I have tried to keep my eco-anxiety at bay, to box it into my working life. But every month this becomes more difficult. The rising sense of panic I feel is entirely rational; we should all be feeling it. But we can't live with it through every hour of every day.
Interpretation
Eco-anxiety is a natural response to environmental crises, but it's important to manage it.
In this quote, George Monbiot expresses his struggle with eco-anxiety, highlighting the tension between acknowledging the urgency of environmental issues and the need to maintain a semblance of normalcy in daily life. He articulates a common emotional response to the reality of climate change and ecological destruction, emphasizing that while feeling anxious about the state of the planet is rational, it is unsustainable to let that anxiety dominate our lives continuously.
In practice
This quote can be shared at environmental rallies to acknowledge the emotional burden of climate change.
The notions that nature exists to serve us; that its value consists of the instrumental benefits we can extract; that this value can be measured in cash terms; and that what can't be measured does not matter, have proved lethal to the rest of life on Earth.
I believe that anyone who wants to stand in a national election should receive a course of psychotherapy. Completing the course should be a qualification for office. This wouldn't change the behaviour of psychopaths, but it might prevent some people who exercise power from imposing their own deep wounds on others.
I became an environmentalist because I love the living world, but I spend much of my life thinking about electricity, industrial processes and civil engineering.
Places that have become agricultural deserts, trashed by giant corporations, could be reforested, drawing carbon dioxide from the air on a vast scale. The ecosystems of land and sea could recover, not just in pockets but across great tracts of the planet.
Never underestimate the power of intrinsic values. They inspire every struggle for a better world.
Why is it so easy to save the banks - but so hard to save the biosphere?
You can only get really unpopular decisions through if the electorate is convinced of the value of the environment. That's what natural history programmes should be for.
Modern research divides nature into tiny pieces and conducts tests that conform neither with natural law nor with practical experience. The results are arranged for the convenience of research, not according to the needs of the farmer.
Our planet's alarm is going off, and it is time to wake up and take action!
If I'm not on tour or in the studio, I'm in nature somewhere, usually some kind of ocean. Playing music has afforded me that. It's not lost on me that it's a tremendous opportunity to be able to spend your life being surrounded by nature.
Nature favors those organisms which leave the environment in better shape for their progeny to survive.
It is wonderful to feel the grandness of Canada in the raw.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.