The Grief and Grounding of a Climate Scientist with Dr. Peter Kalmus

In this conversation, Victoria Loorz speaks with Dr. Peter Kalmus, astrophysicist-turned-climate scientist, NASA researcher, author, and activist. Peter's radical integrity has taken him from searching for gravitational waves to growing his own food, refusing to fly for twelve years, and chaining himself to doors in acts of civil disobedience.Together, they explore the layers of grief that come with truly loving a planet in crisis and the spiritual disconnection underlying ecological destruction. What does it mean to love the planet not as a cause but as a being? What might it look like to move from the urgency of fixing into the slower, harder work of reconnection? The conversation also wanders into meditation, ego death, the empathy required to grieve a forest, and the strange fertility of not knowing — inviting us to consider that staying in the unknowing may itself be a spiritual practice. This conversation is for anyone sitting with the unknowing of this moment, and wondering if that might, somehow, be exactly where they need to be.Connect with Peter:Website: peterkalmus.netBook: Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution by Peter KalmusSubstack: Climate HumanMentioned in the episode:Movie: Don't Look UpConnect with the Center:Website: wildspirituality.earthVictoria's Website: victorialoorz.comEmail: [email protected]: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspiritualityInstagram: @center_for_wild_spiritualityTimestamps:00:00 — Introduction05:16 — Interview Begins09:07 — The Choice To Not Fly12:50 — Integrity Through Life Experiment15:54 — Layers of Integrity Under Systems17:11 — Civil Disobedience22:33 — Unmoored23:52 — The Discipline of Meditation26:09 — Disconnection Belongs In The Cycle28:12 — The Holy Local Tribe30:20 — Aging Into Eldership33:18 — Grounding Practices39:33 — Loving Kindness For Yourself42:57 — Trail Encounter with the Universe45:36 — Encounter with Ego Death48:51 — Expansive Meditation Encounter53:08 — Wild Invitation54:50 — Credits