Expanding Our Understanding: Alternative Frameworks for Environmental Grief
Yellowstone National Park is the traditional shared homelands of 27 Tribal Nations, including Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho. (Photo by J. Shaw)
This is Part Two of our series on Environmental Grief. Read Part One: "Understanding Environmental Loss as Disenfranchised Grief." Part Three is an extensive reference list for further study.
Beyond Western Psychology: Other Ways of Understanding Environmental Loss
While Western psychology is beginning to recognize environmental grief as a legitimate response to ecological destruction, it's important to acknowledge that other cultural frameworks have long understood the deep emotional connections between humans and the natural world. This article explores how broadening our perspective beyond dominant Western frameworks can help validate and contextualize environmental grief.
Dr. Glenn Albrecht, who coined the term "solastalgia" to describe the distress caused by environmental change in one's home environment, has noted that many cultures worldwide have developed sophisticated vocabularies for describing the emotional impacts of environmental destruction. This suggests that environmental grief is not a modern phenomenon or psychological anomaly, but rather a fundamental human response that has been recognized and honored in various ways across cultures and throughout history.
Relational Worldviews: Humans as Part of Nature
Many cultures around the world understand humans as existing in relationship with the natural world, rather than as separate from or superior to it. This relational perspective contrasts sharply with Western concepts of human dominion over nature and suggests that environmental destruction isn't just an abstract problem—it's the severing of connections that are fundamental to human wellbeing and identity.
Buddhist philosophy, for example, emphasizes the concept of interdependence (pratityasamutpada)—the understanding that all phenomena arise in dependence upon multiple causes and conditions. From this perspective, humans and nature are not separate entities but part of an interconnected web where the suffering of one affects the whole. Environmental destruction, therefore, naturally gives rise to human suffering, making environmental grief not only understandable but expected.
Similarly, many African philosophical traditions embrace Ubuntu—often translated as "I am because we are"—which extends beyond human relationships to include the natural world. This philosophy recognizes that individual wellbeing is inseparable from the wellbeing of the community, which includes the land, animals, and natural systems that sustain life. When the environment suffers, the community suffers, and grief becomes a natural response to this interconnected loss.
This framework offers a profound reframing for those experiencing environmental grief. If we understand ourselves as interconnected with the natural world, then grief over environmental destruction becomes not only normal but inevitable. The pain we feel when witnessing habitat destruction or species extinction may reflect an ancient understanding of our place within the web of life that transcends cultural boundaries.
Research in environmental psychology supports this relational perspective. A meta-analysis of 30 studies found that people with stronger nature connectedness experience more positive affect, vitality, and life satisfaction, while studies show that nature contact and nature connectedness are differentially associated with better health, wellbeing, and pro-environmental behaviors. Research also demonstrates that individuals with stronger connections to nature gain greater mental health benefits from nature contact, experiencing lower stress and anxiety. This suggests that the capacity for environmental grief is linked to psychological health rather than pathology.
Intergenerational Responsibility and Time
Alternative cultural frameworks often include concepts of responsibility that extend across generations. Rather than focusing primarily on individual wellbeing in the present moment, many worldviews emphasize our obligations to past and future generations. This perspective can help explain why environmental grief often feels so profound and enduring.
When we understand ourselves as links in a chain of connection extending from our ancestors to our descendants, environmental destruction takes on additional significance. It's not just about current losses—it's about the potential inability to fulfill our responsibilities to future generations who may inherit a damaged world.
This intergenerational perspective can actually provide comfort and direction for those experiencing environmental grief. Rather than feeling helpless in the face of massive environmental challenges, understanding our role as stewards for future generations can transform grief into purposeful action.
Community-Based Processing of Environmental Loss
Unlike dominant Western culture, which often individualizes grief and places the burden of healing on the individual, many cultures have developed community-based approaches to processing environmental loss. These approaches recognize that environmental destruction affects entire communities and requires collective response.
Community-based processing might include:
Collective acknowledgment of losses that validates individual grief while connecting it to shared experience, preventing the isolation that often accompanies disenfranchised grief in Western contexts.
Ritual and ceremony that provides structure for moving through grief rather than becoming stuck in it, while also affirming ongoing connections and responsibilities to the natural world.
