By Merrin Foltz

In their 2018 paper, “Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss”, authors Ashlee Cunsolo and Neville R. Ellis describe ecological grief as “the grief felt in relation to experienced or anticipated ecological losses, including the loss of species, ecosystems and meaningful landscapes due to acute or chronic environmental change.” Since giving name to this phenomenon, ecological grief has been widely studied in scientists themselves.

I do not know what it feels like to be a coral scientist whose ecosystems are rapidly collapsing, or an ornithologist whose bird of study lives in a habitat imminently threatened by deforestation. However, as an entomologist, I know the devastation that comes with accepting how many beautiful and unique species of beetles are dying before ever being discovered. It feels impossible to know so much about the natural world, and the impacts that mankind has had on it, while still believing that my work has any chance of making a difference. Yet, I am able to show up to work everyday because I still hold hope in the good of science. That hope is a product of Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

As a scientist whose love for the more technical aspects of the field grew out of a wonder for the natural world, it can be difficult to consolidate the two. Often they work against each other, with a focus on the earth seen as a distraction from the rigor of academia. However, my love for nature is anything but a distraction: it keeps me passionate and inspired in my work. The first time I read Braiding Sweetgrass, I was comforted by the countless stories of scientists who, like me, choose to believe not only in Mother Earth, but in the goodness of humans to positively impact the world around us.

Braiding Sweetgrass begins with a recounting of the story of Skywoman, a creation story of the original peoples throughout the Great Lakes area. The story clearly describes not only how the animals helped create Turtle Island, so Skywoman had somewhere to live, but also how Skywoman came bearing branches from the Tree of Life, populating Turtle Island with all kinds of plants.

Yet, in a survey of Kimmerer’s General Ecology class, 200 students were unable to think of a single beneficial relationship between people and the environment. What makes Braiding Sweetgrass stand out from other science and nature books, other than the heartwarming personal stories and centering of Indigenous knowledge, is that it shows the ways that humans can be and have been positive players in our ecosystem. My bookshelf is filled with well-written, well-researched books about all the ways mankind has screwed up the Earth permanently. Kimmerer does not shy away from that reality, but she also argues against hopelessness. The modern world has forgotten how to give back, but we must remember how to reciprocate, how to return all we have taken. Like Skywoman, we can give to this world as it has given to us, but not without trying.

Kimmerer holds her power as a decorated author and professor in the world of Western academia alongside her knowledge as a member of the Potawatomi Nation. I am none of these things. However, I think this book holds lessons, stories, and hope for everyone. Many nature authors compare their love of the earth to religion, and as a nature reader, this is my Bible.

Merrin Foltz is a neuroscience researcher and lover of all critters big and small.