Carlita Shaw
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Carlita Shaw
An Ecological Perspective
by Carlita Shaw
A deeply personal and thought-provoking exploration of depression, trauma, healing, and humanity’s disconnection from Nature, Surviving Depression in a Depressing World approaches mental health through an ecological lens rarely discussed in mainstream psychology. Blending personal memoir, environmental insight, spirituality, and holistic perspectives, Carlita Shaw examines how modern society, environmental degradation, technology, and emotional disconnection contribute to the growing global crisis of depression.
Surviving Depression in a Depressing World: An Ecological Perspective is a deeply personal and unconventional exploration of depression, healing, trauma, consciousness, and humanity’s fractured relationship with the natural world. Written by environmental writer and ecological researcher Carlita Shaw, this book combines memoir, environmental philosophy, holistic health, spirituality, and social critique to examine depression not simply as an individual condition, but as a reflection of a profoundly imbalanced world.
Drawing from decades of personal experience with illness, grief, neurodivergence, trauma, environmental activism, and frontline conservation work across Latin America and the Amazon rainforest, Shaw offers a raw and honest account of survival through some of life’s darkest moments. The book explores themes including childhood trauma, chronic health struggles, ecological grief, suicide, emotional resilience, consciousness, plant intelligence, nutrition, environmental toxicity, and humanity’s growing disconnection from Nature.
Through an ecological perspective rarely addressed in conventional mental health discussions, the book investigates how pollution, modern technological society, chronic stress, social alienation, environmental destruction, and the loss of meaningful connection to the Earth may be contributing to the global rise in depression and emotional suffering. At the same time, it explores pathways toward healing through holistic practices, self-awareness, mindfulness, nutrition, ecopsychology, Indigenous wisdom, emotional resilience, and reconnection with the living world.
Interwoven with reflections on consciousness, near-death experiences, spirituality, plant awareness, and the hidden emotional costs of modern civilization, this book challenges readers to rethink what it truly means to be mentally “well” in a world facing ecological collapse, social fragmentation, and spiritual disconnection.
Part memoir, part ecological reflection, and part guide toward healing, Surviving Depression in a Depressing World offers a compassionate and deeply human exploration of how inner healing and planetary healing are inseparable.
“''I found this book, despite its length, to be an easy, fast, enjoyable read. The book starts out with the author’s story of becoming an environmentalist, and her battle with depression throughout her life, especially when her husband committed suicide. She always found nature and animals soothing. Full of information about the causes and cures for depression, it includes many juicy factoids, such as using LSD to reboot the brain, just as you reboot a computer to get it working properly. The unique twist to this book is its link to the environment in causing depression: “…it could be that the global rise in depression is a subconscious reaction to the worldwide destruction of our environment,” which makes sense since we are creatures that are healed by nature. Yet we are bombarded with countless toxins on a regular basis. The author emphasizes going gluten free, because even wheat has become so hybrid that it’s toxic. We also find how nutritional and various talk therapies can help. The author includes a delightful and inspiring poem she wrote with each chapter. I highly recommend this book if you or any of your loved ones suffer this mental disorder which has grown rampant in our modern societies.'' ”
-Susan Schenck, author of The Live Food Factor and Beyond Broccoli does raw and low carb food classes and health coaching. Another book of hers you might enjoy is Expats in Cuenca, Ecuador: The Magic & The Madness.
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Conservationist, Ecological researcher, author, and Amazon rainforest advocate exploring the intersection of consciousness and planetary survival.
Carlita Shaw is an environmental writer, ecological researcher, and Amazon rainforest advocate with over 26 years of experience in conservation, Indigenous collaboration, and frontline environmental work across Latin America and Europe. With a background in Environmental Science and Wildlife Conservation, her work bridges ecology, consciousness, mental health, Indigenous wisdom, and planetary healing. She has worked hands-on in the Ecuadorian Amazon as a project developer, educator, and conservationist, collaborating with Indigenous communities on biodiversity conservation, ecological economy models, and rainforest protection initiatives. Her writing combines investigative journalism, environmental science, activism, philosophy, and personal storytelling, exploring the deep relationship between human consciousness and the living Earth. Carlita is the author of four books including The Silent Ecocide and The Silent Ecocide Redux, works examining environmental collapse, technocracy, species extinction, and the spiritual disconnection driving humanity’s ecological crisis. Alongside her environmental advocacy, she also integrates ecopsychology, hypnotherapy, and holistic healing perspectives into her work, drawing from decades of personal experience, resilience, and frontline activism.
The environmental crisis is a crisis of human consciousness
The Silent Ecocide Redux (2026 Revised Edition)
Humanity’s Environmental Crisis Is a Crisis of Consciousness
A decade after the release of The Silent Ecocide (2015), author and environmental journalist Carlita Shaw returns with a powerful and expanded revision exploring the accelerating ecological collapse of our world, the politically manipulated greenwashing of environmental issues, and controversial solutions rarely discussed in mainstream environmental discourse.
More than an environmental book, *The Silent Ecocide Redux* is a standalone investigation comparing research and data from 2015 to 2024, revealing the shocking speed at which species extinction and habitat destruction have intensified in less than a decade.
Blending investigative journalism, scientific research, Indigenous wisdom, and firsthand experiences from the Ecuadorian Amazon, Shaw explores the spiritual, technological, political, and ecological crises shaping humanity’s future. Addressing subjects many scientists avoid for fear of professional backlash, this updated edition reveals how the destruction of nature is inseparable from the erosion of human consciousness itself.
The environmental crisis is a crisis of human consciousness
Written in 2015, during one of the most fragile and transformative moments of her life just before critical surgery, The Silent Ecocide: The Environmental Crisis is a Crisis of Human Consciousness is Carlita Shaw’s urgent and deeply personal call to awaken before humanity crosses irreversible ecological thresholds. Facing a life-threatening operation, Shaw felt compelled to pour years of ecological research, frontline conservation experience, spiritual reflection, and hard-earned insight into a book that confronts the destruction unfolding across Earth’s ecosystems — and within the human psyche itself.
Blending environmental science, deep ecology, Indigenous wisdom, political critique, biodiversity loss, alternative energy, and the inner dimensions of healing and consciousness, this book argues that the environmental crisis cannot be solved through technology or policy alone. At its root lies a profound disconnection between humanity and the living world.
From the devastation of the Amazon rainforest and mass species extinction to corruption, consumerism, ecological collapse, and the forgotten relationship between human consciousness and nature, Shaw explores the intertwined crises shaping our age while offering a vision for ecological and spiritual renewal.
At once fierce, poetic, controversial, and hopeful, The Silent Ecocide is both a warning and an invitation: to remember that we are not separate from nature, and that healing the Earth begins with healing ourselves.