I work on environmental issues, mainly plastic pollution. I have worked in the environmental field since 2011.
I currently have several colleagues out on burnout leave.
Which is a combo in some cases of dealing with too much work, not enough funding or staff, plus working on serious issues dealing with the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution issues, and loss of biodiversity. Plus the wars, and devastation caused by these wars, adds another layer of stress.
Many of us (I believe) suffer from solastalgia. Sure other things like financial stress contributes to burnout, as do health issues etc but I want to discuss solastalgia today.
Solastalgia is a neologism, formed by the combination of the Latin words sōlācium and the Greek root -algia, that describes a form of emotional or existential distress caused by environmental change. It is best described as the lived experience of negatively perceived environmental change. A distinction can be made between solastalgia linked to distress about what is in the process of negatively perceived change and eco-anxiety linked to what may happen in the future. Wikipedia
A PDF, cited as, Albrecht, G. ‘Solastalgia’ : a new concept in health and identity. PAN : philosophy activism nature. 2005; 3, 44-59 is available here to download and read: bridges.monash.edu/… notes the following:
...(S)olastalgia is the pain or sickness caused by the loss or lack of solace and the sense of isolation connected to the present state of one’s home and territory.
Solastalgia…. is manifest in an attack on one’s sense of place, in the erosion of the sense of belonging (identity) to a particular place and a feeling of distress (psychological desolation) about its transformation. It is an intense desire for the place where one is a resident to be maintained in a state that continues to give comfort or solace.
Solastalgia is not about looking back to some golden past, nor is it about seeking another place as ‘home’. It is the ‘lived experience’ of the loss of the present as manifest in a feeling of dislocation; of being undermined by forces that destroy the potential for solace to be derived from the present. In short, solastalgia is a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at ‘home’.
...snip...
The factors that cause solastalgia can be both natural and artificial. Drought, fire and flood can cause solastalgia, as can war, terrorism, land clearing, mining, rapid institutional change and the gentrification of older parts of cities. (The author notes) that the concept has universal relevance in any context where there is the direct experience of transformation or destruction of the physical environment (home) by forces that undermine a personal and community sense of identity and control.
Indigenous communities around the globe suffer from this as noted in above PDF.
Finally, working in the environmental field, all my work is angled on sustainability and ecosystem-wide holistic approaches. We try to bring in communities and stakeholders and make projects last beyond the funding cycle. But investment in ecosystem health by removing plastics and other pollutants, restoring biodiversity, and mitigating climate impacts is costly and difficult in many part of the world with bad governance or myriad other issues that are more pressing for nations.
The defeat of solastalgia and non-sustainability will require that all of our emotional, intellectual and practical efforts be redirected towards healing the rift that has occurred between ecosystem and human health, both broadly defined. In science, such a commitment might be manifest in the full redirection of scientific investment and effort to an ethically inspired and urgent practical response to the forces that are destroying ecosystem integrity and biodiversity.
The need for an “ecological psychology” that re-establishes full human health (spiritual and physical) within total ecosystem health has been articulated by many leading thinkers worldwide. The full transdisciplinary idea of health involves the healing of solastalgia via cultural responses to degradation of the environment in the form of drama, art, dance and song at all scales of living from the bioregional to the global. The potential to restore unity in life and achieve genuine sustainability is a scientific, ethical, cultural and practical response to this ancient, ubiquitous but newly defined human illness.
I am writing this diary in part to share this concept, and in part to reflect on the fact that I am still at least 10 years for ‘retirement’ but am unclear that in 10 years there will be any environment to safely retire to.
The triple planetary crisis weighs heavy on many of us, making it almost a quadruple planetary crisis if we include mental well-being in the discussion.
In the meantime, we carry on as best as we can, taking self-care a bit more seriously, and trying to support our local ecosystems, colleagues, family and friends who are suffering.