On Solastalgia in Man and Animal

No more homes in the wood

The trees have all been cut down [1]

 

 

Solastalgia is a neologism that seems to be everywhere these days. It describes a form of anxiety triggered by negatively perceived environmental change; particularly the loss of things belonging to the natural world which provided us with stability and a sense of continuity.

 

Things, for example, like the huge old oak tree at the end of the road, loved since childhood, but which has now been cut down by the council; or the hedgehogs that used to snuffle around long vanished gardens.

 

The word was coined by the environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht in 2005 [2], when he was attempting to conceptualise the feeling experienced of no longer being at home in the world even when one is still at home, due to rapid change on both a local and a global scale.

 

Although Albrecht was primarily concerned with human health and identity, he has also published in the area of animal studies, including the ethics of relocating endangered species whose natural habitat is threatened, so I'm sure he would agree that solastalgia is experienced too by polar bears watching the Arctic sea ice shrink all around them, or great apes witnessing their forest homes disappear. 

 

Indeed, I should imagine their sense of loss and confusion and powerlessness over the massive environmental change going on all around them is even more intense than ours, although their suffering certainly adds to our own; is their anything more heartbreaking than the above image of an orangutan fighting a mechanical digger in a desperate attempt to defend its jungle home?    

 

 

Notes

 

[1] This distressing scene of an orangutan defending its forest home in Borneo from being demolished by loggers was reportedly filmed in 2013 by International Animal Rescue.* Posted on their Facebook page in 2018, it caused a huge public outcry. However, the orangutan population remains critically endangered, having halved in the past 60 years, thanks to hunting, poaching, logging, mining, road building, and the conversion of vast areas of tropical forest to palm oil plantations; 55% of what remained of their natural habitat has already been destroyed this century.

      For those who can bear to watch the film on YouTube, click here.  

      The lines beneath the photo are paraphrased from a song by the Eagles - 'No More Walks in the Wood', which can be found on their seventh and final studio album, Long Road Out of Eden (Lost Highway Records, 2005): click here.

 

[2] Glenn Albrecht, 'Solastalgia: a new concept in human health and identity', Philosophy, Activism, Nature no. 3, (2005), pp. 44-59. A free pdf can be downloaded on academia.edu: click here.

 

 

* IAR is an animal protection and conservation charity which returns rehabilitated animals to the wild whilst also providing permanent sanctuary for those that cannot fend for themselves. Its work includes freeing and caring for captive bears in India and Armenia, rescuing and rehabilitating orangutans and other primates in Indonesia, and treating injured and orphaned howler monkeys in Costa Rica. For more information or to lend support, please visit their website by clicking here.