FrostWeaver & Holden
FrostWeaver FrostWeaver
I’ve been looking at how rapid ice loss is linked to rising anxiety in Arctic communities—does the same pattern of stress response we see in human behavior show up in the environment?
Holden Holden
I see what you’re getting at—just as people feel pressure and start acting on that, the environment responds to rapid change. When ice retreats faster than the system can adapt, you get cascading effects: meltwater runoff, altered currents, and a shift in local biodiversity. The “stress response” there is a feedback loop that amplifies the initial change, much like how panic can trigger more panic in a group. But unlike humans, ecosystems don’t have a conscious fear; the response is purely physical and chemical, a kind of runaway reaction that magnifies the problem. So the pattern is there, but it’s not driven by emotions—it’s driven by physics and biochemistry.