When the climate disrupts our emotions

Environmental challenges are not just scientific issues: they influence our well-being and generate emotions ranging from fear to hope. To better understand this often invisible dimension, the Biosphere team has designed a new exhibition where the science of emotions meets climate change.   

The science of emotions in the age of eco-anxiety   

This emerging discipline goes well beyond the scope of psychology. It also incorporates climatology, medicine, biology and social intervention. “We’re even starting it to use it in finance and politics. It has ramifications in every area, including popular culture,” explains Annick Boivin, activities officer at the Biosphère.  

In Québec, several significant events have revealed the emotional impact of climate disasters. We can think of the Saguenay flood, the collapse of the ground beneath Highway 40 in Lanaudière, or the permafrost thawing in the far north and transforming First Nations homes into miniature towers of Pisa. 

Negative emotions... but also positive ones   

Eco-anxiety, now very much a popular topic, can encompass a range of emotions: fear, anger, feelings of injustice, but also hope, solidarity, kindness, and empathy. “Evan nostalgia and even sadness can be beneficial. We’re sad because we’re losing what we love, and that shows a deep love for nature.” emphasizes Annick Boivin. 

A step towards emotional resilience 

To understand these emotions and to identify the best tools for talking about them, the Biosphère team conducted a number of consultations with Cegep students, young families and primary-school classes. This process revealed that exploring the psychological mechanisms associated with climate-related emotions is key to proposing hopeful solutions and encouraging emotional resilience. 

In understanding how the brain creates emotion, we also discover the tricks it can play on us that lead us to inaction. For Eve-Lyne Cayouette-Ashby, head of exhibitions, public programs and education at the Biosphère, becoming aware is already a first step: “We wanted to create an exhibition designed to make everyone feel welcome and accepted, even people who think climate change doesn’t exist. The goal is to have a constructive dialogue, with no value judgments.” 

Countering climate silence 

“Climate inaction is a source of a lot of anxiety and anger,” Eve-Lyne Cayouette-Ashby explains. “Take a young 15-year-old, for example, who wonders: We’ve known since 1950, so why has nobody done anything?” While the effects on our physical health are well known, the impacts at the psychological level are much less so. Think of the intense forest fires this summer. Everyone knows about respiratory problems, but the emotional distress produced by these catastrophes is often invisible. 

“Eco-anxious people and climate skeptics both have reason to feel these emotions. If someone’s in denial, when 99 percent of the scientific community confirm that we’re going through climate change caused by humans, it’s often because that someone’s afraid; it goes against our values or calls our actions into question,” Annick Boivin concludes. 

Read also: Eco-anxiety as a driving force for change