Solastalgia: A malady for our age?

Some words capture the zeitgeist, or the spirit of the times. We’ve been talking about “globalisation” for decades now, until it’s become a comfortable part of our intellectual furniture. Pretty soon we might have to get used to talking about “de-globalization”, though, as trade wars and increased nationalism transform the way we think about the world.

A jet passes in front of a smoke-shrouded sun in Sydney last December. 

Just how far-reaching and even emotional this process can be has hit home over the course of this summer, as many of our most firmly held ideas about Australia and its unique natural environment have gone up in smoke. The sense of loss, distress, and grief this has engendered has also got a new name: solastalgia.

No doubt this will induce much eye-rolling among some readers, but our vocabulary changes for a reason. The recognition that we are collectively having a dramatic and overwhelming negative collective impact on the natural environment and the creatures that inhabit it is a comparatively new idea. The sight of incinerated koalas can touch even the hardest-headed of policymakers. Or we hope it can, at least.

Read the story from The Interpreter by Mark Beeson - “Solastalgia: A malady for our age?”