The World We Want

How Emotion and Futurity Constitute Climate Change Response

in Nature and Culture
Author:
Anna Willow Professor, Ohio State University, USA willow.1@osu.edu

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/nc.2025.200103
Keywords:
activism; climate crisis; earth emotions; futurity; postapocalyptic environmentalism; social movements; transition
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Abstract

This article illuminates how diverse experiences of emotion and futurity constitute equally diverse responses to the climate crisis. It draws on research among participants in the Transition movement for climate resilience to illustrate how a unique kind of climate activism arises from a distinctive combination of emotional engagement (embracing grief while emphasizing joy) and positive futurity (embracing inevitability while emphasizing efficacy). Transition participants’ anticipation of a future of postapocalyptic regeneration has important implications for their present actions; instead of resistance and protest, they model practical everyday alternatives and actively confront the painful emotions evoked by the climate crisis. Ultimately, this article suggests that exploring complex intersections of emotion, futurity, and action can reveal otherwise overlooked dimensions and sites of climate change response.

Contributor Notes

Anna Willow is a Professor of Anthropology at the Ohio State University. An Environmental Anthropologist who studies how individuals and communities experience and respond to externally imposed resource-extractive development, she is the author of Strong Hearts, Native Lands: The Cultural and Political Landscape of Anishinaabe Anti-Clearcutting Activism (SUNY Press, 2012) and Understanding ExtrACTIVISM: Culture and Power in Natural Resource Disputes (Routledge, 2018). Willow received her PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison as well as aa master's degree in natural resources and environment from the University of Michigan. Email: willow.1@osu.edu

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Cover Nature and Culture
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
21
Keywords:
activism; climate crisis; earth emotions; futurity; postapocalyptic environmentalism; social movements; transition
Print Publication Date:
01 Mar 2025
Online Publication Date:
01 Mar 2025
Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025

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