Action-oriented healing that channels grief into restoration efforts, advocacy, and cultural preservation, transforming pain into purposeful engagement with environmental challenges.
Intergenerational dialogue that connects people experiencing environmental distress with elders who have wisdom about surviving environmental changes while maintaining hope and cultural identity.
These community-based approaches offer important insights for developing support systems for environmental grief in Western contexts. Rather than pathologizing these feelings or leaving individuals to process them alone, we might develop community spaces for sharing environmental grief and channeling it into collective action.
The Limitations of Language and Cultural Frameworks
One reason environmental grief feels so difficult to process in dominant Western culture may be related to both linguistic limitations and philosophical assumptions about human-nature relationships. The Judeo-Christian tradition's emphasis on human dominion over nature has profoundly shaped Western thinking, often positioning humans as separate from and superior to the natural world. This framework can make environmental grief feel illegitimate or excessive—after all, why mourn something that’s ours to use as we see fit?
In contrast, many cultures have developed rich vocabularies and philosophical frameworks for understanding environmental emotions. Japanese Shintoism recognizes kami—spiritual essences or energy—in natural elements like mountains, rivers, trees, and rocks. From this perspective, environmental destruction isn't just the loss of resources but the disruption of spiritual relationships that have existed for millennia. The Japanese concept of mono no aware—often translated as "the pathos of things"—captures a bittersweet awareness of the impermanence of all things, including natural beauty, that allows for both grief and acceptance.
Research in linguistics and psychology suggests that having specific words and cultural frameworks for emotional experiences helps people recognize, process, and communicate about those experiences. Cultures with more sophisticated understandings of human-nature relationships may be better equipped to support people through environmental grief.
This linguistic and philosophical gap in Western culture points to the need for developing new frameworks and vocabulary for environmental emotions. Some environmental psychologists are working to expand our emotional vocabulary, creating terms like "solastalgia," "eco-anxiety," and "climate grief" to help people name and understand their experiences.
While we cannot simply adopt terms from other cultures without proper cultural consultation and permission, we can recognize the importance of developing our own appropriate vocabulary and philosophical frameworks for these universal human experiences.
The Universality of Environmental Connection
What emerges from examining diverse cultural perspectives is not a single "correct" way to understand environmental grief, but rather evidence of a universal human capacity for deep emotional connection to the natural world. Whether expressed through Buddhist interdependence, African Ubuntu, animistic traditions that recognize spirit in nature, or emerging Western concepts like solastalgia, humans across cultures and throughout history have understood that our wellbeing is intimately connected to the wellbeing of the natural world.
This universality suggests that environmental grief may be less about cultural conditioning and more about fundamental human nature. The dominant Western framework that positions humans as separate from and superior to nature may actually be the cultural aberration—a relatively recent philosophical development that contradicts deeper, more ancient ways of understanding our place in the world.
From this perspective, the goal isn't to eliminate environmental grief but to develop healthy ways of processing it that support both individual wellbeing and environmental action. This might involve developing cultural practices that honor environmental losses while channeling grief into restorative action, creating community spaces for processing these feelings, and challenging the philosophical assumptions that make environmental grief feel shameful or excessive.
The capacity for environmental grief is a sign of psychological and spiritual health—evidence that we haven't completely severed our connections to the natural world despite centuries of cultural messaging that we should. Rather than pathologizing these feelings, we might recognize them as invitations to remember and restore our fundamental interdependence with all life.
Learning Without Appropriating
While we cannot and should not appropriate specific cultural practices or terminology without proper permission and cultural guidance, there are broader principles we can learn from alternative frameworks for understanding environmental grief:
Normalizing emotional responses: Recognizing that grief for environmental losses is a natural human response rather than pathology or overreaction, validating these feelings as part of healthy emotional functioning.
Creating community support: Developing spaces where people can process environmental grief together rather than suffering in isolation, building support networks that understand the legitimacy of these feelings.
Connecting grief to action: Understanding that environmental grief can motivate ongoing care and stewardship rather than leading to despair or paralysis, channeling emotional responses into meaningful engagement.
