To (Eco-)Hope or to (Eco-)Rage? A Discussion of Eco-Hope and Eco-Anger and Their Respective Ethical Implications/Dilemmas

Parallel session

Parallel session 5

Presentation slot

Track

Track 3: Health, Well-Being and Emotions in an Age of Socially Disruptive Technologies

Presenter

Formerly a Classics student (Greek and Latin), Fleur van Schaijk has recently completed her Research master's degree in Philosophy at Radboud University (Nijmegen, the Netherlands). During her studies she specialized in Environmental Feminism and Climate Ethics and obtained a special interest in eco-emotions and their sociopolitical and ethical implications. Her research particularly focuses on the collective nature of eco-emotions and how they might connect and move people in times of climate breakdown. At the moment she teaches philosophy at a Highschool in the Netherlands and strives continue her research into eco-hope and other collective eco-emotions; Hoping to establish them as useful, philosophically embedded concepts to phenomenologically analyse the climate breakdown in all its aspects.

Type of presentation

Single paper

Chair

Marcel Verweij

Room

Quantum 3

Abstract

In the context of collective climate action, emotions play a vital role in connecting people to one another (Coşkun 2025, 106). In this context, two emotional responses that have been theorised to be especially motivating are eco-hope (Oele 2024; Betro’ 2024; Clary-Lemon 2025; Beran 2025) and eco-anger (Beran 2025; Bergman 2023; Pihkala 2022). Eco-hope is an important emotion to counterbalance the emotional responses to climate breakdown which have a more paralysing effect, such as fear and anxiety (Betro’ 2024, 5). Hope is particularly motivating and enduring when it manifests as a collective emotion (Betro’ 2024, 5), because it creates a sense of community and contributes to forming a collective Identity (Coşkun 2025, 106). What further defines (eco-)hope is its inherent future orientation (Schockley 2025, 153). Hope helps us visualize and work towards what kind of future we actually want for ourselves and others (Hämäläinen 2025, 123). This intrinsic future orientation of eco-hope is why Kushyna points towards eco-anger as the more apt emotional response in times of climate crisis. In her view, action in the here and now is sooner sparked by anger than by hope (Kushyna 2025, 188). In this paper, I will compare both eco-anger and eco-hope, their aim, temporality and function. I will furthermore reflect on the ethical implications of feeling and practicing eco-hope and eco-anger in response to the climate breakdown and question what kind of eco-hope and eco-anger are most justified. It is my thesis that (specific kinds of) eco-hope and eco-anger, as well as many other eco-emotions, can (and perhaps should) be felt alongside each other.