Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss

Nature Climate Change volume 8, pages 275–281 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Climate change is increasingly understood to impact mental health through multiple pathways of risk, including intense feelings of grief as people suffer climate-related losses to valued species, ecosystems and landscapes. Despite growing research interest, ecologically driven grief, or ‘ecological grief’, remains an underdeveloped area of inquiry. We argue that grief is a natural and legitimate response to ecological loss, and one that may become more common as climate impacts worsen. Drawing upon our own research in Northern Canada and the Australian Wheatbelt, combined with a synthesis of the literature, we offer future research directions for the study of ecological grief.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Ceballos, G., Ehrlich, P. R. & Dirzo, R. Biological annihilation via the ongoing sixth mass extinction signaled by vertebrate population losses and declines. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, E6089–E6096 (2017).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Steffen, W., Broadgate, W., Deutsch, L., Gaffney, O. & Ludwig, C. The trajectory of the Anthropocene: the Great Acceleration. Anthropocene Rev. 2, 81–98 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Sutton, P. C., Anderson, S. J., Costanza, R. & Kubiszewski, I. The ecological economics of land degradation: impacts on ecosystem service values. Ecol. Econ. 129, 182–192 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Savo, V. et al. Observations of climate change among subsistence-oriented communities around the world. Nat. Clim. Change 6, 462–473 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Albrecht, G. et al. Solastalgia: the distress caused by environmental change. Aus. Psych. 15, 95–98 (2007). Identifies and examines the concept of solastalgia and the ways in which people respond with distress and sadness to a changing home or beloved environment.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Berry, H. et al. Mind, body, spirit: co-benefits for mental health from climate change adaptation and caring for country in remote Aboriginal Australian communities. NSW Public Health Bull. 21, 139–145 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Bourque, F. & Cunsolo Willox, A. Climate change: the next challenge for public mental health? Int. Rev. Psych. 24, 415–422 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Chamlee-Wright, E. & Storr, V. H. “There’s no place like New Orleans”: sense of place and community recovery in the Ninth Ward after Hurricane Katrina. J. Urban Affairs 30, 615–634 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Clayton, S., Manning, C. M. & Hodge, C. Beyond Storms and Droughts: The Psychological Impacts of Climate Change (American Psychological Association, ecoAmerica, 2014).

  10. Cunsolo Willox, A. et al. From this place and of this place:” climate change, sense of place, and health in Nunatsiavut, Canada.Soc. Sci. Med. 75, 538–547 (2012). Highlights, through the lived experience of Inuitin Arctic Canada, the ways in which threats and disruptions to sense of place from a changing climate can impact mental and emotional health.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Cunsolo Willox, A. et al. Climate change and mental health: an exploratory case study from Rigolet, Nunatsiavut, Canada. Climatic Change 121, 255–270 (2013).A case study from Arctic Canada that documents and describes the ways in which climate change impacts mental health.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Cunsolo Willox, A. et al. Examining relationships between climate change and mental health in the Circumpolar North.Regional Environ. Change 15, 169–182 (2015). A synthesis of available literature and knowledge on environmental change and mental health, identifying key pathways through which climate change is impacting, or is likely to impact, circumpolar mental health outcomes.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Ellis, N. & Albrecht, G. Climate change threats to family farmers’ sense of place and mental wellbeing: a case study from the Western Australian Wheatbelt. Soc. Sci. Medicine 175, 161–168 (2017). Shows climatic changes in the Western Australian wheatbelt negatively affect family farmers’ mental wellbeing via disruptions to sense of place and place identity.

