What is Eco-Grief?

Dain Evans

8/15/20244 min read

Care Warning

We’re gonna get in our feelings! This zine might bring up some anxiety or depression around grief. It is meant as a tool for connection, commiseration, compassion, and care. Please be sure to check your mental health toolbox (box breathing, body scans, journaling) before reading.

What is Eco-grief

Research shows trees will help other trees when they're sick. Seriously. They share resources like carbon through mycelial networks in the ground. The planet is beautifully, magically alive. But human activity has been damaging this life for decades. That damage affects us humans, as well, and weighs on our hearts and minds.

Eco-grief is a term that describes this sadness, hopelessness, and depression we can feel around climate change and the destruction of our planet.

What does Eco-grief look like

Eco-grief can look like many things. Some feel an unshakable sense of loss seeing their immediate surroundings changing. Some live with anxiety around the news we see and hear about the loss of habitats, the extinction of species, and the impacts on climate refugees. Some are struggling with health or housing challenges because of climate change.

For me, eco-grief is a depression I feel when I look at a stretch of dead trees taken out by insects who thrive in the shorter winters and warmer summers. It’s a helplessness I feel when I go to the grocery store and can’t find a vegetable that isn’t wrapped in plastic. It’s a dread I feel when I see foam collecting at the top of a body of water because of chemicals that will never break down.

Who does Eco-grief affect

Eco-grief can affect anyone, but it has a bigger impact on low-income folks, Black folks, Indigenous folks, trans folks, and other oppressed communities. This is for multiple reasons.

Oppressed communities have limited – or no – access to quality healthcare and housing options. Climate change is creating many health problems for folks, impacting physical, mental, and spiritual health. It is also driving people from their homes and communities. The stress and anxiety of these inequalities is also detrimental to health. These are all reasons for grief.

In Detroit, cancer and respiratory issues are seen in much higher levels in historically redlined neighborhoods do to environmental hazards, like diesel exhaust and hazardous waste. This is an effect of environmental racism.

In the Northwest United States, high rates of mental illness, especially in Indigenous communities, have been linked to drought-stricken crops, extreme heat, wildfires and floods brought on by climate change.

What to do with Eco-grief

Okay, I bet reading all this hasn't made you feel any easier about eco-grief. Sorry about that! Here are some ways to cope with eco-grief in three levels; personally, communally, and globally.

Personally: First, take a break from the news. It will still be there when you come back to it, but we all need a breath of fresh air sometimes. Next, listen to your body and learn about how your body responds to grief. Doing a body scan is a great way to do this. Getting to know yourself and the way you respond to grief can be a key component to acceptance. Because – let's be real – grief will always be with us. If we know how to identify it within ourselves, we can develop tools to give ourselves compassion and grace.

Communally: Encourage folks in your communities to do work for the good of the environment. Even small things like using a reusable water bottle can be a little victory you can lean on when things feel overwhelming. There are some things out of our control, and identifying what IS in our control and what we can do with those things can create a real shift in our thinking around grief and anxiety.

Globally: What can you do for your global community? If you have the means, donate to an environmental action group. If you have the ability, participate in a climate march. Being hand-in-hand, arm-in-arm with others who share in your grief can be a health way to alleviate it, though it can also be overwhelming to be surrounded by grief and anxiety, so listen to your body.