Solastalgia
This is the word for the distress caused by environmental change. Disasters can be a big part of this. The term “Solastalgia” was first coined by Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht in 2005.
Similar in some ways to Nostalgia - the longing for home or place of comfort, which is no longer there; Solastalgia1 is “a term created to describe feelings which arise in people when an environment changes so much that it negatively affects an individual's quality of life. Such changed environments may include drought-stricken areas and open-cut mines.” (Warsini et al., 2014)2. The same can be said for communities impacted by wildfires, hurricanes, river flooding, and other natural disasters. Climate change can impact various environments – and the people who rely on them for their living, sanity, wellness, etc. If you remember walking through pristine woods to get somewhere on a regular basis, and now it’s a housing development, you may be saddened for your loss of “what the good times were” – your sense of Solastalgia.
It is unclear if Solastalgia occurs from human-made disasters (a quick literature review did not find any studies on this set of threat aspects), as much of the definition of Solastalgia is related to missing or degrading natural environmental benefits (peer-reviewed research in this area focuses on natural-looking landscapes, which have been altered by volcanos3, and also by strip-mining4). So, while it may not be terrorism or malfeasance in maintaining a flood levy, humans can still be the catalyst for climate-changing disasters, which cause Solastalgia in impacted residents. I am sure some folks will tell you their quality of life was negatively impacted by 9/11, even if their residence was not near the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. I may be one, myself. I still feel uneasy going through the Oculus and walking around the World Trade Center Memorial. I used to walk to and from my job in lower Manhattan, past what was then called Liberty Plaza Park (now Zuccotti Park), into the World Trade Center to catch the PATH train to New Jersey.
That Wall Street area - especially around that park - feels very new and antiseptic today. The new roadblocks, bollards, and cameras don’t help with that feeling. I remember when the place looked and felt differently: it was a hodge-podge of styles, time, and space – even in a five short block radius. Leaving my office, walking in the open air spaces outside, and then heading down the entrance to the World Trade Center was very much “Compression, Release, Repeat” – an architectural and environmental concept championed by Frank Lloyd Wright and others. Wright’s work generates “a temporary sense of tension, followed by a powerful feeling of freedom.” I will never know whether Minoru Yamasaki, who designed the World Trade Center, realized he was contributing to this pattern for many of the folks from New Jersey who were working in NYC. I work from home now. Maybe my Solastalgia for this compression and release comes from the fact that my garage entrance into my home is very cluttered, while the rest of the house is pretty wide open.
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And no doubt, the work environment also changed worldwide during and after COVID-19 and the human-made actions taken thereafter. One study I found through the web search did review the emotional impacts of moving residents from an older, more established psychiatric hospital to a newer one. There may even be “Solastalgic” impacts to utilizing a new community shelter site (which has been consistently used by members of that community in past recurring disasters), when the former one is unavailable, possibly due to a different disaster itself.
Emergency Managers need to consider Solastalgia and other mental health/wellness factors for their response and recovery missions. It is a real balance for recovery, and the specific disaster threat/hazard impacting the environment is important, too. People will return to a place – if they can – after a flood, wildfire, or earthquake. They may not, after an active shooter attack. Regarding missions for both Emergency Support Functions and restoring Community Lifelines, officials need to consider and monitor the long-term recovery impacts for impacted communities for their actions. This is one of the reasons we have an entire Federal Recovery Support Function devoted to Natural & Cultural Resources (of course, adverse economic impacts of a lack/reduction in tourism or other revenue are probably a bigger one). Many of us would feel Solastalgia if the U.S. Federal Government did not restore the infrastructure damage to Ellis Island from Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
And these monitoring and action missions apply to emergency managers and responders themselves, as well – many of us will reside in (or our friends and families will be a part of) those disaster-impacted communities. This is where the level of self-reflection that
noted in his 5/21/23 blog post, also needs to include a self-wellness check: for signs of Solastalgia.Albrecht, G. (2005). 'Solastalgia'’ A new concept in health and identity. PAN: philosophy activism nature, (3), 41-55.
Warsini, S., Mills, J., & Usher, K. (2014). Solastalgia: living with the environmental damage caused by natural disasters. Prehospital and disaster medicine, 29(1), 87–90. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049023X13009266
Warsini, S., Buettner, P., Mills, J., West, C., & Usher, K. (2014). Translation, Cultural Adaptation, and Psychometric Testing of the Environmental Distress Scale With Indonesian Survivors of a Volcanic Eruption. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 8(3), 229-238. doi:10.1017/dmp.2014.45
Albrecht, G., Sartore, G. M., Connor, L., Higginbotham, N., Freeman, S., Kelly, B., Stain, H., Tonna, A., & Pollard, G. (2007). Solastalgia: the distress caused by environmental change. Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, 15 Suppl 1, S95–S98. https://doi.org/10.1080/10398560701701288