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Has anyone else been thinking about how climate change might be affecting the mental and emotional side of outdoor sports? It's easy to focus on the practical impacts – shorter ski seasons, wildfires closing trails, hotter temperatures making hiking dangerous – but I wonder how these changes are impacting our enjoyment and mental well-being while participating in these activities.
For example, if you're a climber and increasingly worried about rockfalls due to melting permafrost, does that constant anxiety detract from the feeling of flow and accomplishment you typically experience? Or, does the knowledge of a disappearing glacier change the sense of awe and wonder people get from mountaineering? It truly seems like there could be a subtle but significant psychological shift happening, moving from pure enjoyment to a more complicated mix of enjoyment, anxiety, and even grief for a changing environment.
I'm curious to hear other people's thoughts and experiences on this. Are you finding outdoor sports less fulfilling, or perhaps are you finding a new kind of motivation in connecting with nature amidst these changes? Maybe there's a heightened sense of urgency to appreciate what we have while we still have it.