Climate Anger. The stage involves blaming others and expressing frustration about the loss felt. Anger could be a “secondary emotions” for people to cover up other vulnerable emotions such as sadness, and confusion. In the context of climate, climate activists may manifest towards expressing frustration at those who are satisfied with the status quo or climate deniers. Those who are convinced of the urgency may be frustrated at the lack of effort to address the situation.
‘It’s all one big morass of emotion that I have about what we, humans, had the audacity to create out of blindness, and then out of greed and whatever.’ – Mazur, 2019.
However, the anger may be acted out on others in a misdirected way. Anger can be a catalyst for action, only when we understand the psychological reasoning associated with eco-grief.
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The frustration-aggression theory happens when a person is prohibited from achieving their expected goal and this increases the probability of an aggressive response. The frustration felt towards climate inaction may morph into aggression. Frustration will only result in aggression when there is a readiness to produce aggression and the situational variable are conducive to aggressive behaviour. Aggression can be displayed in two types: Hostile aggression occurs when aggression is demonstrated with the purpose of inflicting pain or injury. On the other hand, instrumental aggression occurs when the damage incurs acts as a medium to attain some goal, rather than just causing pain. Climate activists may demonstrate anger towards climate deniers to encourage greater action to protect our environment [Hostile Aggression]. Others may demonstrate aggression with the purpose of only causing harm. [Instrumental Aggression]. |
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