  14. Kessler, R. C. et al. Trends in mental illness and suicidality after Hurricane Katrina. Mol. Psych. 13, 374–384 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Morrice, S. Heartache and Hurricane Katrina: recognising the influence of emotion in post-disaster return decisions. Area 45, 33–39 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Polain, J. D., Berry, H. & Hoskin, J. O. Rapid change, climate adversity and the next ‘big dry’: older farmers’ mental health. Aus. J. Rural Health 19, 239–243 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Speldewinde, P., Cook, A., Davies, P. & Weinstein, P. A relationship between environmental degradation and mental health in rural Western Australia. Health Place 15, 880–887 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Swim, J. et al. Psychology’s contributions to understanding and addressing global climate change. Am. Psych. 66, 241–250 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Clayton, S., Manning, C. M., Krygsman, K. & Speiser, M. Mental Health and our Changing Planet: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance (American Psychological Association, ecoAmerica, 2017). A key contribution examining, from a psychological perspective, the ways in which mental health will be challenged through climate change and resulting environmental alterations.

  20. Cunsolo, A. & Landman, K. (eds) Mourning Nature: Hope at the Heart of Ecological Loss and Grief (McGill, Queen’s Univ. Press, Montreal, 2017). A seminal collection that addresses ecological grief and argues for the recognition and expression of emotions related to environmental degradation.

  21. Head, L. The Anthropoceneans. Geogr. Res. 53, 313–320 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Parkes, C. M. & Prigerson, H. G. Bereavement: Studies of Grief in Adult Life 4th edn (Routledge, New York, 2010).

  23. Neimeyer, R. A. & Cacciatore, J. in Techniques of Grief Therapy: Assessment and Intervention (ed. Neimeyer, R. A.) 3–13 (Routledge, New York, 2016).

  24. Doka, K. Disenfranchised Grief: Recognizing Hidden Sorrow (Lexington Press, Lexington, 1989).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Cunsolo, A. in Mourning Nature: Hope at the Heart of Ecological Loss and Grief (eds Cunsolo, A. & Landman, K.) 169–189 (McGill, Queen’s Univ. Press, Montreal, 2017).

  26. Cunsolo Willox, A. Climate change as the work of mourning. Ethics Environ. 17, 137–164 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Butler, J. Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence (Verso, New York, 2004). A key book outlining a framework for the political and ethical transformative powers of grief and the work of mourning through a recognition of shared vulnerability.

  28. Stanescu, J. Species trouble: Judith Butler, mourning, and the precarious lives of animals. Hypatia 27, 567–582 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Rae, P. Double sorrow: proleptic elegy and the end of Arcadianism in the 1930s Britain. Twentieth Cent. Lit. 49, 246–275 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Spargo, R. The Ethics of Mourning: Grief and Responsibility in Elegiac Literature (John Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore, 2004).

  31. Leopold, A. in From the Journals of Aldo Leopold: Round River (ed. Leopold, L. B.) 158–165 (Oxford Univ. Press, New York, 1953).

  32. Windle, P. The ecology of grief. BioScience 42, 363–366 (1992). A profound personal meditiation on the significance of mourning for ecological losses from the perspective of a professional ecologist.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Hobbs, R. J. Grieving for the past and hoping for the future: balancing polarizing perspectives in conservation and restoration. Restoration Ecol. 21, 145–148 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Head, L. & Harada, T. Keeping the heart a long way from the brain: The emotional labour of climate scientists. Emotion Space Soc. 24, 34–41 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Cunsolo Willox, A. et al. ‘The land enriches the soul:’ on climatic and environmental change, affect, and emotional health and well-being in Rigolet, Nunatsiavut, Canada. Emotion Space Soc. 6, 1–11 (2011). An examination of affect theory, grounded within the lived experiences of Inuit in Canada, to highlight the emotional toll of climate change.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Reid, P. Returning to Nothing: The Meaning of Lost Landscapes (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge,1996).

  37. Proudley, M. Place matters. Aus. J. Emergency Manage. 28, 11–16 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  38. It’s About People: Changing Perspectives on Dryness (Drought Policy Review Expert Social Panel, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, 2008).

