said repression. According to Panu Pihkala, who has studied environmental emotions, environmental anxiety is a general term that describes many types of negative emotions related to climate change. At worst, different opinions on the nature of environmental actions cause significant social conflicts.

Environmental anxiety also affects children and adolescents. After the climate movement of students, inspired by Swedish Greta Thunberg (born in 2003), became a significant societal force, children and adolescents have been visible in the climate movement as active participants and more attention has been paid to their emotions. According to a major international study, most of young people aged between 16 and 25 are worried about the climate change (59% very or extremely worried, 84% at least somewhat worried). Over half of the respondents experienced emotions of grief, anxiety, anger, powerlessness, helplessness and guilt, and nearly half felt that climate change negatively affects their everyday life and activity.

According to Pihkala, a closer investigation and identification of emotions could help with dealing with the emotions – both in private and societal life. Identifying, naming and processing of emotions (e.g., through discussion or creative activity) are called emotional skills. Emotional skills are often flawed, and one of the known shortcomings is the fact that emotions that are deemed negative, such as grief, fear and anger, are avoided and repressed. According to Pihkala, identifying environmental emotions – even difficult ones – may help with two challenges of the age of environmental crises, which are: 1) the need to adapt to changing circumstances, also when it comes to changes in one’s emotional world and 2) the need to accept both one’s responsibility and the limits one's agency. Identifying and accepting environmental emotions may also help people to examine what is meaningful for them and what are their essential values.

Environmental grief is a very common environmental emotion. It has also been widely discussed and written about in recent years. However, according to Pihkala and others, it is not often recognised or sufficiently considered in the discussions, research and actions around the environment and climate change. Grief is often related to loss and suffering, and environmental grief may also concern places and environments that have been destroyed or are now unrecognisable, or the disappearance or decline of familiar species. It may also be linked to the loss of environmental knowledge and identity. Environmental grief may also anticipate future losses, in which case it may also be called environmental (or climate) melancholy, or solastalgia.

According to geographer Lesley Head, one central emotional skill in the era of environmental changes is learning to live with grief and other difficult emotions without being paralysed by them. Grieving environmental changes may also be an experience that opens the door to environmental awareness and creates new connections with nature and biodiversity.

Image. Anxious person in an orange shirt and blue skirt sitting on a floor. They have their arms on their chest and are leaning on a grey sofa. (Photo by Joice Kelly on Unsplash. Free to use under the Unsplash License.)

Affection, peace and joy

Environmental grief and environmental anxiety arise from the fact that people are fundamentally attached to their living environments. Even though there are attitudes towards natural environments vary from love and affection to indifference and even hate and fear, researchers have suggested that attachment to life is an essential part of human psychology – even species-specific – and humans are inclined to gravitate towards a connection with nature and its creatures. In the field of evolutionary psychology, this idea is called the biophilia hypothesis.

The biophilia hypothesis is difficult to either prove or disprove through empiric research. However, many studies have indicated that time spent in natural environments makes humans feel healthier and more balanced. For example, observing birds causes relaxation, reduces depression, and causes people to feel a closer connection with nature. According to research, people relax and recover from stress faster, for example, in a forest than in a built environment. The less human impact a forest has endured, the more effectively it helps to recover from stress. This does not mean that a city, garden, or another natural place shaped by humans is not nature. According to research, however, uncultivated environments are especially important for human well-being.

Pihkala points out that difficult and painful emotions, such as grief, fatigue and despair, do not exclude enjoyable emotions, such as love, joy and delight. It is also important to learn to identify and feel emotions such as satisfaction, validation and happiness. Trebbe Johnson, who is an expert on environmental emotions, has also highlighted that during the time of the environmental crisis, we need celebrations and rituals that help us appreciate the simple fact that we are here and now, and we have a lot to be happy and grateful for.

What kinds of emotions do climate change and other environmental changes evoke in you? What words would you use to describe these emotions? How are they manifested in your bodily experience? Are your emotions linked to familiar places or more distant environments? What emotions do societal conditions and developments evoke in you? If you want, you can reflect on these questions on the voluntary discussion forum.

Holistic knowledge

Environmental researcher Paul Shrivastava and his colleagues have written about combining different ways of knowing in relation to learning sustainability themes, i.e., about so-called holistic knowledge. According to Shrivastava et al., combining different modes of knowing, such as rational, emotional and functional knowledge, supports both learning and the development of felt agency. Researchers emphasise both learning through doing and a profound and reflective approach towards the studied subjects. In studying themes such as environmental change and sustainability transformation, it is particularly important to comprehensively understand how they relate to everyday reality and the learner's own communities.

It is also important to support individuals’ own processes of change. Depending on the world view of the learners, such processes can also be understood as religious or spiritual. Shrivastava et al. refer to, for example, the learning method developed by the research centre Presencing Institute which attempts to develop the creativity of learners through mindfulness practices. Another example pointed out by the researchers is Pope Franciscus’ circular letter (2015). In the letter, the spiritual leader of the catholic church described the connections of humans with the ecological systems of the world and urged for changes in economic systems and consumption. This is one example of how religion and scientific research can also promote the same aims.

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