Living with Loss in the Anthropocene

Climate change discourse has been heatedly contested at various points in its development and is at once; a political and social issue, an environmental and ecological issue, and a physical and mental health issue. Less attention has been paid to the latter. During her work with the terminally ill, Kübler-Ross (2005) outlined five stages of grief: anger, denial, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. That outline is now seen as analogous to the feelings that we may have towards issues of climate change, e.g., the real and perceived loss of ecosystem services, as well as uncertainty in regard to the future of humanity. With that in mind, I created the Anthropocene Adventurer magazine. Conceptualized as a visual and emotional response to climate change, the Anthropocene Adventurer magazine was developed to stimulate climate change communication. The Anthropocene Adventurer magazine grapples with the question, “What does one do when climate change hits home?” This presentation draws attention to the difficult challenge of communicating issues of anthropogenic climate change, both privately to ourselves, and to others at-large. I approach the challenge of communicating climate change by creating multiple sites of entry to climate change discourse; specifically, the Anthropocene Adventurer climate change club, the Anthropocene Adventurer website, and the Anthropocene Adventurer magazine. The Adventurer project fits squarely with the 2018 Graduate Student Showcase theme of DISTRUPTION in that, for some, climate change discourse is an uncomfortable conversation. Why climate change is important to me is the same reason it should be important to you. Whether we knowingly admit it, or unwittingly deny it, climate change affects all of us