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swoody788's review against another edition
4.0
Another library display feature that caught my eye. After reading the introduction, I wasn't too sure about Monbiot, who initially came off as a bit of a radical who wasn't going to present a balanced vision of this concept of rewilding. Just tell me the facts and leave your feelings out of it - that's how I generally like my nonfiction. But then I watched his TED Talk, and it was his passion that gave me the desire to continue reading. He obviously knows what he's talking about, has spent a lot of time researching this topic, and cares deeply for the environment. I was hooked. I greatly enjoyed his tales of experiences out in the thick of it, whether the rain forest or the sea, along with all of the facts and figures he presented. I think I would have been more captivated if he was making the case for areas I'm more familiar with (i.e. within the United States) but it was fascinating to learn more about the UK (Wales and the Scottish Highlands, specifically) and of course I know there is more to the world than the US. All of his suggestions for rewilding the land and sea seem obtainable, with the main obstacles being public awareness and political will. Though he mentioned his ecological boredom frequently, I wish he had talked more about how we can rewild ourselves as human beings. There were really only a few pages about this, unfortunately, but I suppose his own experiences were inspiration enough to make me want to counter my own ecological boredom.
I think the main things I will take away from this book are the concepts of trophic cascades and shifting baseline syndrome. Trophic cascades are "processes caused by animals at the top of the food chain which tumble all the way to the bottom". You can't just take a species out of an ecosystem and expect that everything else will remain the same, and Monbiot's prime example of the impact of reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone is incredible proof of this. Shifting baseline syndrome is the idea of how "the people of every generation perceive the state of the ecosystems they encountered in their childhood as normal". I am now seeing it everywhere - related to not just the environment but countless aspects of our lives. I love that just a couple hundred pages of well-thought-out and beautifully expressed information have given me knowledge that has changed the way I think and that I can use quite frequently throughout the rest of my life.
I think the main things I will take away from this book are the concepts of trophic cascades and shifting baseline syndrome. Trophic cascades are "processes caused by animals at the top of the food chain which tumble all the way to the bottom". You can't just take a species out of an ecosystem and expect that everything else will remain the same, and Monbiot's prime example of the impact of reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone is incredible proof of this. Shifting baseline syndrome is the idea of how "the people of every generation perceive the state of the ecosystems they encountered in their childhood as normal". I am now seeing it everywhere - related to not just the environment but countless aspects of our lives. I love that just a couple hundred pages of well-thought-out and beautifully expressed information have given me knowledge that has changed the way I think and that I can use quite frequently throughout the rest of my life.
helenaramsay's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
George Monbiot's passion for rewilding is clear and carries this book forward but his arguments are hindered by distracting, irrelevant, self-absorbed wanderings and a lack of coherent, organised structure. There is an argument for rewilding here but it is diluted by the self indulgent opinions of the author who frequently dwells on his personal ambitions for the environment, and far less on the facts and practicalities of what rewilding looks like and the experiences of stakeholders whose voices should be more significant in this discussion. Aspects of the book were worthwhile to read, but the overall experience greatly improved with skimming through the personal adventures of the author. A book more for people interested in personal nature writing than practical thinking about the environment I think.
hooksforeverything's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Covers a lot of ground, ho ho, I crack me up. Takes the long view on what is a normal state of nature and blessedly resists any suggestion that consumer behaviour can make a difference.
sdenglerinc's review against another edition
Gave book to dad for his birthday, am going to listen to the audiobook
fictionfan's review against another edition
5.0
‘A raucous summer…’
In the past few years, I feel I have been observing a welcome note of commonsense and even optimism creeping into the arguments of some of our leading environmentalists. In this book Monbiot, while proposing ambitious and doubtless controversial ideas, confirms that impression.
Feral is his story of why and how he has come to believe that the future for nature conservancy is to stop conserving - to sit back, release the brakes and go on a wild ride with nature in the driving seat. He calls this process 'rewilding'.
'Rewilding recognises that nature consists not just of a collection of species but also of their ever-shifting relationships with each other and with the physical environment. It understands that to keep an ecosystem in a state of arrested development, to preserve it as if it were a jar of pickles, is to protect something which bears little relationship to the natural world.'
He scared me in the first couple of chapters. It seemed as if he had turned into a mini-Welsh version of Crocodile Dundee (Grass-snake Aberystwyth?) as he regaled us with tales of tracking and killing his prey with his bare hands and then eating it raw - it was a mackerel! When he set out to harpoon flounders with a trident, I genuinely thought he'd lost it; and when he became mushily sentimental over initiation rites for an African tribesman that involved tormenting and killing a lion, I nearly gave up on him.
However, the point that he then went on to make eloquently and convincingly is that humanity has lost something precious by its disconnect with the wild world and that we in the UK have taken that disconnect to further extremes than most. He isn't arguing for a return to the world of hunter/gatherer (although the first couple of chapters made it seem as if he was about to). But he is arguing for the return of at least parts of the country to true, unmanaged wilderness status and for the reintroduction of some of the top predators - wolves, for example - arguing that trophic cascades show that such predators can have often unexpected effects on biodiversity and environment and thus are an important part of any rewilding project. However he maintains a sense of realism and commonsense, making it clear that his suggestions should only be implemented with the informed consent of the people, and wryly admits that his attitude towards the introduction of top predators may not be universally shared.
'The clamour for the lion's reintroduction to Britain has, so far, been muted.'
Along the way, Monbiot gives us a history of why our landscape is as it now is. He blames sheep-farming for the bareness of our hills and points out that the sheep is a non-native species to the UK. He talks about the vested interests of farmers and landlords and how these seem to be given excessive weight, considering the comparatively small numbers of people employed in farming and the huge subsidies required to make it economical. He points to the somewhat symbiotic relationship between farming organisations and government and suggests this leads to suppression of real debate around the subject of land use. And his anger shows through as he discusses how the subsidy schemes of the EU continue to distort and warp the productivity of the land.
