In part 1 of this series on Glenn A. Albrecht’s book Earth Emotions the word solastalgia was introduced. This word was Albrecht’s starting place in the naming a whole new area of human emotional experience. He gives us the words to describe our feelings while we are witnessing the extinction of complex life and ecosystems on this planet.
In review, solastalgia is the unsettling negative feeling of loss of home or one’s familiar living surroundings. Solastalgia can be caused by very local and personal events or by very large and overwhelming changes on a regional or global scale.
One of the challenges of reading Earth Emotions is the introduction of a lot new words to the reader. But, in all fairness Albrecht warned the reader in the sub-title, New Words for a New World. It is with this in mind I recommend reading this book over a week, a month, or longer. Take a little time to let the new words sink in. It takes a few good nights of sleep to move through the stages of learning that his collection of new words demand.
Before I present two short lists Albrecht’s new words I need to define two words that will frame the conversation and set the stage for future Resistance Words articles about individuals words. And I need to mention that each word introduce in this series should be initially thought about in two ways. The first way is a local view and the second is a global usage.
I’m reminded of the old saying “think globally, act locally,” and I think it applies although it needs to say more. Acting locally while important is not the same as acting globally. I think the interplay between the local and the global is the defining issue of our time. One of the goals of Resistance Words is to supply words appropriate for setting global policy that compliment the words we use for local governance.
Anthropocene
At the top of the colorful chart to the right is the epoch we are in, highlighted with a light yellow, called the holocene. The holocene started about 11,000 years ago with the ending of a glacial period. The holocene is distinguished by the retreat of the ice and the relatively good weather that has allowed life to flourish in all of its diversity. And, it is my understanding that had humanity not been fruitful and multiplied the relatively good weather of the holocene might have lasted for hundreds of thousands of years before the next ice age.
The anthropocene is the proposed new name of the next epoch. Or I should say is the epoch we are now in. It is defined as the period of time during which human activity is the dominant influence on climate and the environment. The anthropocene starts approximately with the dawn of the industrial revolution around 1750 as indicated in the diagram below. Click here to enlarge the diagram to see the numerous human caused factors that are changing our planets weather.
It is important to understand that all previous epochs, periods, eras and eons the weather cycles and changes were of natural origin. The weather changes in the anthropocene are uniquely caused by human activity such as burning coal and oil.
Humanity in the anthropocene is also facing a similar struggle. It is my hope and Albrecht’s hope that having words to name our emotions helps move humanity to action to take the steps necessary to to reduce humanities negative impact on the planets environment.
Before one can understand the tables of words below one has to understand Psychoterratic.
Psychoterratic
Psychoterratic dis-ease arises from a negative relationship to our home environment, be it at local, regional or global scales. The negative relationship involves a loss of identity, loss of an endemic sense of place and a decline in well being. Conversely, an enduring and positive relationship to a loved home environment delivers the benefits of a strong endemic sense of place and well-being.
From Albrecht’s website
The learning of a new word / concept pair starts with the perception of the existence of the object or concept linked with a name. Ones understanding moves through acquiring a beginning and end frame. And the third frame is often distinguished by comparing and contrasting it with a negative of the original object or concept. Below are some negative and positive new words do describe our earth emotions.
