EXTERMINATED I love that word reminds me of Dr Who and the Daleks. How scared I was as a boy literally hiding behind the settee for every episode and ducking down when it got too scary. Turns out though people are much scarier than Daleks and when it comes to exterminating stuff people make Daleks look like incompetent beginners.
I also love the idea of #Rewilding and it’s going to be essential, of course, if we are to stand a chance in halting the cascading demise of natural habitat and the exponential growth in species extinction. So no pressure then!
However, there is something deeply sad about why we would need to do such a thing in the first place. The very fact that we need to rewild the wild is a stark reminder of how we have ignored our role as caretakers of our own destiny and that of our children’s. We like to separate ourselves from the rest of the planet. We see our cleverness and our technological inventive and dependent towns, cities and homes as castles and fortifications against the natural environment and the biosphere as if they were the enemy.
How naïve we are if we continue to think this way. The headlines in the press and on social media as I write this blog are:
‘Era of global boiling has arrived’, says UN chief as July set to be hottest month on record
No more global warming rhetoric folks its now officially global boiling and, of course, if that’s the official line then we can only imagine how bad it really is.
So, fellow Boiling Frogs, you would think that everyone in their right mind would by now be taking the most appropriate course of action possible.
However, alas, no! Proof of which is in the pudding with concepts like plastic lawns which are the latest terrifyingly insane must-have of certain of our fellow citizens. What has this got to do with Rewilding I hear you ask and you are absolutely right because I consider plastic lawns as about as far as you can get away from Rewilding as you can possibly get and then some. In fact I think people who have them and produce and sell them are showing nothing but utter contempt for the wild and mother nature.
We like to think that we are all about the positive with our BFB and the stories we share are about the positive solutions that we can all contribute to. But some times things have to be said and plastic lawns are one of those times. So if you know someone who has had a plastic lawn makeover or is even remotely interested in having one please try and talk some sense into them and save them from themselves. Try suggesting they read BFB as a form of therapy maybe?
Rewilding starts at home
Our gardens those of us fortunate enough to have them are an unmissable opportunity for Rewilding. They have enormous potential to help Mother Nature heal. Rewilding starts at home and we will be sharing stories of people Rewilding their homes some even without access to gardens at all. Even if you have a large garden we won’t expect most people to be releasing Wolves anytime soon but that’s also an important part of Rewilding so we will share stories about that too. If your garden is big enough for wolves maybe you would like to buy me a coffee and help fund our work? 😜
Celebrity gardeners not wild about Rewilding!
I am afraid I am going to go on for a a bit about the Paradigm shift concept again. Those who have read other of my rants will be familiar if not bored with me keep bringing it up but I think it’s jolly important and about as basic as it gets. For me it comes down to this we are so fucked that just changing your lightbulbs or even your car is just not going to hack it. We have to go back to the collective drawing board and rethink the whole thing. The only way to do that is for people to understand how much we have to do and how long we have to do it and it’s essential that we do it together.
I’m rather sceptical of Celebrity Anything so forgive me for siding with Isabella Tree in her article from Guardian below. We have to think about Nature’s needs first not just how our gardens look 👀.
On a larger scale Isabella Tree is one of the pioneers of Knepp:
We had a great day out visiting Knepp. We especially enjoyed seeing the flock of reintroduced Cranes flying in circles high above.
Some other Rewilders from the Twitterverse:
Rewilding Britain has a goldmine of info on Rewilding and they’re thinking big:
From Reintroducing Wolves to wiping out weedkillers Rewilding News is a great source of inspiration. I told you there would be Wolves!
Like Mother Nature the solutions to her problems are interconnected so we are trying to make BFB a guide full of great ideas shared by people who are taking action in the real world. We also want to point out how you can spend some of your time on social media as a Eco Cyber Warrior raising awareness and sharing stories from the trenches and front lines of action for Earth. Make no mistake there is a war on and Nature is not the enemy. The raging battlefields for hearts and minds can be found online. Hope to see you there!
More to follow 🌍🌍🌍