Interdisciplinary Network on Environmental Emotions: Theory, Testimony, Politics

政府间气候变化专门委员会和生物多样性和生态系统服务政府间科学政策平台发布的最新报告显示，人类在过去2000年中以前所未有的速度使气候变暖，全球有100万物种面临灭绝。尽管围绕气候变化、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，但正如在格拉斯哥举行的2021年联合国气候变化缔约方大会上达成的有限协议所显示的那样，相应的政治行动却滞后。而在危机中首当其冲的社区成员（历史上被剥削的土著人、种族化和贫困人口）越来越多地表达他们的负面生态情绪--与不快、痛苦和苦难有关的情绪。环境的悲痛，愤怒，羞耻，厌恶，失望，和绝望的持续破坏的速度和缺乏适当的政治反应出现在他们的公开证词。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率，他们感到自己的生活选择因当前趋势而严重减少：59%的人非常或非常关注气候变化，而超过50%的人表示他们感到悲伤，愤怒，无能为力，无助，这个网络将制定一个复杂的研究议程，研究这些情绪，并通过建立一个跨学科的团队来解决它们增加的频率-一个汇集学术界人士的团队（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）。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，从而产生若干出版物（1篇文章、1期特刊、1篇创造性写作作品、1份开放式书目）和知识交流活动（4次电影放映和问答、1次艺术品展览）。这些将为网络持续时间之外的大型联合赠款申请铺平道路。从理论上讲，该网络将评估负面环境情绪是否可能在识别和处理（仍然）广泛否认的环境危机的社会过程中发挥公共知识增强和行动指导作用。该网络将分析科学家、活动家、记者、神学家、作家和最直接受环境危机影响的社区成员的各种自传体作品。它还将让其中一些作者参与其活动，目的是绘制这些情绪在不同社区内的文化表达方式，同时也是为了测试其理论建议的有效性。从方法论上讲，这个跨学科网络的目标是评价情感研究的概念和经验方法，动摇学者和从业者之间的认识层次，并恢复历史上被边缘化的观点的价值。至关重要的是，该网络的成员将向公众提供有关环境危机和未能解决这些危机的辩论。其传播和公共宣传议程将侧重于认识到对危机的复杂多样的情绪反应，承认经常被忽视的环境负面情绪的合法性，并突出其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，视觉艺术品的展示和创意写作作品的出版构成了学术界以外的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.