Eco-emotions as the planetary boundaries: framing human emotional and planetary health in the global environmental crisis
Background: Affective processes play an important role in physical and mental health and in adaptation responses to the global environmental crisis. Eco-emotions—emotions that are substantially associated with the environment and anthropogenic changes happening within it—are complex and culturally v...
| Published in: | The Lancet Planetary Health |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00066-4 https://doaj.org/article/680b053bed6c47cdbb518ad9ec092da2 |
| Summary: | Background: Affective processes play an important role in physical and mental health and in adaptation responses to the global environmental crisis. Eco-emotions—emotions that are substantially associated with the environment and anthropogenic changes happening within it—are complex and culturally varied. Despite the disproportionate impact of the global environmental crisis on low-income and middle-income countries, most psychological research to date has been conducted in high-income countries and has focused on climate change and negative climate emotions (eg, climate anxiety). The absence of diverse, globally representative evidence about emotions associated with the global environmental crisis beyond climate change hinders evidence-based action on psychological adaptation and the development of contextually and culturally appropriate coping strategies toward the wider range of negative anthropogenic effects. To account for this wider range of anthropogenic effects, we previously introduced an eco-emotions framework built on the planetary boundaries concept. We aimed to apply this framework to the current research on eco-emotional responses to identify remaining gaps that hinder evidence-based action. Methods: We conducted a literature review of peer-reviewed studies assessing core affect (ie, emotional valence and arousal) and emotions with emphasis on study populations from low-income and middle-income countries and on the eight non-climate change planetary boundaries (biodiversity loss, freshwater use, ocean acidification, chemical pollution, air pollution, land system change, ozone depletion, and nitrogen and phosphorus perturbation). We searched Web of Science from database inception to Oct 31, 2023, for observational empirical studies of adults, using planetary boundary-specific (eg, freshwater use) or wider, newer, or overarching emotional concept (eg, solastalgia, environmental change) search terms. Findings: In contrast to previous climate emotions work, our preliminary results of 135 peer reviewed ... |
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