Solastalgia: mourning over warming

Do you suffer from solastalgia? Defined as a pining for a lost environment, Solastalgia is a global warming threat we should be concerned about, writes Clive Thompson for Wired. Apparently, many in Australia are already suffering from solastalgia:

Scores of Australians described their deep, wrenching sense of loss as they watch the landscape around them change. Familiar plants don't grow anymore. Gardens won't take. Birds are gone....

Will global warming bring about a worldwide depression? Clive writes that "In the modern, industrialized West, many of us have forgotten how deeply we rely on the stability of nature for our psychic well-being." The effects of global warming aren't as noticeable in L.A. as they seem to be in Australia yet, though. While the unexpected rainy, gloomy days threw me for a loop, rain in L.A. always throws me for a loop -- and now it's sun as usual....

We may all get pretty depressed, though, if California wines start disappearing -- which is a serious possibility. A couple of studies released last year warned that huge swaths of California's wine areas may disappear by 2050 if world temperatures continue to rise at their current rate." Let them drink Bordeaux?

Photo by Marin via Flickr

Comments

[m]

I think I've been suffering from this for a large portion of my life in every place I've lived, including Los Angeles (this probably depends more on where you live and the individual though). Where I grew up in Texas there were once tons of frogs and other amphibians all over that I never see anymore. There used to be plots of land where when you walked at night in the summer, you would hear nothing but huge groups of frogs calling. Now you hear nothing. It seems like the concept of solatalgia is pretty closely tied with the Biophilia hypothesis though. Sometimes I wonder how much these ideas actually affect people, but they are completely unaware of the causes and instead they try to deal with these feelings in other, non-productive, ways...

[Greg Hall]

Hi Siel - GreenGirl,
Great to see you have picked up on what appears to be an emerging modern malaise that has become known as Solastalgia. But from your blog it appears that Clive Thompson who wrote an article on the condition for Wired in this month's edition, had coined the phrase. In fact his article is based on an interview he did with Australian academic Dr Glenn Albrecht, who along with his wife coined the term four years ago. Glenn is based at the University of Newcastle, (Aust) but was for the best part of this year, founding McConnell Foundation Visiting Professor in Ecosystem Health, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, Canada.
It would be good to give appropriate attribution in the future. The work that Glenn and his colleagues have done at Newcastle University is quite profound and should be rightly acknowledged. Given your intense green interest, it would be good in the future to acknowledge Glenn and Co if you happen to write on it again, and i am sure you will, given it that the condition reaches well beyond Australia's shores. All the best. Greg - Newcastle, Australia

[Siel]

Greg -- I didn't say Clive coined the term; I said he wrote that solastalgia is a global warming threat we should be concerned about -- which is v. different. If I say that I'm concerned about solastalgia myself after reading Clive's article, that's nothing like taking credit for coining the term.

In any case, Clive mentions Glenn Albrecht and credits Glenn with coining the phrase in his article, linked to in my post. I hope people will click over to read it, as the whole thing's a great read --

[Glenn Albrecht]

Hi there, great Blog and thanks for the solastalgia comment. Have a look at my Blog at healthearth; http://healthearth.blogspot.com/
for more on this topic and many other envirothings.

Regards,

Glenn.

[Siel]

Thanks for stopping by, Glenn :) I'll add your blog to my reading list --