There is so much packed into this book that I can only give a pale impression of its scope in this review. Monbiot discusses the damage that an uncontrolled red deer population is doing to the landscape in the Highlands of Scotland; the adverse effect on childhood health (not to mention imagination) of the more indoors, sedentary lifestyle of today's child; the reasons for the growth of the myth of big cat sightings around the country; the Nazis' adoption and corruption of the concept of rewilding. He explains the effects that Shifting Baseline Syndrome has had on the debate over the years - that because 'the people of every generation perceive the state of the ecosystems they encountered in their childhood as normal' then attempts are made to conserve back to a state of nature that was already seriously degraded.
Towards the end of the book he extends his arguments for rewilding to include the seas, building on the arguments put forward so impressively by Callum Roberts (whose [b:The Ocean of Life|13542563|The Ocean of Life The Fate of Man and the Sea|Callum Roberts|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1339229803s/13542563.jpg|19106852] I heartily recommend) that areas set aside as protected zones actually lead to greater fishing productivity rather than reducing it. And as he set off in his kayak in the final chapter to hunt the newly returned albacore, I no longer felt that he'd 'lost it' but that, perhaps, if we listen to what people like Monbiot and Roberts are saying, there's still hope that the rest of us may 'find it'.
'Environmentalism in the twentieth century foresaw a silent spring, in which the further degradation of the biosphere seemed inevitable. Rewilding offers the hope of a raucous summer, in which, in some parts of the world at least, destructive processes are thrown into reverse.'
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
In the past few years, I feel I have been observing a welcome note of commonsense and even optimism creeping into the arguments of some of our leading environmentalists. In this book Monbiot, while proposing ambitious and doubtless controversial ideas, confirms that impression.
Feral is his story of why and how he has come to believe that the future for nature conservancy is to stop conserving - to sit back, release the brakes and go on a wild ride with nature in the driving seat. He calls this process 'rewilding'.
'Rewilding recognises that nature consists not just of a collection of species but also of their ever-shifting relationships with each other and with the physical environment. It understands that to keep an ecosystem in a state of arrested development, to preserve it as if it were a jar of pickles, is to protect something which bears little relationship to the natural world.'
He scared me in the first couple of chapters. It seemed as if he had turned into a mini-Welsh version of Crocodile Dundee (Grass-snake Aberystwyth?) as he regaled us with tales of tracking and killing his prey with his bare hands and then eating it raw - it was a mackerel! When he set out to harpoon flounders with a trident, I genuinely thought he'd lost it; and when he became mushily sentimental over initiation rites for an African tribesman that involved tormenting and killing a lion, I nearly gave up on him.
However, the point that he then went on to make eloquently and convincingly is that humanity has lost something precious by its disconnect with the wild world and that we in the UK have taken that disconnect to further extremes than most. He isn't arguing for a return to the world of hunter/gatherer (although the first couple of chapters made it seem as if he was about to). But he is arguing for the return of at least parts of the country to true, unmanaged wilderness status and for the reintroduction of some of the top predators - wolves, for example - arguing that trophic cascades show that such predators can have often unexpected effects on biodiversity and environment and thus are an important part of any rewilding project. However he maintains a sense of realism and commonsense, making it clear that his suggestions should only be implemented with the informed consent of the people, and wryly admits that his attitude towards the introduction of top predators may not be universally shared.
'The clamour for the lion's reintroduction to Britain has, so far, been muted.'
Along the way, Monbiot gives us a history of why our landscape is as it now is. He blames sheep-farming for the bareness of our hills and points out that the sheep is a non-native species to the UK. He talks about the vested interests of farmers and landlords and how these seem to be given excessive weight, considering the comparatively small numbers of people employed in farming and the huge subsidies required to make it economical. He points to the somewhat symbiotic relationship between farming organisations and government and suggests this leads to suppression of real debate around the subject of land use. And his anger shows through as he discusses how the subsidy schemes of the EU continue to distort and warp the productivity of the land.
There is so much packed into this book that I can only give a pale impression of its scope in this review. Monbiot discusses the damage that an uncontrolled red deer population is doing to the landscape in the Highlands of Scotland; the adverse effect on childhood health (not to mention imagination) of the more indoors, sedentary lifestyle of today's child; the reasons for the growth of the myth of big cat sightings around the country; the Nazis' adoption and corruption of the concept of rewilding. He explains the effects that Shifting Baseline Syndrome has had on the debate over the years - that because 'the people of every generation perceive the state of the ecosystems they encountered in their childhood as normal' then attempts are made to conserve back to a state of nature that was already seriously degraded.
Towards the end of the book he extends his arguments for rewilding to include the seas, building on the arguments put forward so impressively by Callum Roberts (whose [b:The Ocean of Life|13542563|The Ocean of Life The Fate of Man and the Sea|Callum Roberts|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1339229803s/13542563.jpg|19106852] I heartily recommend) that areas set aside as protected zones actually lead to greater fishing productivity rather than reducing it. And as he set off in his kayak in the final chapter to hunt the newly returned albacore, I no longer felt that he'd 'lost it' but that, perhaps, if we listen to what people like Monbiot and Roberts are saying, there's still hope that the rest of us may 'find it'.
'Environmentalism in the twentieth century foresaw a silent spring, in which the further degradation of the biosphere seemed inevitable. Rewilding offers the hope of a raucous summer, in which, in some parts of the world at least, destructive processes are thrown into reverse.'
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com