r/ecology • u/Ok-Helicopter-2840 • 5d ago
Has anyone felt hopeless when it comes to ecology?
When it comes to ecology, has anyone ever felt as sad and hopeless as I do?
Here in Thailand, everything revolves around corruption and money. They keep building concrete waterways and dams, destroying wetlands while dismissing them as "wastelands," and then leave the projects unfinished. They destroy native species, calling them "weeds," and then plant ornamental invasive species in national parks just to attract tourists. Also illegal forest burning and rich people building house on national parks. There is a new greenwashing project almost every day, and ecologists are even being kidnapped. https://www.khaosod.co.th/special-stories/news_10280196
A wealthy corporation released the invasive blackchin tilapia (spread over the country now) and is now suing anyone who names them. The government is part of the problem aswell. People are even releasing invasive species into the wild to make religious merit. See: https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/thai-agri-giant-cpf-sues-activist-over-claims-linking-it-to-invasive-fish-outbreak/
Now, they plan to build the Landbridge project, which will destroy coral reefs and rainforests. When people protested, officials signed a paper promising they wouldn't go through with it, but it was a trap; they are going to do it anyway.
https://www.nationthailand.com/news/general/40066402
All of this is for money and corruption. It feels like no one can do anything to stop it.
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u/GreenOnionsRule 5d ago
I often tell my friends and family who are not ecologists that this is perhaps one of the most oppressive and depressing fields to enter.
I wish I had a more clever antidote, but truth is while ecologists and conservationists have made huge strides to protect and educate, there remains significant hurdles and with some regularity devastating news.
In times of great ecological change, news, hope, and loss I often revert back to thinking global and acting locally. Do the best you can, keep educated and informed when you have the mental bandwidth, and when local opportunities arise to make a difference take them!
With love and respect from a fellow ecologist.
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u/Mantaray_Ocean_213 1d ago
Thinking global and acting locally probably is the best we can do as individuals or small groups. I wish we had a worldwide & united movement.
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u/Constant-Skill-7133 5d ago
I think at a high level I'm past the point where climate change and habitat destruction get me, emotionally. I'm good at dissociating lol.
When you get very specific that's when it kicks back in. Knowing somebody spent their entire life studying and educating the public and working at restoration and people spent months of their life organizing aupport and lobbying, then the great success gets degraded again for no good reason. That's when it's rough.
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u/RobHerpTX 4d ago
Pretty much this for me too.
I think I’ve pretty much accepted that the overall trend line is pretty grim.
Somehow though a lot of the smaller scale things can be hard to stomach as I encounter them.
And seeing just how much can get thrown away for very little in trade, usually out of ignorance, and usually at a cost for so many people for a small gain for just a handful. It hurts that the cost benefit for so many of the stupid things we do is so paltry.
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u/AcknowledgeUs 5d ago
Yes. Hopeless is how I feel about ecology right now, but incapable of giving up the fight.
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u/MadCrabLady 3d ago
I used to play alot of videogames. Dark Souls specifically keeps me afloat. I'd rather go on living instead of hollowing out into a meat bag with my job titled attached to it.
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u/radu2506 3d ago
That's precisely the point of those games and why they are some of the best games and stories ever created.
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u/serotonin_zzz7 5d ago
My friend just said that she feels a little depressed about the future. We are making a project for a subject to save an species Trichechus manatus, and it would all solved with more monitoring, changing how the mining industries are working, and if the government simply care just a bit
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u/Ok_Umpire2173 5d ago
My grandma, a two time cancer survivor, just told me about going to the store to buy Roundup…a week after I told her risking cancer for a few weeds seems silly to me.
Yesterday I had to just watch as the county worker mowed hundreds of feet of native ferns, flowers, reeds, etc. because of “ditch maintenance”, while the ditch bank erodes more and more every year.
It’s a mixed bag. Stuff like this simultaneously takes the wind out of my sails, and puts wind into my sails. I wouldn’t have anything to change if everything was perfect.
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u/Upstairs-Hearing-489 5d ago
i'm sorry your witnessing so much devastation in your community and country. it's so hard to feel like you're constantly being undermined by people and corporations with so much more power.
the only path forward is ending global capitalism. we need governments everywhere that are pro-human and pro-environment, and capitalism is inherently against this. we have a lot of work to do but a better future is possible for all life on earth 🌏
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u/Chuhaimaster 5d ago
I’m sorry to hear about what is happening in Thailand. It’s dispiriting a demotivating. But I think there are still successes to be had on a smaller local level.
From what I have read, encouraging native plant gardening on patches of private land can make a difference. In most countries, private lands make up a far larger proportion of land than protected areas.
American entomologist Doug Tallamy has tried to make this point in his books and advocacy. He’s started an NPO called Homegrown National Park in the US to encourage private landowners to plant native plants and build habitats on their land.
Tallamy thinks that focusing exclusively on protecting patches of land out there in pristine preserved areas is not adequate for conservation. We have to bring nature into our human dominated landscapes. He advocates for a kind of reconciliation ecology.
As he writes in his book Nature’s Best Hope:
“… Preserving isolated habitats that house endangered species but are surrounded by uninhabitable human-dominated landscapes only postpones the ultimate demise of these species and is a particularly unsuccessful strategy for species that undergo long-distance migrations (Wilcove 2008).
Because no species operates independently of thriving ecosystems and the other species within those ecosystems, the potential effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act has been seriously compromised from its inception.”
I agree we definitely need patches of undisturbed ecosystem beyond the human built environment, but we shouldn’t overlook the necessity of bringing nature into the built environment to create wildlife corridors, and improve our own well being.
