Eco-grief is something that matters to victims but it could offer an excuse for the permanently angry to annoy themselves with, argues herald columnist Alan Simpson.

Grief can manifest itself in many ways and is horrendous to suffer from or watch somebody close to you go through it.

Queen Victoria, for example, spent the last few decades of her reign hidden from public view such was her grief at the death of her husband Albert.

I was once so grief-stricken at the loss of the family’s pet cat that I couldn’t go to school the next day, but that was probably more to do with laziness than anything else.

I think it was double maths first thing as I recall and who really wants to go through that.

There should be rules set in place that maths is never doubled and should only be tackled in late morning or early afternoon, or preferably never.

Maths was never my strong point and I still shudder at the mere mention of calculus or simultaneous equations.

But I digress as this column was never meant to be about maths but the rather more serious subject of grief.

According to scientists, there is an actual thing that is environmental destruction grief.

A study led by Stirling University has apparently shown that the grief experienced in response to environmental destruction is closely tied to questions of justice, rights, and what it means to lose a place that has shaped lives.

It brought together insights from political theory, philosophy, and psychology to explore how “ecological grief” relates to people’s attachment to place, and emerging debates around climate justice.

Now we can all accept that climate change is increasingly transforming landscapes and communities across the world, particularly in vulnerable regions.

But grief? I’m not convinced.

During the study, researchers examined the political importance of place attachment and the psychological........

© Herald Scotland