Recently, I joined Detroit Today host Stephen Henderson to discuss ecological grief and its impacts.
Listen to the full interview here.
While the larger feelings of ecological grief experienced around the world may be similar, the grief and loss and mourning and sadness and pain that come from watching landscapes and ecosystems change are highly place-specific.
In this interview, I highlight the stories and experiences of Inuit living in regions of Northern Labrador. For these communities, livelihoods and ways of living are inextricable from their natural environments. It follows, then, that witnessing these environments, landscapes, ecosystems, species, and places become unrecognizable is incredibly painful for Inuit living in these regions.
Talking about these kinds of losses more explicitly can help us develop language to express what people are feeling, and can transform into collective action, as more of us begin to experience the loss of our own environments.
Ashlee Cunsolo, PhD 