Feral

Feral will help you find ways to improve the well-being of humanity by illustrating the deep connection between us and Nature and offering actionable advice on how to preserve balance in our ecosystems through rewilding.

The destruction of coral reefs and rain forests as a consequence of human economical expansion is obvious. Most people agree that we should stop such practices because they harm the global ecosystem. However, not everyone is aware that destructing wildlife has more consequences than “just” reducing world’s biodiversity.

An ecological organization once sent Monbiot to monitor the impact of Brazilian gold mines on the environment. That was when he saw for himself that it was not just rain forests that were suffering. The indigenous people’s cultures, which were dependent on those rain forests, also diminished.

On top the destruction of their living environment, the people were also succumbing to diseases brought by the miners. As a consequence of the Brazilian gold rush, 20% of the indigenous Yanomami tribe living in the rain forest died.

Spending time with Yanomamis in Brazil and then Maasai people in Kenya, Monbiot concluded that these cultures managed to preserve a connection with nature that is mostly foreign to the Western world. He saw himself feeling jealous of this connection. That’s what made him start digging into the idea of rewilding. This method can preserve the environment but also restore a human experience known only to indigenous peoples.

The author saw destroying those cultures as one of the many threats of Western nations’ economic expansion. That’s why he began to work on popularizing and implementing the ideas of rewilding in his native country, the UK – and beyond.

Benjamin Franklin wrote that many Europeans captivated by the Native Americans during the conquest of The New World became acclimatized to the indigenous way fo life. What’s more, after having spent a significant period of time with the tribes, few wished to return to the colonialist culture. Interestingly, this didn’t work the other way around with the Native American captives. Monbiot’s interpretation of these facts is clear: humans need a close connection with nature to thrive. Since the indigenous cultures provide such a connection, there is no wonder why so many people find this way of life enticing. However, today, there is no going back to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle that would enable world’s population to embrace a “back to the roots” lifestyle. There are simply too many people for the Earth to feed us in this way. Hence, we need to abide by the civilization we created – but at the same time, we need to create intervention-free zones where nature can have its own rule. It is, therefore, important to correctly understand…