Sunday 2 September 2012

Tierratrauma

That moment when you experience sudden and traumatic environmental change ... your favourite tree being cut down, the bulldozer is demolishing your loved streetscape or you witness an oil spill that smothers all life on ‘your’ beach. This is not post-traumatic stress disorder; this is not chronic solastalgia, this is acute earth-based existential trauma in the here and right now.
We need a word for this gut feeling, this mental anguish. I think Tierratrauma is a good first effort and it can be contrasted to Eutierria, a concept I have already offered as a catch all for "that oceanic experience" or the feeling of oneness between self and nature. If we can have eutierria, then we can also have tierratrauma.