Ecological grief among farmers and pastoralists in Ethiopia and Kenya

Abstract

Climate change is a major cause of mental distress worldwide. In many ways, climate change has become a chronic disaster, while in other ways each acute event can accumulate and present challenges within and between communities. A growing body of evidence indicates that a changing climate can precipitate a cluster of negative affective states scholars call “ecological grief.” Ecological grief reflects psychological responses to climate changes and destruction of nature, species, culturally significant or sacred spaces. Until now, ecological grief has been conceptualized as a psychological response connected primarily to the destruction of the natural environment, and has not fully considered forms of distress connected to displacement and dispossession, particularly through loss of lifeworlds. By drawing on case studies from Ethiopia and Kenya, we reconsider and expand on the climate-related causes of ecological grief and the downstream effects of climate change on mental health and wellbeing. In doing so, we explore how climate change exacerbates the historical, political, social, and structural vulnerabilities faced by displaced pastoralists in the Somali region of Ethiopia and farmers in drought-affected Kilifi County, Kenya. We characterize the striking contrast between these two communities and their experiences of ecological disasters, but also find a shared sense of individual and communal distress and ill-health that is connected to how climate change is altering the environments in which people live. Accordingly, we propose a critical conceptualization of ecological grief to include ecology of lived experience and displacement, and its connection to human distress and ill-health.