Thursday, February 16, 2023

Feds hire ‘ecogrief’ trainers to help employees cope with ‘loss in the natural world’

 
The Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service is offering “ecogrief” training to employees who are struggling with a sense of trauma or loss as they witness a changing environment.

The class will give staffers a chance to define what they mean by ecological grief, space to examine their emotional reactions and tools to grapple with those feelings, the agency said in a note to employees in the Southwest region, where the training is offered.

Those who sign up will be led to “find ways to act while caring for themselves.”

“This 4-hour workshop seeks to normalize the wide range of emotional responses that conservationists experience while empowering participants to act while taking care of themselves,” the notice said. “The workshop is intended for those experiencing ecological grief and for those who wish to support them.”

The workshop is being offered twice to employees in the Southwest, which covers Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. Up to 35 people can attend a workshop...more



What is this stuff?

Ecogrief is part of a family of terms to describe distress. It also has been labeled “climate grief” or “ecoanxiety.”

The American Psychological Association says it can manifest as a sense of being overwhelmed by the immensity of changes to the environment, or even a sense of “anticipated loss” — essentially mourning what someone believes to be inevitable, particularly with climate change.

The APA acknowledged in a 2020 article that “not much is known about climate grief” and said there were no clinical studies on treatments.

Ecogrief? Ecoanxiety? Climategrief? anticipated loss? 

If you feel you must grieve, then do so for:

The ranching family that has to pack up and leave because a certain endangered plant is on their allotment.

The ranching family that was tried twice and labeled as terrorists

The folks who worked in local timber mills that have been shut down

The rural property owners who have seen their property and facilites burned to the ground as a result of federal policy and mismanagemnt. 


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

They should call it: Dealing with your Ecogrief 101, A Guide for Woke Snowflakes and Beginner Environmentalists

Frank DuBois said...

Excellent!

Anonymous said...

And how much did this program cost taxpayers and who approved the expenditure? I never heard of such a Sally-forth waste and certainly didn't vote for it. Who is running USFWS these days? Oh, I forgot -- the Bidenistas.