The New Narrative of Rewilding Leads to Action

We need a new narrative when it comes to dealing with environmental issues says professor Paul Jepson.  The old narrative that nature is in crisis because of human greed and ignorance which is leading to a catastrophe has created some change but it is also leading to people ignoring the problem  Jepson suggests that the new narrative be about restoring and rewilding.  This narrative would be about things that we can do that work and is therefore more accessible to people who want to make a difference.  He details this idea in an article called The Story of a Recoverable Earth in Resurgence and Ecologist.  Jepson worked as a conservationist and is now a professor at Oxford.

You can  hear him talking about rewilding urban spaces here: 

When I checked out youtube, there were quite a few videos on this idea of rewilding which all seemed to be from Europe.  I’ll let them tell their stories here:

Here Chris Packman talks about rewilding his garden.  I really liked this one because I have done this with a garden I have on Georgian Bay.  I started out planting medicinal and indigenous species and then nature took over and brought an abundance of wild plants, insects and birds to the garden.

 Here is a video about people who are rewilding a northern part of Russia to protect the permafrost by bringing grazing animals like horses and musk oxen onto the land.  It shows the kind of creative thinking that is going on all around the world.

 And lastly, Peter Smith speaks passionately about letting nature go and what rewilding might look like.

This new narrative uses the “re” prefix.  You hear words like restoring, regenerating, rewilding and recovering.  It is about doing what we can to leave the planet better than we found it.  This is a narrative of giving to nature instead of just taking.  These videos give you a taste of this new narrative and they may also give you ideas about things you can do to be a part of this new narrative, this new story.