resilience: Gratitude in the Great Unraveling

By Richard Heinberg, originally published by Resilience.org  October 21, 2025

Here’s a paradox.

On one hand, terrible things are happening. Earth’s climate system is being destabilized, the oceans are turning acidic, wild animals are disappearing, economic inequality is soaring, politics are becoming more polarized and democracies more dysfunctional, and toxic chemicals are turning up in the bodies of people and other creatures in even the remotest and least-disturbed places on the planet. When you look at these problems closely and notice how they interact and compound one another, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that we are in a time of Great Unraveling.

Action is needed to avoid the worst outcomes. Effective action requires both information and motivation. For activists, who tend to be marinated in information, fear and outrage are often fuel for efforts to change the system.

Yet, on the other hand, there is substantial evidence from psychological research showing that fear and hate can harm your relationships and health. Gratitude, instead, is the most beneficial attitude for maintaining a happy, healthy life.

But how not to feel fear, if not hate, when so much of nature and humanity is under threat? How can we feel thankful when our world is being destroyed?

These are hard realities to reconcile. What follows is intended not as a spiritual homily or a philosophical manifesto. I’m just trying to work through seemingly contradictory facts, using my preferred thought-sorting process—writing.

Gratitude Research

A robust literature of thousands of published studies shows that gratitude makes us happier and healthier. In the words of Maureen Sullivan, in an article for Harvard Medical School:

Recent research has pointed to gratitude’s myriad positive health effects, including greater emotional and social well-being, better sleep quality, lower depression risks, and favorable markers of cardiovascular health. Now, new data from the long-term Nurses’ Health Study shows that it may extend lives…