Photos by D Sharon Pruitt and Ben White

Affect and Ecology (ECO-AFFECT). Exploring Erico C. Nicola’s ecological vision and its contemporary relevance

Photo by D. Marzia Varutti

This project investigated the ecological vision of scientist Erico Charles Nicola (former owner of Bois Chamblard) in order to illuminate the broader links between affect and ecology, and their relevance in the context of the current ecological crisis. A meteorologist and geophysicist, Nicola was also an environmental activist with a little known but prescient ecological vision, which appears to be based on affective engagements with the natural environment. Nicola’s ecological stance resonates strongly with current ecological debates, as we know today that affect is central to our response to the ecological crisis.

The overarching aim of the project has been to draw on Nicola’s ecological vision in order to cast light on the connections between ecology and affect, and explore ways in which affect can be leveraged for ecological purposes such as promoting ecological awareness. This aim has been pursued through an analysis of Nicola’s ecological ethos and the role of affect in it, and through collaborative transdisciplinary work and reflection on how to infuse the dissemination of scientific knowledge with affect.

Published project outputs include:

Varutti M. 2025 ‘(Re-)Learning to Relate to the Planet: some conceptual, affective and practice-based perspectives’, Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society. https://doi.org/10.30676/jfas.141513

Varutti, M., Gobbi Mauro, Gaudio, Daniel. 2025 ‘Losing glaciers: a call for emotional engagement and expanded collaboration in research on the ecological crisis’, The Anthropocene Review. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/20530196251334762

Varutti, M. Daniel Gaudio, Mauro Gobbi, 2025. ‘Shifting Baseline Syndrome (SBS) could limit the emotional connection to the historical photography of glacier changes’, BioScience, 2025; biaf070, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaf070

***

(under 2nd round of peer-review) Varutti, M. ‘The Affective Affordances of Ecopoetry’. Ecozon@. European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment.

(under 2nd round of peer-review) Varutti, M. ‘The Social Life of a Wood: a Biographical Approach to Human-Place Relations at the Bois Chamblard, Switzerland’, Landscape History.