Honoring relationships: Recognizing that environmental destruction breaks real relationships and deserves respect similar to other forms of loss, taking these emotional connections seriously.
Integrating emotion and action: Seeing the capacity for environmental grief as part of the emotional intelligence necessary for sustainable living, rather than as a problem to be solved or eliminated.
Moving Forward with Respect and Humility
As we work to better understand and support environmental grief, it's crucial that we do so with respect for the cultures that have long understood these connections. This means:
Acknowledging the source of wisdom about human-nature relationships while being careful not to oversimplify or misrepresent complex cultural knowledge systems.
Supporting Indigenous rights and environmental justice, recognizing that Indigenous communities are often on the front lines of environmental protection and face unique challenges.
Seeking authentic sources when we want to learn more, prioritizing Indigenous scholars, activists, and community members rather than secondhand interpretations.
Building respectful relationships rather than extractive research approaches, understanding that genuine learning requires ongoing relationship and reciprocity.
The Value of Multiple Perspectives
Alternative cultural frameworks offer profound insights for understanding environmental grief, but they also highlight the limitations of any single approach. Environmental grief is a complex human experience that may require multiple frameworks and approaches to fully understand and address.
Rather than seeing environmental grief as something to be diagnosed and treated solely within Western psychological frameworks, we might benefit from:
Multiple ways of understanding that draw on various cultural perspectives while respecting their origins and contexts.
Diverse therapeutic approaches that might include individual therapy, community support, ritual and ceremony, environmental action, and spiritual practices.
Cultural humility that recognizes the limits of any single perspective and remains open to learning from other approaches.
Collaborative approaches that bring together different types of knowledge and expertise while maintaining respect for cultural boundaries.
Implications for Healing
These alternative perspectives suggest several important considerations for supporting people experiencing environmental grief:
Validation is crucial: Environmental grief is a natural human response that deserves the same respect and support as other forms of loss.
Community matters: Isolation intensifies grief, while community support and shared understanding can facilitate healing and action.
Connection supports resilience: Maintaining and strengthening connections to nature, even in damaged environments, can support both individual wellbeing and environmental stewardship.
Action provides meaning: Channeling grief into environmental action can transform pain into purpose while contributing to healing for both people and places.
Cultural context influences experience: People from different cultural backgrounds may experience and process environmental grief differently, requiring culturally responsive approaches to support.
As we continue to face unprecedented environmental challenges, we need all the wisdom we can gather about how to process grief, maintain hope, and take meaningful action. By expanding our understanding beyond dominant Western frameworks—while doing so with respect and cultural humility—we can develop more effective ways of supporting both individual healing and collective environmental stewardship.
Approaching Indigenous Knowledge with Respect
When seeking to learn from Indigenous perspectives on environmental relationships, it's essential to:
Prioritize Indigenous voices: Seek out books, articles, and presentations by Indigenous scholars, activists, and community members themselves
Understand context: Recognize that Indigenous knowledge systems are complex and diverse, varying significantly between different communities and cultures
Avoid appropriation: Learn from principles and frameworks rather than adopting specific practices that may be sacred or culturally specific
Support Indigenous rights: Recognize that Indigenous communities often lead environmental protection efforts and face ongoing challenges related to land rights and environmental justice
Build authentic relationships: Approach learning as an ongoing relationship rather than one-time information gathering
Resources for Respectful Learning
Indigenous Environmental Leaders and Scholars:
Robin Wall Kimmerer (Potawatomi) - Botanist and author of "Braiding Sweetgrass"
Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabe) - Environmental activist and founder of Honor the Earth
Kyle Whyte (Potawatomi) - Environmental justice scholar
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Nishnaabeg) - Scholar and author on Indigenous resurgence
Organizations:
Indigenous Environmental Network - Indigenous-led environmental justice organization
Honor the Earth - Indigenous environmental advocacy
Cultural Survival - Supporting Indigenous peoples' rights and cultures worldwide
Indigenous Climate Action - Indigenous perspectives on climate change
Note: This post aims to highlight the value of multiple cultural perspectives on environmental grief while maintaining respect for Indigenous knowledge systems. For deeper understanding of specific Indigenous approaches, seek out Indigenous-authored sources and organizations.
