Conceptualizing the Environment in a Time of Ecological Collapse

We live in troubling times. Amongst global political instability, rising economic inequality and a rapacious Western consumerist lifestyle, we face the impending risks of global warming and ecological collapse. In this short opinion paper, we bring this topic to the agenda of ecological psychology in the hope of stimulating fruitful conversation. To do so, we ask how ecological psychologists should conceptualize the environment in these precarious times. We will argue that the current ecological catastrophe shows that the environment should not be described simply in terms of affordances, but as an ecosystem on which many affordances depend. Not only does this conceptualization hold scientific implications, it speaks to an active morality that could help us change our ways, and play our part in holding open a just future for all.