A love story Ecological love and sorrow

picture one of your favorite spots in

nature

a place you love maybe you’re heading

for this spot after a stressful day at

work maybe you are worrying about your

economy

maybe you had an argument or fight with

your friend or worse

you lost somebody you loved you are

heading to this specific space maybe

close to home

to find some comfort whatever

and wherever it is most of us tend to

nature to play or to get some relief

purpose

and perspective these spaces for

potential peace are now proving to be

important than ever during the pandemic

often we are surprised by some kind of

natural phenomena

and magic when we’re in nature maybe an

eagle suddenly flies

over your head a fish nips at your toes

or a sparrow approaches your bench with

a tilted head

and a look that says please share some

of your bread with us

this is me my dad and grandmother signe

and this is where i come from the west

coast of norway

most of the time in my childhood i spent

in his yellow boat with my dad

he was a wildling in many ways my dad

and he gave

me the possibility to learn from nature

and connect with it

especially the ocean and the seabirds

so when i’m close to these elements i

really feel like home home

i feel connected now

picture the place that you love that

sacred place where you can feel more at

ease

and sometimes maybe find peace is in

some way

broken or even worse gone

what if this place for example your

favorite bait to swim in

which has always been there for you now

is polluted

full of oil dead birds everywhere

or the steady mountain now hijacked by

big machines and

greedy industry well

it is not about imagination anymore

the destruction of nature and wildlife

is real

it’s been real for a good while and our

homes that we share

with other life forms are getting

destroyed

in the name of progress a couple of

years ago i met a norwegian philosopher

arnon vaplassen after reading one of his

books called

denial of nature we quickly found that

we share this common love and

fascination for nature

a love that we can call ecological love

we talked about our connection to our

homes and the love for our surrounding

environments

for him the forest in the southeastern

parts of norway

with the beautiful and mysterious owls

and for me the bird island and mountain

roonda

on the west coast of norway

i said to him that in some strange way i

sometimes feel like

and identify with the puffin bird maybe

because i kind of always have been

dreaming

about having the ability to fly so it

must be love

most likely not mutual in the forest

close to anyone’s house the owls are now

gone because of deforestation

the bird island that i love the island

of runda

now has bird nests full of plastic

and climate change is confusing the

wildlife

this has a devastating impact on the

nearly

five hundred thousand bird inhabitants

five

hundred thousand their numbers

are now decreasing most of the birds

there are listed as endangered

so we explored our own sorrow

and pain on me and discovered that many

people in various cultural

contexts and in different ways feels a

complicated form

of loss and mourning ecological

sorrow love sorrow

we mourn and suffer with nature

life forms that we in many ways have

taken for granted

and as we know exploited are now facing

extinction

at a rate that is insane

since the early 1970s until today 2020

the world’s wildlife has been reduced by

and the latest u.n nature panel report

warns

that we human beings are continuing

to kill all non-human living beings

systematically

we really need to start listening to

what nature is trying to tell us

and what we are doing to ourselves as

well

we need to make a shift from natural

born killers to natural born

lovers and we need to critically

challenge what future green deals should

consist of

because unfortunately some of the

prospective solutions

to the climate crisis also can destroy

nature

protecting and respecting nature is one

of the most

radical and important climate actions we

most of us have felt that love is both

amazing

and sometimes a bit complicated

we also know that sorrow is deeply

connected to our ability to love

and to care for other beings

so i argue alongside alongside others

that we should

feel more actively in our relationship

with other life forms

when nature is being destroyed the study

mountain your favorite swimming spot

the forest and all its inhabitants it

seems quite natural that we feel

emotional pain doesn’t it

how does the destruction affect our

mental health

ecological sorrow is indeed a

complicated form of mourning

maybe it gets more complicated because

we need to acknowledge

that we as we live today are the problem

human beings our constant craving for

more stimulated

by a political system that does not act

to protect our fundamental home

a system that disconnects those from

nature the soil

the forest the ocean the air

we fail to protect all other forms of

wildlife

that we share this magnificent and

sometimes awful planet with

so our lack of respect for the other

than human

is also a lack of respect for humankind

look at this

it’s just heartbreaking

it really breaks my heart that we cannot

stop our destruction

so what’s the point talking about this

why should we try even harder to explore

and understand this complicated love

story

and relationship with nature why is this

at least

equally important as big tech solutions

well it does not help anybody to get

stuck in the sorrow and sadness

but i believe we need to make room

for this sorrow this pain to make

room for our vulnerability

to make room for all the complicated

feelings related

to the ongoing nature and climate crisis

because this room

potentially also creates an opportunity

to act

because we can’t ignore it we need to

talk about it

and share our stories

accepting and understanding my feelings

helps me to overcome some of the pain

and to not get stuck in

depression and it helps me to connect

with others

that feel sad and angry because what

they love

are being destroyed understanding

our emotional and physical reactions

better

can create the opportunity to reclaim

the fact

that we are a part of nature not

apart from nature to quote the famous

sir david attenborough

and just look at what greta tunberg is

doing

she took her sorrow and depression and

transformed it

to powerful action actions that engage

and resonates in people in an

exceptional way

however it is likely that we will

experience