Text taken from the section Reboot by Andrea Bariselli on DOVE from May 2024
Not since the Pliocene has the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere been so high. The oceans are increasingly acidic and inhospitable, we are in the midst of the planet's sixth mass extinction and in just thirty years, most of the planet terrestrial ecosystemsfrom the Amazon to the Arctic, will collapse, generating catastrophic socio-economic upheavals.
If you're sad about it environmental devastation In progress, you feel an insurmountable sense of loss and you feel helpless in the face of the decline of the planet as we know it, there is a word to describe this state of mind: solastalgia. It represents a sense of nostalgia one feels for a place even though one continues to reside there. In other words: you still live there, but it no longer seems to have a place there, as if it is slipping away. It's sort of homesickness, but in a paradoxical sense: you are at home, you are on your land. Yet we feel that something is wrong, that things are changing, that it is no longer the same house. It’s melancholy, deep and sinuous.
Solastalgia and mental health: the consequences of climate change
Solastalgia is closely linked to our era, the Anthropocene, and is characterized byhuge impact dman on the planet, and climate change, which is a consequence of this irresponsible impact. The changes of climate they not only change the physical environment in which we live, they also concrete consequences on our mental health. Extreme weather events, such as storms, floods or heat waves, can cause and intensify stress and anxiety and lead to depression and anger.
This is a clear sign that this feeling of belonging to the world of natural things is within us. There is no separation, it is part of our genetics, our biology, our memory. We can't erase it, and yet it seems we have learned to live without nature. As if under a strange spell, we wander in the present affected by developmental amnesia.
Above Lake Iseo, to find the right size
The expression “embrace complexity» perfectly conveys the idea of the limit, of our constant attempt to understand, to understand, to surpass. To struggle to grasp something greater. Something elusive, to which we cannot give a name, but we feel that it is there. This is the reason why I often go to a place not far from my home, I Colmi of Sulzano, an extraordinary natural balcony just above the Lake Iseo. A place capable of instantly giving every pilgrim the true sensation of feeling small.
Discover the other places not to be missed on Lake Iseo, strictly on the road
Just as the eye wants to capture an ever-larger portion of space, its glacial conformation contains all the beauty of Lake Iseo as in a shell. Everything is here. You feel like for a moment he belongs to you, and indeed he does. The golden light of the dying sun makes it extremely beautiful and fragile, just like the times we live in. SWe pay the spectators of a world that is literally meltingwe are the first generation to be able to experience in person the abyss of the planet which is collapsing under the blows of climate crisis. Sitting here and watching, with a blade of grass between your lips, is deeply nostalgic.
Also read the Special: Holidays on Lake Iseo
Environmental nostalgia: the antidote is the beauty of nature
Sometimes I think we are just self-destructing, quite frankly. Suffice it to say that in different parts of the world people live with masks on their faces because I have difficulty breathing because of the pollution and many live lives that make them neither satisfied nor happy, in exchange for some sort of comfort. Children today will perhaps not have the privilege of seeing the same spectacle of Nature. Or they will have it much less.
When I see certain sights in Nature, I just want to take all of humanity with me. I wish everyone was with me when I feel very strong emotions of wonder exploding inside me And gratitude. I wish everyone was here, sharing. I think part of the problem is: lost in our worries, we have forgotten how beautiful the world we live in is. How can we protect or love something we don't know? We need to get out of our comfortable lives from the couch, leave our homes. We need to start seeing with our own eyes again and sit back to observe the world at the edge of time and slip gently between thoughts. It is only in this way that we will perceive this subtle breath of the eternal which permeates everything.
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