Moving Through Climate Grief

I'd love to see more conversation about moving through the stages of climate grief.

We are all undergoing climate grief, and we will throughout our entire lives.

The five stages of grief (as coined by Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross) are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. They don't come in order, and you don't "complete" them. You move through them, and they form a broad map of the territory.

We are looking to move through the grief and find a form of climate acceptance of the likely scenarios. Acceptance doesn't mean we *want* something to happen, or that we are *resigned* to it. It means we can look at it directly without pangs of pain and cognitive distortions.

In fact, from climate acceptance, we can do our best work for the Earth.

One of the ways to move through climate grief is to feel it. To feel our feelings, and look at what's below them. What is below the fear? Is there sorrow...sadness? A feeling of loss? Underlying most climate grief is a feeling and awareness of loss for ourselves, others, and the planet.

Feeling this more deeply connects us more to our own humanity.

One thing that helped me move towards climate acceptance was  the Wikipedia article on the full History of Earth, which reminded me how big this whole thing truly is, and how small we are. Awe and wonder can be wonderful antidotes to grief.

We are not alone. We're here to support each other, and we have each other.