Introduction

This chapter sets out the historical and political context within which the ideas explored in the book are situated. Justification is provided for certain words and phrases used in the book that are problematic when not used critically. These are to do with language that can imply homogeneity of experience of race, gender, class and disability, as well as of climate change. The basic scientific features of climate change are outlined, but it is primarily viewed through sociological, psychological, and philosophical lenses. Attention to the social and political components of climate change frames the place of social-action art therapy as a beneficial response to climate change. The idea of the anthropocene, and how it centres the human and fails to discriminate between levels of responsibility between groups of people, is interrogated as part of this discussion. Reference is made to different ecologies: deep ecology; social ecology; dark ecology; traditional ecological knowledge. A critical overview of each of these ecologies is presented. Attention is drawn to a principle that appears within each of those ecologies: the dissolving of a clear boundary between the human and other-than-human. The chapter includes a summary of each of the following chapters of the book.