Environmental Grief, Despair, and Meaning: Concluding Discussion

This concluding discussion provides observations about some of the main themes of the book. Special attention is given to dynamics of climate emotions, ecological grief, and questions related to hope and despair. The author connects his long-time research on eco-emotions with the book and discusses its themes in relation to existing literature. The wide-ranging discussions in the book on ecological grief are commented upon, and the relationship between local and global ecological grief is discussed. It is proposed that many concepts from the research article “Ecological Sorrow†(2024) are intimately related to themes in the book, such as intangible loss and lifeworld loss. Various understandings of hope and despair are analysed, and different forces that can help people to act amidst the ecological crisis are discussed. The author ends with a brief exploration of ways to engage with eco-emotions. The possibilities and challenges of philosophy are discussed throughout the chapter.