Solastalgia is a term coined by the Australian environmental philosopher Dr. Glenn Albrecht. It refers to “the distress that is produced by environmental change impacting on people while they are directly connected to their home environment” (source). It can help point us to the broader mental, emotional, social and spiritual impacts of climate change.
Solastalgia was the inspiration for my 2017 Fulbright research project in Northwestern Ontario, Boreal Heartbeat, though which I interviewed people who “live close to the land” (i.e. trappers, hunters, farmers and fishers) about the ways they observe climate change shifting their environment, modifying their own behaviors, and ultimately impacting their mental and emotional health. To learn more about my own research, please visit Boreal Heartbeat.
This month I joined a group of social and environmental scientists and program managers from the Lake Superior basin of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ontario for a research retreat entitled Solastalgia: Investigating the nexus of climate change, place, and human well-being. The purpose was to bring together a multidisciplinary team to set a regional research agenda on the topic.