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Ecological Grief as a Response to Environmental Change: A Mental Health Risk or Functional Response?

The perception of the impact of climate change on the environment is becoming a lived experience for more and more people. Several new terms for climate change-induced distress have been introduced to describe the long-term emotional consequences of anticipated or actual environmental changes, with...

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Autores principales: Comtesse, Hannah, Ertl, Verena, Hengst, Sophie M. C., Rosner, Rita, Smid, Geert E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7830022/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33467018
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020734
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author Comtesse, Hannah
Ertl, Verena
Hengst, Sophie M. C.
Rosner, Rita
Smid, Geert E.
author_facet Comtesse, Hannah
Ertl, Verena
Hengst, Sophie M. C.
Rosner, Rita
Smid, Geert E.
author_sort Comtesse, Hannah
collection PubMed
description The perception of the impact of climate change on the environment is becoming a lived experience for more and more people. Several new terms for climate change-induced distress have been introduced to describe the long-term emotional consequences of anticipated or actual environmental changes, with ecological grief as a prime example. The mourning of the loss of ecosystems, landscapes, species and ways of life is likely to become a more frequent experience around the world. However, there is a lack of conceptual clarity and systematic research efforts with regard to such ecological grief. This perspective article introduces the concept of ecological grief and contextualizes it within the field of bereavement. We provide a case description of a mountaineer in Central Europe dealing with ecological grief. We introduce ways by which ecological grief may pose a mental health risk and/or motivate environmental behavior and delineate aspects by which it can be differentiated from related concepts of solastalgia and eco-anxiety. In conclusion, we offer a systematic agenda for future research that is embedded in the context of disaster mental health and bereavement research.
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spelling pubmed-78300222021-01-26 Ecological Grief as a Response to Environmental Change: A Mental Health Risk or Functional Response? Comtesse, Hannah Ertl, Verena Hengst, Sophie M. C. Rosner, Rita Smid, Geert E. Int J Environ Res Public Health Perspective The perception of the impact of climate change on the environment is becoming a lived experience for more and more people. Several new terms for climate change-induced distress have been introduced to describe the long-term emotional consequences of anticipated or actual environmental changes, with ecological grief as a prime example. The mourning of the loss of ecosystems, landscapes, species and ways of life is likely to become a more frequent experience around the world. However, there is a lack of conceptual clarity and systematic research efforts with regard to such ecological grief. This perspective article introduces the concept of ecological grief and contextualizes it within the field of bereavement. We provide a case description of a mountaineer in Central Europe dealing with ecological grief. We introduce ways by which ecological grief may pose a mental health risk and/or motivate environmental behavior and delineate aspects by which it can be differentiated from related concepts of solastalgia and eco-anxiety. In conclusion, we offer a systematic agenda for future research that is embedded in the context of disaster mental health and bereavement research. MDPI 2021-01-16 2021-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7830022/ /pubmed/33467018 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020734 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Perspective
Comtesse, Hannah
Ertl, Verena
Hengst, Sophie M. C.
Rosner, Rita
Smid, Geert E.
Ecological Grief as a Response to Environmental Change: A Mental Health Risk or Functional Response?
title Ecological Grief as a Response to Environmental Change: A Mental Health Risk or Functional Response?
title_full Ecological Grief as a Response to Environmental Change: A Mental Health Risk or Functional Response?
title_fullStr Ecological Grief as a Response to Environmental Change: A Mental Health Risk or Functional Response?
title_full_unstemmed Ecological Grief as a Response to Environmental Change: A Mental Health Risk or Functional Response?
title_short Ecological Grief as a Response to Environmental Change: A Mental Health Risk or Functional Response?
title_sort ecological grief as a response to environmental change: a mental health risk or functional response?
topic Perspective
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7830022/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33467018
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020734
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