Solastalgia and Solaphilia

  

Kennecott Copper Mines   

Sometimes I feel really sad on the days where the mountains are mostly just a blurry grey purple place on the horizon. Sometimes I look at the Kennecott Copper Mines and wonder what the mountains must have looked like before. Sometimes I am just darned upset because I cannot see the stars. These feelings that I have can be explained by solastalgia. Solastalgia can be taken to mean a lot of different things. It can be the distress caused by environmental change and specifically by ecosystem distress. It can also just be the feeling of homesickness or the feeling of loss at being taken away from one’s own land. 

     As Glenn Albrecht, a professor of sustainability and philosopher, says “the pain experienced when there is recognition that the place where one resides and that one loves is under immediate assault… a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at ‘home.’” Solaphilia it is not just caused by destruction caused by humans. Places like Haiti that endure natural disasters like a 7.0 magnitude earthquake are places that have endured major ecosystem distress. As people attempt to find their feeling of place that they once had within these areas, there is the realization that their home is no longer home. 

     Solaphilia is love of place. This is what you feel when you are experiencing the place you call home or a place that you care about. I feel solaphilia about Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake and The Avenues and Main Street in Utah. Sometimes this love of place stems from the natural ecosystems that exist, and sometimes is stems from what human interaction has created within these areas. Even Glenn Albrecht speaks about the places people feel solastalgia and solaphilia for and describes alfalfa fields and dairy farms; places that would not exist without human intervention. This is interesting because if you can feel solaphilia around ecosystems untouched by humans and ecosystems that are predominantly influenced by human beings, then you have to wonder what specifically causes solastalgia for people if its not human interaction and alteration of ecosystems directly. Some places that are beautiful and cause people to feel solaphilia are places that were created through the destruction of ecosystems.