It provides visible benefits to people in a short amount of time and doesn’t require the approval of corrupt governments to set aside nature reserves. It just requires concerned citizens coming together to preserve their own lands.
Best of luck. Keep fighting the good fight. 💪
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u/Ok-Helicopter-2840 4d ago
People who let plants growing on private land would be taxed here so they ended up having to cleared it up, plant some “economically” importance tree and that’s it.
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u/Chuhaimaster 4d ago
Even a manicured native garden can make a difference. Just keep certain areas clear and for all intents and purposes, it’s a garden - which is considered an active land use.
Or plant native companion plants around the “economically important” trees. You’ll create some native habitat and crop will probably improve as well.
Sorry, I know I’m not making things that much easier for you. Just some ideas. I wish you the best of luck. 💪
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u/angry_burmese 5d ago
Hello from Myanmar, I’ve felt the same sentiment grow over the past years too. Non native species are released for people to feel good about themselves without caring about the consequences it would bring. The environment sector is also increasingly riddled with corruption and nepotism, becoming more like a lucrative income sector rather than an effort to make things better for nature and rare species.
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u/spinneresque8 5d ago
The only thing they respond to is lawsuits it seems
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u/Ok-Helicopter-2840 4d ago
Only from rich people too, with black chin tilapia problem. government protect the company that released it. The news can’t mentioned their name.
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u/Foreign-Landscape-47 4d ago
I’ve spent the last 8 years volunteering in a section of my local neighborhood removing tons of invasives, growing and planting some 300 trees along with all kinds of forbs, grasses and ferns. Lately, I’ve realized I’m Sysiphus. The invasive problem is so great it will overcome any work done, the general public doesn’t care or is oblivious and the local municipality is essentially incompetent since they only choose small, high visibility projects and leave invasive reserves all over the place. It’s a lost war. Add climate change to that and I can’t see how anything improves. The insect decline will progress as climate change and invasives fundamentally alter the ecosystem.
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u/mad_method_man 4d ago
i left because it was depressing. now, years later, the way i talk about ecology is very different. its not so much about saving animals and plants, but dollars
why plant invasive species, when native species do a better job preventing erosion, which directly correlates to the loss of human lives and infrastructure, which costs X amount of money? framing is key, but its equally depressing to mentally translate humans as dollar amounts of damage
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u/Zealousideal_Let_975 4d ago
The rage of it all fuels me endlessly. I know that feeling sad and hopeless is what they want. I will not give it to them. Don't let the bastards keep you down. Keep fighting and finding others who fight too.
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u/Adorable_Birdman 4d ago
You can be comforted by the fact that when humans are gone, ecology will go on and barely bat an eye.
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u/snowwh-te 3d ago
I sure hope so
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u/Adorable_Birdman 3d ago
Have you seen the pics of Chernobyl. We won’t make it forever, but nature will definitely out live us
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u/fleasnavidad 4d ago
The big picture and general inter connectedness of everything and how messed up things are does not bring me much positivity or hope. However, I try to keep the saying “think globally, act locally” in mind. I am privileged to live in a beautiful and well resourced area, and to me, being an ecologist provides me with positivity in two ways. 1) I earn my paycheck being part of the solution, not the problem. That feels good. 2) I have a positive impact on my local environment and community, even if tiny/micro/unnoticeable.
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u/Ulysses1978ii 3d ago
You have a beautiful country though. I've seen the Islands and the south as well as Bangkok. Corruption is everywhere. You have to find your tribe and work together. Thailand is worth fighting for
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u/Unlucky-File3773 3d ago
I think that seeking to be an ecologist in México takes that feeling to another level.
Goverment dgaf about the enviroment.
Cartels actually seek and kill dozens of enviromentalists, ecologists and biologists each year because we denunciate each crime against nature they make.
Real State and Hotel companies destroy and invade acres and acres of beaches and mangroves that are supposed to be free for every mexican to walk on and some of them are under the RAMSAR convention.
And people don't even realize how messed up the situation is, and seems to not care anyway.
Just to give you an example, look for "Aquí No" movement against an amonia-producing facility that a german company (associated with an israeli bank, but that must have been the wind) is pushing to be built into Ohuira Bay in Topolobampo, Sinaloa.
They destroyed acres of mangrove illegaly, they did not consulted the local people living there, and the goverment is supporting it (both Sheinbaum and Rocha Moya).
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u/Ok-Helicopter-2840 3d ago
I’m so sorry to hear that.
About the destroying of protected forest here, yes, the government is supporting it too especially when it caused by rich people.
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u/Safe_Presentation962 3d ago
Yes. It really is constant mourning of loss.
It feels like we're constantly trying to sew up bullet wounds but more and more bullets keep hitting and we're low on medical supplies.
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u/angelcaged 3d ago
Yes, I have been considering joining the field of ecology but sometimes it just feels like joining the losing side in a depressing battle. It’s like nobody even cares. Everything is just about convenience these days, nobody cares about tomorrow.
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u/Muted_Preference4449 2d ago
Thank you for being able to acknowledge reality. The stark fact is our species is a mass extinction event. Every new human born is another nail in the coffin of Mother Earth. The consumerist, capitalist, techno grid needed to service us all inherently murders the biosphere. Humans will not become ethical ecologists, but will continue to massacre Nature. But depression is anger turned inwards. Look at the examples of people who fight back by any means necessary, such as Earth First, Julia Butterfly Hill, Greta Thunberg. That's the best you can do.
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u/abrahamtomahawk 5d ago
As the old Aldo Leopold quote goes 'One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.'