ProfessorGlenn Albrecht

Glenn A. Albrecht is an Honorary Associate in the School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He retired as Professor of Sustainability, Walter Murdoch University, in mid-2014. He continues to work as an environmental philosopher and published a book, Earth Emotions, with Cornell University Press in 2019. Earth Emotions was published in French and Spanish in 2020, Dutch in 2024 and Polish (2026-7).

In numerous publications and public talks over the last two decades, Dr Albrecht has developed the theme of the psychoterratic (psyche-earth), or negative and positive emotional states connected to the state of the Earth. New concepts, developed by him, are now becoming well established in the international scholarly literature, new research theses and as inspiration for many creative people in the arts and music.

While he is best known for creating and developing the concept of solastalgia, or the lived experience of negative environmental change, his most recent work forwards the paradigm of the 'Symbiocene', a future state where humans symbiotically re-integrate with the rest of life in nature. 

In anticipation of his next book, 'The Symbiocene: Our Only Future' (CUP 2027), Glenn is contributing to national and international public debate on key issues connected to the human-nature relationship. As the concept of the Symbiocene is now in international 'take-off' phase, he is in regular demand for both in-person and on-line talks as a keynote speaker at international forums. For example, in April 2024, he gave the prestigious annual Frederik van Eeden Lecture, 'Transformation to The Symbiocene', at the International School for Philosophy (ISVW) in the Netherlands. He was a guest of Nantes University in January 2025 and was a keynote speaker at the Green-Blue festival in Milan in June 2026. In October 2026 he was invited to give the Bi-Annual Erich Fromm Lecture at Columbia University NY.

The Symbiocene is now an inspiration for architects and designers as the task of transitioning from the Anthropocene to the Symbiocene becomes a practical necessity. Glenn is actively collaborating with key innovators in this transition, and his own creative contributions are being acknowledged as inspirational by those at the leading edge of their fields.

Dr Glenn Albrecht is now in regular demand for interviews by futurists and social media leaders to explain to international audiences how his psychoterratic approach to the key issues of the early twenty-first century will assist in our transition from an extractive, parasitic society to genuinely symbiotic forms of human living in the Symbiocene.

Glenn currently lives at Blackheath on Gundungurra land in the Blue Mountains of NSW, Australia. He describes his philosophy as ‘sumbioism’, the transdisciplinary engagement of humans ‘living together’ (sumbios) with the totality of life.