Solastalgia as Disruption of Biocultural Identity. The Mount Amiata Geothermal Conflict

Some residents of Mount Amiata in Tuscany, Italy, are experiencing emotional distress and solastalgia due to changes in their beloved land. Mount Amiata is witnessing protests by citizens' associations and activists who criticize the alleged social, economic, and environmental sustainability of geothermal energy. The analysis of the environmental conflict around geothermal energy on Mount Amiata contributes to the empirical use of the concepts of "solastalgia" as affective rupture of biocultural relationships and identities. In the area surrounding Mount Amiata, the production of geothermal energy is experienced as an attack on the biodiversity of the "Mother Mountain," as a loss of the sense of home, and as part of a "predatory philosophy" employed by ENEL (Ente Nazionale per l'Energia Elettrica, National Electricity Board). This ethnographic study aims to analyze how the transformation of places influences the affective and biocultural identity of their inhabitants.