Notes: This will be my last newsletter. It’s been a pleasure, and let me know if you want to stay in touch.
Also, I read the Kindle version of the book, so I don’t have page numbers, just electronic locations.
With the many negative effects of climate change becoming increasingly apparent, more and more people are experiencing eco-anxiety and climate grief. But we don’t hear about this very often. This is partly because our culture doesn’t talk much about grief at all. It’s also because climate grief is disenfranchised grief.
That’s why I found it refreshing to read Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis by Britt Wray. Wray not only talks openly about climate emotions but explains why it’s so important for all of us to be doing that.
I highly recommend reading the whole book, but to get you started, here are three of my takeaways from it.
Climate grief and eco-anxiety are very natural
When we don’t talk about things like climate grief, it can be all too easy to feel like it’s not normal, or that we’re the only ones with that particular experience. But that’s rarely the reality, and it certainly isn’t with feelings about climate change.
As Wray writes: “With each passing day, the realization dawns on more people with even a smidgen of environmental identity… that much of what we love in the world is under threat, and so the collective sense of being traumatized grows.” (Location 132)
And she later adds: “Stress is a suitable reaction when scientists say that by 2070, one to three billion people will be living in hot zones outside the temperature niche that has allowed human civilization to thrive over the last six thousand years. It is humane to be gutted when you learn that air pollution caused the premature deaths of nearly half a million babies in their first month of life over a twelve-month period.” (Location 307)
I found it helpful and validating to be reassured that I’m not the only one feeling stress and grief and that this doesn’t mean something is wrong with me. On the contrary, it means that something is right with me to feel sorrow and anger and more at what is happening.
Or as Wray put it: “We should be proud and relieved to feel these emotions; they are a sign of our humanity.” (Location 538)
Mourning is necessary and important
Even once you acknowledge that you’re not alone in feeling grief and anguish, you might not want to be public with your mourning. Here in the United States, many of us aren’t too public about our grief under any circumstances, let alone our grief for the environment.
But Wray argues that we should be more open about this, for a few reasons.
One is that we’re much more likely to find support from others when we talk about our grief. That support is invaluable when working through the difficult emotions that come up about the climate. This sharing also opens the way for deeper connections, allowing you to work together with others and accomplish more than you could alone.
Additionally, not expressing these emotions often leads to fear and anxiety. And that prevents us from thinking clearly and critically about our situation.
“As this [denial of our emotions] goes on, our limbic system can become stressed, and put us into an emotionally defensive mode. In defense mode, we can’t think critically anymore because we lose contact with [the part of our brain] where executive functioning happens.” (Location 807)
And thirdly, public mourning is important because it shows people what we value, that we care about all the plants and animals and unborn generations who cannot speak for themselves.
On the other hand, staying quiet sends a much different message. “We speak unmistakably when we say nothing at all…. Solutions cannot be devised for crises that no one in power is willing to call out as the tragedies they are.” (Location 3025)
The end isn’t written
It’s also important to remember this crucial bit of information.
This isn’t a movie, and the end isn’t written.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the feeling that everything is hopeless and that we can’t prevent an apocalypse, but as Wray says, “How on Earth can you know what is going to happen, regardless of what actions are taken now and into the future. Such terrible outcomes are possible if we do nothing, but it will only get as bad – and as hot – as we let it.” (Location 2294)
She’s not suggesting that it’s easy to think this way, and the reality is that we also need to keep the worst outcomes in mind as a motivator to keep doing the work. This requires a type of “binocular vision” that will take practice and effort, but it’s worth it.
At the least, it will help us live in a way that acknowledges reality while not giving in to despair, and “we can practice being the kinds of people we want to be for one another, with more compassion for the Earth itself and for all its life forms.” (Location 2534)
To me, that sounds like a better way to live than giving up.
Dread and grief can be driving forces
Our culture often considers emotions like sadness, grief, and dread to be “negative”, but that’s not the best way to describe them. Any emotion can be viewed differently and become an asset.
Wray puts it like this: “Dread is a resource floating freely in the air, and it’s this generation’s job to capture it. In order to do that, the first thing we must do is find a container for our overwhelming emotions. The idea with containment is that any experience, even difficult ones, can be food for thought, and therefore growth and development, if it is processed in a way that helps a person understand their own feelings.” (Location 1122) So as the planet gets hotter and we see more alarming climate reports, it’s worth considering how you can use your grief and dread and sadness and anger to grow and act to bring about change.