Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A form of homesickness one gets when one is still at home, but the environment is changed.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Coined by Australian philosopher and researcher Glenn Albrecht of the roots Latin sōlācium (comfort) and Ancient Greek algia (pain).

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Examples

  • He coined a term solastalgia, which describes "the pain or sickness caused by the inability to derive solace from the present state of one's home environment."

    Climate Crisis of Feelings 2010

  • Comment: A new field of science called solastalgia attempts to explain the profound psychological damage that is done when people's connection to the land they love is broken.

    Signs of the Times 2010

  • Glenn Albrecht, Australian environmental philosopher who coined the term "solastalgia" and co-authored the document "NGO Working Group on the Impact of Climate Change on Mental Health and Psychosocial Well-Being: Guidelines for Action," referenced by the Green Party of BC in their policy statement

    Sanjay Khanna: Are You Resilient? If So, Encourage Psychological and Social Resilience Wherever You Can 2009

  • As a follow-up, I further object that perhaps this 'solastalgia' idea is not quite appropriate to the Chinese situation because - as I've often observed in my own blog - things change so quickly here that we seldom have a chance to achieve any level of comfort or familiarity with our surroundings.

    Chinese Solastalgia 2008

  • In the past five years, the word "solastalgia" has appeared in media outlets as disparate as Wired, The Daily News in Sri Lanka and Andrew Sullivan's popular political blog,

    NYT > Home Page 2010

  • "solastalgia," a combination of the Latin word solacium (comfort) and the Greek root - algia

    Signs of the Times 2010

  • In a 2004 essay, he coined a term to describe it: "solastalgia," a combination of the Latin word solacium (comfort) and the Greek root - algia (pain), which he defined as "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.'

    The Oil Drum - Discussions about Energy and Our Future 2010

  • In my own way, by defining solastalgia, I am trying to get people to recognise it, then work to defeat it.

    Obama, Solastalgia and The Way of The Chickadee 2008

  • Hello Arlene, you display a truely sophisticated undertsanding of what I mean by solastalgia.

    Obama, Solastalgia and The Way of The Chickadee 2008

  • And everyone who fears that loss is now balking, even as solastalgia begins to take hold.

    Obama, Solastalgia and The Way of The Chickadee 2008

  • "Solastalgia," as he wrote in a scientific paper describing his theory, "is a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at home.'"

    Clive Thompson on How the Next Victim of Climate Change Will Be Our Minds Condé Nast 2007

  • Solastalgia is a new concept developed to give greater meaning and clarity to environmentally induced distress. As opposed to nostalgia--the melancholia or homesickness experienced by individuals when separated from a loved home--solastalgia is the distress that is produced by environmental change impacting on people while they are directly connected to their home environment.

    Solastalgia: the distress caused by environmental change Glenn Albrecht 2024

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  • "Ecological degradation is not only affecting our external landscape; it’s also influencing our psychic one. Neologisms paint the picture: solastalgia is the depression caused when your local surroundings are damaged significantly; eco anxiety is a generalized worry about the environment."

    The New York Times Magazine, Eco Anxiety, Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson, April 20, 2008

    April 20, 2008

  • ..."Albrecht believes that this is a new type of sadness. People are feeling displaced. They're suffering symptoms eerily similar to those of indigenous populations that are forcibly removed from their traditional homelands. But nobody is being relocated; they haven't moved anywhere. It's just that the familiar markers of their area, the physical and sensory signals that define home, are vanishing. Their environment is moving away from them, and they miss it terribly.

    Albrecht has given this syndrome an evocative name: solastalgia. It's a mashup of the roots solacium (comfort) and algia (pain), which together aptly conjure the word nostalgia. In essence, it's pining for a lost environment. "Solastalgia," as he wrote in a scientific paper describing his theory, "is a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at home.'"

    Wired Magazine, Clive Thompson on How the Next Victim of Climate Change Will Be Our Minds

    October 2, 2008

  • With age comes refinement of friends

    As seen in the news that each sends.

    It’s like-minded pals we are

    Who share solastalgia,

    Regretting at length the late trends.

    April 19, 2019