Free School for Farmworkers presents: Climate Grief

Climate grief, eco-grief, eco-anxiety, solastalgia. There is a growing language and vocabulary to describe the experience of being part of a rapidly changing planet, and the sense of loss that arises from witnessing and anticipating this change. From increasingly severe hurricanes and wildfires to yet another summer of record-breaking heat, these wide-scale changes have local impacts that we are seeing and feeling every single day. Even with this growing language and vocabulary, it is difficult to make sense of these changes, and the scale, pace, and severity at which they are taking place.

Farmworkers are in particularly close contact with our changing environments, with the heat and extreme weather patterns, and with what this means for how things live, grow, or die. Experiencing these changes in isolation or without meaningful processing or support takes a deep toll on our hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits, leaving many of us chronically anxious, numb, hopeless, and burnt out as a result. And yet, there is infinite support and resources that we can turn to, that are available to us through our experiences tending land, growing food, and working intimately with the cycles of the natural world.