Climate Shame: What Is It, Does It Matter, and How Do We Handle It?

Abstract

The green transition touches most aspects of contemporary human lives, including their emotions. This article explores one particular climate emotion, namely shame, asking three interrelated questions: What is climate shame? How does climate shame contribute to the green transition? And within which Christian theological context might we handle climate shame when we experience it? For each question, the article employs different methods, thereby combining phenomenology, ethics, and systematic theology. By exploring climate shame, the article contributes to an interdisciplinary theological understanding of our emotional life in the green transition.