ABSTRACT (CC BY 4.0): As the ecological crisis grows more intense, people experience many forms of eco-anxiety and ecological grief. This article explores the broad process of encountering eco-anxiety and ecological grief, and engages in the constructive task of building a new model of that process. Eco-anxiety and grief are here seen as fundamentally healthy reactions to threats and loss, and only the strongest forms of them are seen as problems. The aim is to help researchers, various professionals and the general public by providing a model which is simple enough but more nuanced than stage models which may give a false impression of linearity. The proposed new model includes both chronological and thematic aspects, with early phases of Unknowing and Semi-consciousness potentially followed by Awakening and various kinds of Shock and possible trauma.
The Process of Eco-Anxiety and Ecological Grief: A Narrative Review and a New Proposal
ABSTRACT (CC BY 4.0): As the ecological crisis grows more intense, people experience many forms of eco-anxiety and ecological grief. This article explores the broad process of encountering eco-anxiety and ecological grief, and engages in the constructive task of building a new model of that process. Eco-anxiety and grief are here seen as fundamentally healthy reactions to threats and loss, and only the strongest forms of them are seen as problems. The aim is to help researchers, various professionals and the general public by providing a model which is simple enough but more nuanced than stage models which may give a false impression of linearity. The proposed new model includes both chronological and thematic aspects, with early phases of Unknowing and Semi-consciousness potentially followed by Awakening and various kinds of Shock and possible trauma.
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