Grief as Invitation: Preparing for the Future Within and Beyond Pessimism

Abstract

This article explores the role of difficult ecological emotions, particularly grief and despair, in shaping how people respond to climate change. Drawing on queer-crip pessimism, it examines how human and more-than-human futures are being anticipated and prepared for beyond the binary of optimism and pessimism. Positioning grief as an invitation rather than an impediment, the article considers how difficult emotions can act as an impetus for individual and collective action. Moving beyond dominant binaries of hope or apathy, it traces how queer-crip understandings of uncertainty and precarity help articulate alternative futures rooted in justice, interdependence, and more-than-human care. Ultimately, the article argues that grief should not be pathologized or dismissed, but embraced as an invitation to reckon with loss and imagine other ways of living in the face of the climate crisis.