Pirate's Cove

There’s also a phrase: bat-guano insane. But, the wackadoodles in the Cult of Climastrology want to make their idiocy sound legitimate, instead of being a bunch of whiny, and hypocritical, babies

Climate change got you down? There’s a word for what you’re feeling

For the past 14 years, the end of summer has arrived like a burden, heavy with the anniversary of when my life, and so many others’, was split in two. Anyone affected by Hurricane Katrina is party to dual lives: One before the waves crashed in and left mud and mildew in their wake, before homes were marked with X’s by rescue crews, before our neighbors fled — and one after.

I could never really capture this feeling with words. It was a complicated mix of sadness, fear, misery, despair. But none of those words quite cut to the core of the sensation.

When I discovered the term for environmental anguish, in a National Geographic write-up, it felt like a diagnosis. I read the definition over and over again. “Solastalgia, a form of mental or existential distress caused by environmental change.” The word itself also reflects the duality of the feeling. Solastalgia is a combination of Latin’s solacium, meaning comfort, and algia, a Greek root for pain. The pain of losing the comforts of home.

Well, I can see how one could have some distress over what happened there going back, say, 10 years, but, it’s been 14 years, it hasn’t happened again, and the disaster had exactly zero to do with anthropogenic climate change. Is there a term for incompetent Democratic Party leaders who really hosed the New Orleans and Louisiana responses? Demastalgia? Remember, Katrina did not make landfall on New Orleans, but further to the east, and we did not hear about all these problems, because they were Republican run areas.

Many factors contributed to the destruction following Hurricane Katrina — from a lack of federal support to man-made miscalculations. But scientists are still examining how climate change played into the natural disaster. There’s no straightforward answer, but factors like sea level rise and warming Gulf waters, which affects the scale of hurricanes, have clear connections to global climate change.

As our climate situation becomes increasingly dire, the country is beginning to experience emergencies that grow to more catastrophic levels with each passing season. There are unprecedented winter storms, floods, heat waves and, of course, wildfires.

Actually, no there aren’t, but, it’s cute how they are blaming winter storms on increasing warmth, pretty much because they’re nuts.

Solastalgia. There is finally a word. Something to describe an indescribable feeling. While there is a feeling of camaraderie and acceptance in finding a description to share with others who have felt the pain of losing their environment, the reason for the word’s emergence in our vocabulary is also a warning.