  39. McNamara, K. & Westoby, R. Solastalgia and the gendered nature of climate change: an example from Erub Island, Torres Strait. EcoHealth 8, 233–236 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Sartore, G.-M., Kelly, B., Stain, H. J., Albrecht, G. & Higginbotham, N. Control, uncertainty, and expectations for the future: a qualitative study of the impact of drought on a rural Australian community. Rural Remote Health 8, 950 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  41. Tschakert, P., Tutu, R. & Alcaro, A. Embodied experiences of environmental and climatic changes in landscapes of everyday life in Ghana. Emotion Space Soc. 7, 13–25 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Ryan, J. C. in Mourning Nature: Hope at the Heart of Ecological Loss and Grief (eds Cunsolo, A. & Landman, K.) 117–143 (McGill, Queen’s Univ. Press, Montreal, 2017).

  43. Whale, H. & Ginn, F. in Mourning Nature: Hope at the Heart of Ecological Loss and Grief (eds Cunsolo, A. & Landman, K.) 92–116 (McGill, Queen’s Univ. Press, Montreal, 2017).

  44. Nixon, R. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, 2011).

  45. Albrecht, G. in Mourning Nature: Hope at the Heart of Ecological Loss and Grief (eds Cunsolo, A. & Landman, K.) 292–315 (McGill, Queen’s Univ. Press, Montreal, 2017).

  46. Durkalec, A., Furgal, C., Skinner, M. W. & Sheldon, T. Climate change influences on environment as a determinant of Indigenous health: relationships to place, sea ice, and health in an Inuit community. Soc. Sci. Medicine 136, 17–26 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Rigby, C. W., Rosen, A., Berry, H. & Hart, C. H. If the land’s sick, we’re sick: the impact of prolonged drought on the social and emotional well-being of Aboriginal communities in rural New South Wales. Aus. J. Rural Health 19, 249–254 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Anderson, D. Drought, endurance and ‘the way things were’: the lived experience of climate and climate change in the Mallee. Aus. Humanities Rev. 45, 67–81 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  49. Ng, F., Wilson, L. & Veitch, C. Climate adversity and resilience: the voice of rural Australia. Rural Remote Health 15, 3071 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  50. Rickards, L. A. Critical Breaking Point: The Effects of Climate Variability, Change and other Pressures on Farm Households (Birchip Cropping Group and the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform, 2011).

  51. Furberg, M., Evengard, B. & Nilsson, M. Facing the limit of resilience: perceptions of climate change among reindeer herding Sami in Sweden. Glob. Health Action 4, 8417 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Boss, P. Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live With Unresolved Grief (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1999).

  53. Kubler-Ross, E. On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy and Their Own Families 40th edn (Routledge, Abingdon, 2009).

  54. Manzo, L. C. & Devine-Wright, P. (eds) Place Attachment: Advances in Theory, Methods and Applications. (Routledge, New York, 2014).

  55. Fried, M. in The Urban Condition (ed. Duhl, L.) 151–171 (Basic Books, New York, 1963).

  56. Fullilove, M. T. Psychiatric implications of displacement: contributions from the psychology of place. Am. J. Psych. 153, 1516–1523 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  57. Relph, E. Place And Placelessness (Pion Limited, London, 1976).

    Google Scholar 

  58. Tuan, Y. Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values (Columbia Univ. Press, New York, 1974).

  59. Proshansky, H., Fabian, A. & Kaminoff, R. Place-identity: physical world socialisation of the self. J. Environ. Psych. 3, 57–83 (1983).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  60. Fried, M. Continuities and discontinuities of place. J. Environ. Psych. 20, 193–205 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  61. Adger, N. Place, well-being, and fairness shape priorities for adaptation to climate change. Glob. Environ. Change 38, A1–A3 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  62. Fresque-Baxter, J. & Armitage, D. Place identity and climate change adaptation: a synthesis and framework for understanding. WIREs Clim. Change 3, 251–266 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  63. Hess, J., Malilay, J. & Parkinson, A. Climate change: the importance of place. Am. J. Prevent. Med. 35, 468–478 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  64. Lewicka, M. Place attachment: how far have we come in the last 40 years? J. Environ. Psych. 31, 207–230 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  65. Scannell, L. & Gifford, R. Defining place attachment: a tripartite organising framework. J. Environ. Psych. 30, 1–10 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  66. Lewicka, M. What makes neighbourhood different from home and city? Effects of place scale on place attachment. J. Environ. Psych. 30, 35–51 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  67. Mallett, S. Understanding home: a critical review of the literature. Soc. Rev. 52, 62–82 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  68. Blunt, A. & Dowling, R. Home (Routledge, New York, 2006).

