‘All Nature Has A Feeling’: Introducing Climate Psychology

Seeking clarity in an age of climate chaos, Joel Zachary Down finds answers from Rebecca Nestor of the Climate Psychology Alliance.

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One day in December, I took a walk through the countryside near a small village in England. The smell was fresh — it had just rained — and birdsong punctuated the silence; a stream of clipped tweets no billionaire could lay claim to. Each bend in the path revealed something new. Here: a cluster of reeds blowing in the breeze. There: ponies grazing. A cow took me by surprise, suddenly visible behind some trees. It was so unexpected, I couldn’t help but laugh. With every step, I felt more at home, comforted by a wilderness that was both familiar and strange.

Then I reflected on what the psychologist, Rebecca Nestor, had told me earlier that week. Namely, that nature can help us to process our emotions safely, an experience known as “”. She explained, “staying open to our love for the natural world can have a similar effect to being listened to by a human being.” She uses the example of standing “under some trees and breathing and taking in what’s happening around you (…) where something bigger than you is able to hold you but also enables your distress to be gradually turned into something you…