California Institute of Integral Studies
Dakota Ashley Limón (she/her) is a Ph.D. student and teaching fellow in the Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She holds an M.A. from Naropa University in Ecopsychology and a B.S. in Natural Resource Management from Texas Tech University with a concentration in Ecology and Wildlife Biology. Her academic research interests include ethnoecology, ecopsychology, existential ecology, and thanatology, with a focus on the intersections of ecological grief, mortality salience, and spiritual care in the context of climate loss. Broadly, she is interested in interdisciplinary and holistic theory and praxis to engage and reconcile nature, culture, and self. Past research has been published in ecology journals such as Southwest Naturalist. She is an avid practitioner and student of Buddhism, meditation, and non-violent communication. She currently resides in Berkeley, California.
This presentation examines how human alienation from mortality contributes to contemporary experiences of ecological grief, anxiety, and eco-phobic tendencies. It argues that Western epistemologies — shaped by scientific materialism, philosophical humanism, and paradigms of modernity — have fragmented human identity, severing connections to the natural world and its inherent existential vulnerability. Using terror management theory, it critiques anthropocentric belief systems rooted in progress and materialism, showing how they reinforce a theology of dominion that drives ecological destruction and climate change. Integrating psychological and existential dimensions of ecological grief and anxiety, this study highlights how these emotions can deepen ecological awareness and responsibility in the context of climate change. By embracing mortality and impermanence in nature, it proposes pathways for fostering spiritual care, environmental activism, and relational connections with the Earth in times of great loss and upheaval. Through an Existential-Humanistic Ecopsychological framework, it addresses mortality salience, human-animal boundaries, and ecological grief as homesickness, emphasizing that reconciling with human animality and finitude is key to overcoming environmental apathy and nurturing a sustainable relationship with the natural world.