Scan barcode
A review by swoody788
Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life by George Monbiot
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.