The tragedy weB次元官网网址檙e witnessing in so many places around the world is heartbreaking. Responses on the ground and in the media to events in Paris, Beirut, Syria and elsewhere have ranged from inspiring to chilling. Too often, people express fear and distress as anger, suspicion and scapegoating.

For many reasons and in many ways, people and nature are in distress. Quaker activist and author Parker Palmer implores us to ask, B次元官网网址淲hat shall we do with our suffering?B次元官网网址� The way we deal with our pain has critical implications. Whether we project it outward as war or murder or absorb it as despair and self-destruction, B次元官网网址淰iolence is what we get when we do not know what else to do with our suffering.B次元官网网址�

The interplay of environmental degradation and geopolitics has had alarming repercussions. Over the past decade alone, millions of people have been displaced by war, famine and drought. The world is shifting rapidly as a result of climate change and thereB次元官网网址檚 little doubt weB次元官网网址檒l see increasing humanitarian crises. We must face this new reality as a global community.

Climate change is one of the most destabilizing forces in human history. We must deal with carbon emissions but we must also deal with human suffering. In Canada, Inuit are feeling the impacts disproportionately. Ice appears much later in the season and melts earlier. Changing wildlife migration patterns disrupt community livelihoods, land-based activities and cultural practices.

Cape Breton University Canada research chair Ashlee Cunsolo Willox is working with Inuit to understand their communitiesB次元官网网址� climate-related mental and emotional health impacts, documenting anxiety, despair, hopelessness and depression, increased family stress, drug and alcohol use and suicide attempts. People are grieving for a way of life that is changing with the landscape.

Together with the Nunatsiavut communities of Labrador, Cunsolo Willox produced a documentary film, Attutauniujuk Nunami/Lament for the Land. Residents describe how ice, when it forms, is often not thick enough to hunt, gather wood or travel by snowmobile.

The land is part of who they are, a source of solace, peace, identity, and well-being. Hunting and fishing and spending time on the land help Inuit feel grounded and happy. When residents canB次元官网网址檛 get out of town, they feel B次元官网网址渟tuck,B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址渓ostB次元官网网址� and B次元官网网址渓ess like people.B次元官网网址�

Although global warming discourse typically ignores our intense feelings and grief in the face of environmental change, Cunsolo Willox argues it can expand our capacity to act. B次元官网网址淩e-casting climate change as the work of mourning means that we can share our losses, and encounter them as opportunities for productive and important work,B次元官网网址� she says. B次元官网网址淚t also provides the opportunity to stand up and publicly object to injustice.B次元官网网址� Shared experiences of grief can build solidarity, support healing and inspire collective action.

With the Paris UN climate talks underway, we have an opportunity to expand the conversation to include environmental grief and loss. TodayB次元官网网址檚 social and environmental leaders need to understand the psychological implications of a world in distress.

Geographer and research scientist Susanne Moser predicts future leaders will need more than professional expertise and political savvy. They must be B次元官网网址渟teward, shepherd, arbiter, crisis manager, grief counselor, future builder.B次元官网网址�

Instead of knee-jerk reactions that so often accompany fear and emotional pain, what if we summoned the courage to experience our sadness, disorientation and grief in all its fullness? More importantly, what if we did this together? The feelings surrounding change and loss highlight our shared vulnerability and expose our connections to one another. We can consciously foster a heightened sense of human and ecological fellowship.

The late environmental scientist Donella Meadows believed the process of experiencing feelings is far from trivial.

B次元官网网址淔eelings, like knowledge, donB次元官网网址檛 directly change anything. But if we donB次元官网网址檛 rush past the feelings or stuff them down, if we take time to admit even the most uncomfortable ones, to accept them, share them, and couple them with knowledge of what is wrong and how it might be fixed, then feelings and knowledge together are motors for change.B次元官网网址�

The suffering weB次元官网网址檙e witnessing because of loss of land, culture, ways of life and identity may portend what is to come for all of us. Now is the time to come together and decide how we will respond. LetB次元官网网址檚 make sure itB次元官网网址檚 the best humanity has to offer.