    Google Scholar 

  69. Lewicka, M. On the varieties of people’s relationships with places: Hummon’s typology revisted. Environ. Behav. 43, 676–709 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  70. Brown, B. B., Perkins, D., Altman, I. & Low, S. M. (ed.) Place Attachment. (Plenum, New York, 1992).

  71. Devine-Wright, P. in Place Attachment: Advances in Theory, Method and Applications (eds Manzo, L. C. & Devine-Wright, P.) 165–177 (Routledge, Abingdon, 2014).

  72. Devine-Wright, P. Rethinking NIMBYism: the role of place attachment and place identity in explaining place-protective action. J. Commun. Appl. Psych. 19, 426–441 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  73. Inalhan, G. & Finch, E. Place attachment and sense of belonging. Facilities 22, 120–128 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  74. Beery, T. H. & Wolf-Watz, D. Nature to place: rethinking the environmental connectedness perspective. J. Environ. Psych. 40, 198–205 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  75. Malpas, J. E. Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1999).

  76. O’Brien, L. V., Berry, H., Coleman, C. & Hanigan, I. Drought as mental health exposure. Environ. Res. 131, 181–187 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  77. Tschakert, P. et al. Climate change and loss, as if people mattered: values, places, and experiences. WIREs Clim. Change 8, e476 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  78. Barnett, J., Tschakert, P., Head, L. & Adger, N. A science of loss. Nat. Clim. Change 6, 976–978 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  79. Adger, N., Barnett, J., Chapin, F. S. & Ellemore, H. This must be the place: underrepresentation of identity and meaning in climate change decision making. Glob. Environ. Politics 11, 1–25 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  80. Hasbach, P. H. Therapy in the face of climate change. Ecopsychology 7, 205–210 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  81. Moser, S. C. Reflections on climate change communication research and practice in the second decade of the 21st century: What more is there to say? WIREs Clim. Change 7, 345–369 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  82. Freud, S. in On Freud’s Mourning and Melancholia (eds Fiorini, L. G. et al.) 19–34 (International Psychoanalytical Association, London, 2007).

  83. Boss, P. The trauma and complicated grief of ambiguous loss. Pastoral Psych. 59, 137–145 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  84. Harper, S. L. et al. Climate-sensitive health prioritise in Nunatsiavut, Canada. BMC Public Health 15, 605 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  85. Petrasek MacDonald, J., Harper, S. L., Cunsolo Willox, A., Edge, V. L. & Rigolet Inuit Community Government. A necessary voice: Climate change and lived experiences of youth in Rigolet, Nunatsiavut, Canada. Glob. Environ. Change 23, 360–371 (2012).

  86. Ellis, N. R. Farmers’ Sense of Place and Mental Wellbeing in an Era of Rapid Climate Change: A Case Study in the Western Australian Wheatbelt. PhD thesis, Murdoch Univ. (2016).

Download references

Acknowledgements

Thank you to S. Harper (University of Guelph) and J. Snook (Torngat Wildlife, Plants, and Fisheries Secretariat and the University of Guelph) for providing feedback and helpful suggestions on this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Labrador Institute of Memorial University, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada

    Ashlee Cunsolo

  2. UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

    Neville R. Ellis

Authors
  1. Ashlee Cunsolo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Neville R. Ellis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

A.C. led the writing of the article, with N.E. contributing heavily to the writing at all stages. Both authors contributed to the overall conceptualization of the article, the content within and the editing process.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ashlee Cunsolo.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Cunsolo, A., Ellis, N.R. Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss. Nature Clim Change 8, 275–281 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0092-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0092-2

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing