un/predictable environments
A space for conversation, analysis, and inquiry following the Un/Predictable Environments Conference, May 20-21, 2021
I am a Tyrone girl, meaning I am considered ‘a culchie’ in Northern Ireland, which is a rural dweller in more generic anthropological terms. I moved away from ‘the sticks’ (an affectionate and slightly mocking word used for the countryside) and lived in urban spaces such as Manchester, Brighton and Kurume, Japan for years before moving back home. I always felt a longing, a deep, internal calling to return to the land and home, my home being between Lough Neagh and the Sperrin mountains. “I hold within me a strong sense of place. My emotional compass, my inherited biophilia, instinctively directs me to beautiful and biologically rich environments where I want to be “in place” with as much place attachment as possible.” (Albrecht, 2019, p27). Since learning the word ‘Solastalgia’ I have become a fan of the environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht who has been developing a language that reflects the environmental and ecological era we are living in. Solastalgia refers to the feelings of homesickness when you are home and that is how I feel on days that I travel around Tyrone and through the Sperrin mountains. I feel a sense of loss for what we are doing to the environment in the name of business and profit. Words such as the ‘Capitalocene’ remind me that my observations and concerns are not isolated and unusual, they are a sign of this relentless, absurd and tragic global and ecocidal era we are in. (click read more to continue)
As part of the conference planning team, I was given the opportunity to chair and assistant chair several of the sessions and I presented a paper ‘Finding Peace in the Middle of Chaos’. These sessions were illuminating and gave me a chance to listen to academics and researchers from all over the world and ask questions directly. The greatest part of it all was connecting their research with the work I was doing and putting my thoughts and opinions in the context of many disciplines.
My research is exploring the relationship between mental health and the natural world and placing it within the climate and ecological crisis. My study has led me to reflect on how environmental and political issues affect the psyche, as Professor John Barry so brilliantly put it in the session on Socio-ecological environments; “The psychological is political”. My work has led me to the leaders and scholars who are arguing that in the pain of eco-anxiety and climate grief, there is always hope and that the best way to move forward is through agency. “What helps us face the mess we’re in is the knowledge that each of us has something significant to offer, a contribution to make. In rising to the challenge of playing our best role, we discover something precious that both enriches our lives and adds to the healing of our world.” (Macy and Johnstone, 2012, p238). Another uplifting experience from the conference was witnessing the sharing of knowledge at the roundtable discussion which included four environmental activists from the North and South of Ireland. The social hours were lovely also, and three earth protectors shared their musical talents with an audience that spanned the globe. The responses and interactions with the academics from Canada were particularly powerful and poignant, especially when considering their environmental campaigns are resisting the actions of a Canadian gold mining company. The generosity of spirit and the exchange of ideas, beliefs, and wisdom meant that connection despite the Atlantic Ocean was possible, and activists were free to share their frustrations at having to protect our beautiful countryside from mining companies. The stories of activism throughout the various sessions and speeches were undoubtably the most inspiring messages that I will take from the event.
This conference was special not just because it was planned by three teams of academics spanning three continents, but because it was all online and at the times the odds seemed stacked against it running smoothly, but it did. As a member of the Queens University team, I felt a sorrow when reading about how COVID was impacting the lives of our sister team in India. I felt a sadness as several papers were unable to be read due to the pandemic and how it was relentlessly spreading with such shocking intensity and I realised in those moments how the world is both vast and small, we really are one big village and these moments of realisation reminded us why the Un/Predictable Environments and all the conversations it accommodated were so invaluable.
Maybe with more work, more activism, more conversations, more international sharing and collaboration, maybe the ‘Symbiocene’ becomes possible. Glenn Albrecht also coined this term which reflects the possibilities and what could be ahead and how we could create a new era, one that destroys the Capitalocene and makes the Anthropocene a memory. Albrecht and scholars like Joanna Macy and Richard Louv are producing work which is rooted in radical compassion, hope and connection. Their work is inspiring and progressive and calling for agency and fundamentally that is why I believe that conferences such as the UN/Predictable Environments conference are so important, because they remind us that the future is up for grabs, and we are not alone. The future feels so much brighter when we connect with those with the same visions and hopes for the future of our planet. “Generation Symbiocene will be the first generation for many centuries to be able to look children in the eyes and tell them with love and openness that their future looks good. Those children will run outside and play in healthy air, and be full of symbioment fulfillment order, the very opposite of nature deficit disorder- their laughter, and the singing of birds, clear signals that all is well with the Earth.” (Albrecht, 2019, p191)
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