Solastalgia

Solastalgia: "The solace that one’s environment provides, the desolation caused by that environment’s degradation and the pain or distress that occurs inside a person as a result."



"...The bastard inhabitant rapes the
blue shimmering hills
The spirit is quelled -
To be thrown on the garbage
heaps of the world as a
tribute to man's greatness
The mound of mutilated trees
is yellow and dune-like to
those who don't care
Not a heap of slaughter and
despair.
The motors roar and another
tree dies
The soul screams...
The land writhes...
Yet no one hears ...
The land is forgotten and forlorn.

Woodchipping by David Bowman
From "The West Wind and other verses for the Tasmanian Bush"
Published by The Tasmanian Wilderness Society