Dept. of Interior Now Offering 'Eco-Grief' Training to Employees

To kick off this column, here’s an oldie but a goodie:

Sure it’s dated, but let’s face it — the classics never go out of style. What you are seeing here, besides rich, entitled, vastly underemployed white kids is what is now referred to as “eco-grief.” Yup, that’s a thing, although these individuals may be taking it a bit to the extreme for the cameras. If you have never heard of eco-grief, you probably aren’t alone, although you are also not among the world’s socially and ecologically enlightened. You may be asking yourself “What is eco-grief?” Well, it’s almost self-explanatory as illustrated by the video above. The BYU Daily Universe describes it this way:

Ecological grief, also known as eco-grief or eco-anxiety, is when “people experience climate grief when they notice or anticipate the loss of ‘species, ecosystems and meaningful landscapes due to acute or chronic environmental change,’” according to the research article “Addressing Climate Change Concerns in Practice” published by the American Psychological Association.

The website ecoanxiety.com states, “Ecological grief refers to the feeling of sorrow and mourning at the current and projected future loss of our natural environment and the impacts of climate change.  It implies a level of acceptance that such losses have become inevitable. By emphasising [sic] grief and sorrow, this term implies that what has gone can’t be recovered, and that we’re coming to terms with the loss.”

According to the Washington Examiner, the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering eco-grief training to employees who are struggling with climate and ecological issues. During the training, participants will be able to define their eco-grief and be given a chance to examine their emotions and tools to cope. The training is currently available in the Southwest region. The Washington Examiner had this quote from the announcement about the class:

This 4-hour workshop seeks to normalize the wide range of emotional responses that conservationists experience while empowering participants to act while taking care of themselves. The workshop is intended for those experiencing ecological grief and for those who wish to support them.

Rep. Pete Stauber (R-Minn.), who sits on the Natural Resources Committee, called the class a waste of taxpayer money. He stated, “While taxpayer dollars are spent on this woke class in a university faculty lounge, the very same agency is uplisting the Northern Long Eared Bat to endangered and overburdening America’s rural communities, Sadly, this is just another example of the Biden administration putting woke politics above doing their jobs or helping rural America.”

An employee of Fish and Wildlife who asked to remain anonymous agreed:

The FWS is in absolute crisis when it comes to funding and staffing. Most refuges I know have lost 50 to 60% of their staff over the last 12 years. And yet consider how much time, money, energy and staff time is being spent on spreading the woke message. Would the FWS support its employees having a booth and being dressed in uniform and while on the clock supporting a pro-life festival?

In the past, the agency has had employees attend LGBTQ pride events while wearing rainbow-styled NWS patches.

And there you have it. Objections to climate change claims, activism, and legislation are by and large not fueled by a disregard for the earth. It’s fueled by the elitist attitude of the acolytes of Gaia. Like gender, climate is a dividing line between the beautiful people and the hoi polloi. And it is also a great tool for regulating the public while making pretty good money. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who thought we needed to tear it all up and burn it all down in the name of progress. But these people do resent being demonized by a movement that has been weaponized, turned into a cash generator, and is biased against the common person.

As someone who volunteered as a HazMat technician on a local level, I have watched the events unfold in East Palestine, Ohio. I never responded to anything nearly that big, but all of us on the team knew that one day we might. And it was gut-wrenching to watch. And I have watched while the federal government has all but ignored the issue since it is in an area that is not part of the elitists’ promised land. Darvio Morrow covered it quite nicely in an op-ed in Newsweek yesterday entitled “Why Elites Don’t Give a Damn About Ohio.” This incident was a clarion call to environmental activists, and it went unanswered.

Most of us can get together on the idea of protecting the environment. Those of us who are opposed to the environmental industry/movement recognize that it has become a grift and a power grab. It is also a festival of navel-gazing by the elites and those who hope to be among the elite one day.