Negative Psychoterratic Words
Biophobia |
A fear or hatred of biology. |
Ecoanxiety |
Anxiety regarding the effects of climate change on the environment. |
Ecocide |
Destruction of ecosystems. Regional in scope. |
Ecoparalysis |
An inability to act in any way to stop or slowdown climate change. Even with the knowledge of options available to act on. |
Ecophobia |
A fear or hatred of ecological systems. |
Environmental Generational Amnesia |
Each new generation accepts the depleted and poisoned environment as normal. With no knowledge or experience of a previous cleaner and more ecologically diverse environment. |
Global Dread |
This is the feeling of a mixture of terror, extreme anxiety, and deep sadness regarding the our upcoming apocalyptic future. |
Mermerosity |
A persistent state of mourning over the loss of the familiar environments we lived in. |
Meteoranxiety |
Fear and anxiety over extreme weather events. A subset of ecoanxiety. Fear and anxiety over extreme weather events. |
Nature-Deficit Disorder |
The idea that human beings, especially children, are spending less time outdoors, and the belief that this change results in a wide range of behavioral problems. From Wikipedia |
Eco Necrophilia |
The support for life is over-ridden by the greed for wealth and 'productivity', beyond that which the Earth can supply without the loss of ecosystem vitality. |
Necrophilia |
Mary Daly defines necrophilia, "not in the sense of love for actual corpses, but of love for those victimized into a state of living death" From Mary Daly Papers |
Nostalgia |
A sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. |
Solastalgia |
A form of mental or existential distress caused by forced environmental change. Loss of home and loss of surroundings. |
Terrafurie |
The anger we feel knowing that we are past the tipping points and that extreme weather events are the new normal. |
Tierracide |
Destruction of ecosystems. Planetary in scope. |
Tierratrauma |
The deep feelings when your connection to the earth is directly impacted by sudden negative environmental change. |
Topoaversion |
The feeling of not wanting to return to a lost home or environment. |
Toponesia |
Forgetting our positive childhood grounding experiences with the places, plants, and animals we grew up with. |
Below a partial table of positive psychoterratic words.
Positive Psychoterratic Words
Biocomunen |
The understanding of the shared nature of life. All life. |
Biophilia |
A hypothetical human tendency to interact or be closely associated with other forms of life in nature. Merriam-Webster: Biophilia |
Ecophilia |
Love of nature. |
Endemophilia |
Love of a specific place by those that live there. |
Eutierria |
A melting of self into all of life that is accompanied by positive feelings of belonging |
Holobionts |
An assemblage of a host and the many other species living in or around it, which together form a discrete ecological unit. Wikipedia: Holobionts |
Homeostasis |
In biology, homeostasis is the state of steady internal, physical, and chemical conditions maintained by living systems. Wikipedia: Homeostasis |
Resilience |
The ability of a system to withstand changes in its environment and still function. Wikipedia: Resilience |
Soliphilia |
Albrecht calls the “love of the interrelated whole” soliphilia. In my view soliphilia, even more than biophilia (which E. O. Wilson popularized as the urge to affiliate with other forms of life), makes us feel more connected to the whole world and supports caring toward all of nature—the living and nonliving parts alike. Soliphilia stretches love from one’s own place (as in topophilia) to the whole. Psychology Today: Soliphilia and Other Ways of Loving a Planet |
Sustainability |
According to Our Common Future, Sustainable development is defined as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Wikipedia: Sustainability |
Sumbiocracy |
I (Albrecht) define sumbiocracy as political rule or governance committed to the types and totality of mutually beneficial or benign relationships in a given socio-biological system at all scales (mutualism). Center For Humans & Nature: Exiting the Anthropocene and Entering the Symbiocene |
Sumbiocrats |
Those who govern and set policy for the sumbiocracy. |
Sumbiophilia |
The love of living together. |
Symbioment |
An holistic term that melts the artificial division between the environment and human life. See Albrecht’s Website: The Symbioment |
Symbiocene |
"The next era in human history should be The Symbiocene (from the Greek sumbiosis, or companionship). I created this concept in 2011 as an almost instinctive reaction again the very idea of the Anthropocene (Albrecht 2011).” From P2PF Wiki: Symbiocene |
Symbiosis |
Symbiosis is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasitic. From Wikipedia: Symbiosis |
Terraliben |
Glenn Albrecht defines the concept Terraliben as the opposite of ecocide. |
Tierraphilia |
The love of earth |
Topophilia |
Topophilia is a strong sense of place, which often becomes mixed with the sense of cultural identity among certain people and a love of certain aspects of such a place. From Wikipedia: Topophilia |
Resistance Words Salutes Glenn A. Albrecht!
Regards,
Jonathan Gordon