Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life

Front Cover
University of Chicago Press, Sep 26, 2014 - Nature - 319 pages
To be an environmentalist early in the twenty-first century is always to be defending, arguing, acknowledging the hurdles we face in our efforts to protect wild places and fight climate change. But let’s be honest: hedging has never inspired anyone.

So what if we stopped hedging? What if we grounded our efforts to solve environmental problems in hope instead, and let nature make our case for us? That’s what George Monbiot does in Feral, a lyrical, unabashedly romantic vision of how, by inviting nature back into our lives, we can simultaneously cure our “ecological boredom” and begin repairing centuries of environmental damage. Monbiot takes readers on an enchanting journey around the world to explore ecosystems that have been “rewilded”: freed from human intervention and allowed—in some cases for the first time in millennia—to resume their natural ecological processes. We share his awe, and wonder, as he kayaks among dolphins and seabirds off the coast of Wales and wanders the forests of Eastern Europe, where lynx and wolf packs are reclaiming their ancient hunting grounds. Through his eyes, we see environmental success—and begin to envision a future world where humans and nature are no longer separate and antagonistic, but are together part of a single, healing world.

Monbiot’s commitment is fierce, his passion infectious, his writing compelling. Readers willing to leave the confines of civilization and join him on his bewitching journey will emerge changed—and ready to change our world for the better.
 

Contents

Chapter 1 Raucous Summer
1
Chapter 2 The Wild Hunt
14
Chapter 3 Foreshadowings
23
Chapter 4 Elopement
40
Chapter 5 The Neverspotted Leopard
49
Chapter 6 Greening the Desert
62
Chapter 7 Bring Back the Wolf
90
Chapter 8 A Work of Hope
121
Chapter 10 The Hushings
167
Chapter 11 The Beast Within Or How Not to Rewild
186
Chapter 12 The Conservation Prison
209
Chapter 13 Rewilding the Sea
228
Chapter 14 The Gifts of the Sea
258
Chapter 15 Last Light
267
Notes
269
Index
303

Chapter 9 Sheepwrecked
153

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About the author (2014)

George Monbiot is a journalist, environmentalist, "Guardian" columnist, and the author of numerous books.

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