And solastalgia, he says, is the word for a specific flavor of distress caused by environmental change. It was solastalgia I felt when I learned that by 2050, the climate of North Carolina is likely to feel like the climate of Northern Mexico, no matter what actions are taken. Solastalgia is the feeling of realizing that the version of home you know and love is slipping away in a slow-motion train wreck, and there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s the feeling of knowing that once gone, that version of home is never coming back. “It’s the homesickness you have,” writes Albrecht, “when you are
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