Interdisciplinary Network on Environmental Emotions: Theory, Testimony, Politics

政府间气候变化专门委员会和政府间生物多样性和生态系统服务科学政策平台发布的最新报告显示，在过去2000年里，人类以前所未有的速度使气候变暖，全球有100万种物种面临灭绝。尽管有关气候变化、生物多样性减少和整个生态系统遭到破坏的科学证据不断积累，但相应的政治行动却滞后，正如在格拉斯哥举行的2021年联合国气候变化缔约方会议上达成的有限协议所显示的那样。为了应对这一现实，越来越多的科学家、活动家、公共知识分子、神学家、记者和遭受危机冲击的社区成员（历史上被剥削的土著人民、种族化和贫困人口）越来越多地公开表达他们的负面生态情绪——与不快、痛苦和苦难的感觉相关的情绪。对环境的悲痛、愤怒、羞耻、厌恶、失望以及对持续的破坏速度和缺乏适当的政治反应的绝望，从他们的公开证词中浮现出来。2021年的一项研究调查了10,000名年轻人（16-25岁），强调了这一代人令人担忧的焦虑程度，他们感到自己的生活选择被当前趋势严重削弱：59%的人非常或极度关注气候变化，而超过50%的人表示他们感到悲伤、愤怒、无能为力、无助和内疚。这个网络将制定一个复杂的研究议程，通过建立一个跨学科的团队来研究这些情绪，并解决它们日益频繁的问题——一个汇集了学者（政治理论家、历史学家、社会学家、环境人文学者、神学家、文学和传播研究专家）和实践者（科学家、活动家和艺术家）的团队。它将促进与北美，欧洲和澳大利亚的国际合作伙伴的合作和相互学习，这将导致一些出版物（1篇文章，1个特刊，1个创意写作作品，1个开放获取书目）和知识交流活动（4个电影放映和问答，1个艺术品展示）。这将为网络存续期之外的大规模联合拨款申请铺平道路。四个研究目标推动了网络议程。从理论上讲，该网络将评估消极的环境情绪是否可能在认识和处理（仍然）广泛否认的环境危机的社会过程中发挥增强公众知识和指导行动的作用。在解释上，该网络将分析科学家、活动家、记者、神学家、作家和受环境危机最直接影响的社区成员的各种自传体作品。它还会让其中一些作者参与其活动，旨在绘制出这些情感在不同社区中的文化表达方式，同时也测试其理论建议的有效性。在方法上，这个跨学科的网络将致力于对情感研究的概念和经验方法进行评估，破坏学者和实践者之间的认知等级，并恢复历史上被边缘化的观点的价值。至关重要的是，该网络的成员将为公众讨论环境危机和解决这些危机的失败提供信息。它的传播和公众宣传议程将侧重于认识到对危机的各种复杂的情绪反应，承认经常被忽视的环境负面情绪的合法性，并强调它们在动员新的环境动员方面可能发挥的富有成效的作用。电影放映、公共圆桌会议、视觉艺术作品的展示和创意写作作品的出版是学术界以外对话和学习的重要机会。

The latest reports issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services show that humans have heated the climate at a rate unprecedented over the last 2000 years and that 1 million species face extinction globally. While the scientific evidence around climate change, biodiversity reduction and the devastation of whole ecosystems accumulates, commensurate political action is lagging, as the limited agreements reached at the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties held in Glasgow show.In response to this reality, growing numbers of scientists, activists, public intellectuals, theologians, journalists, and members of communities who have borne the brunt of the crisis (historically exploited Indigenous people, racialised and impoverished populations,) are becoming increasingly vocal about their negative ecological emotions - emotions associated with feelings of displeasure, pain, and suffering. Environmental grief, anger, shame, disgust, disappointment, and despair at the sustained pace of destruction and the lack of appropriate political responses emerge from their public testimonies. A 2021 study surveying 10,000 young people (aged 16-25 years) highlighted the worrying rate of anxiety among this generation, who sense their life choices are severely diminished by current trends: 59% were very or extremely concerned about climate change, while over 50% stated they were sad, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty.This network will develop a complex research agenda that examines these emotions and addresses their increased frequency by building an interdisciplinary team - one that brings together academics (political theorists, historians, sociologists, scholars from the environmental humanities, theologians, literary and communication studies specialists) and practitioners (scientists, activists, and artists). It will foster collaboration and mutual learning with international partners in North America, Europe, and Australia, which will lead to the production of several publications (1 article, 1 special issue, 1 creative writing work, 1 open-access bibliography) and knowledge exchange activities (4 film projections and Q&As, 1 artwork display). These will pave the way to a large joint grant application beyond the network's duration.Four research objectives animate the networks agenda. Theoretically, the network will assess whether negative environmental emotions might play a public knowledge-enhancing and action-guiding role in social processes of recognising and dealing with (still) widely disavowed environmental crises. Interpretively, the network will analyse a variety of autobiographical works by scientists, activists, journalists, theologians, writers, and members of communities most directly affected by the environmental crises. It will also involve some of these authors in its activities, aiming to map the ways in which these emotions are culturally expressed within various communities, but also to test the validity of its theoretical proposals. Methodologically, this interdisciplinary network will aim to valorise conceptual and empirical approaches to the study of emotion, destabilise epistemic hierarchies between academics and practitioners, and recuperate the value of historically marginalised perspectives. Critically, the network's members will inform public debates about the environmental crises and the failures to address them. Its dissemination and public outreach agenda will focus on recognising the complex variety of emotional responses to the crisis, acknowledge the legitimacy of often dismissed environmental negative emotions and foreground their potentially fruitful role in mobilising renewed environmental mobilisation. Film projections, public roundtables, the display of a visual artwork and the publication of a creative writing work constitute key opportunities for dialogue and learning beyond academia.