Jennifer Atkinson discusses climate grief with LA Times

IAS faculty member Jennifer Atkinson was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times for a story exploring the emotional impact of our climate crisis. As 2020 kicked off with the world’s attention focused on the Australian bushfires, there has been little discussion of the far-reaching mental health consequences of such disasters. Atkinson explained that we still primarily frame climate change as a scientific or technical problem, when in fact it is a deeply emotional issue as well. Forms of psychological distress like bereavement from the loss of a loved one may be familiar to most people, but climate grief remains largely invisible, making it hard for people experiencing pain to seek help. Indeed, eco-anxiety is sometimes dismissed outright: “The message we get is that our grief is somehow deviant,” Atkinson said. But grief is a normal, healthy response to loss, examples of which are easy to find in a warming world.

The conversation with Atkinson also considered how different models of grief and bereavement are used to frame the process of coping with climate chaos. In some cases, scholarly talk about environmental loss using the classic five stages of grief, from denial and anger to bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. But others, like Atkinson, see it as a more complicated and nonlinear process of coping with feelings as they arise, and continually adjusting to a changing world.

The story highlighted Atkinson’s teaching at UW Bothell where she offers a seminar on eco-grief and climate anxiety. Within this class, students develop a “climate survival kit” with resources to help themselves and their communities cope with the emotional fallout. After attracting media coverage in outlets like the Seattle Times, NBC News, Fox News and The Washington Post, the class was ridiculed by some critics for “coddling” millennial “snowflakes.” But Atkinson publicly defended her students by arguing that confronting grief takes more courage than looking away, and pointed out that buried underneath that grief is something hopeful.

The L.A. Times interview with Atkinson also extended into a linked feature story on Daniela Molnar, a Portland artist and professor at the Pacific Northwest College of Art who set out to paint climate change and ended up on a journey through grief and depression. As reporter Julia Rosen wrote:

Refusing to feel the emotional costs of climate change is just another insidious and socially sanctioned form of denial — one rooted in the classic psychological defense of compartmentalization. “There’s one part of yourself that knows perfectly well that climate change is happening and another part of yourself that really doesn’t let that penetrate,” [a researcher explained]. “It doesn’t really ever get into your heart.” The split is reinforced by society’s tendency to see climate change as a scientific issue, rather than a cultural and political challenge that demands our full humanity — the kind more often explored and addressed through art.