Rewilding the Earth Will Help Prevent Future Pandemics. Announcing A New Anthology of Selected Works From Scientists and Conservationists On Rewilding The Planet.
Before the eruption of the worst pandemic in a century, Rewilding Earth was already working on its antidote. The cure for destruction and disease is restoration and rest, at all scales - rewilding a crowded and fragmented Earth, as humans reduce demands on the natural world.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., June 15, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The coronavirus outbreak and the havoc it is causing are consequences of humanity's unwinnable war against wild Nature, particularly the encroachment on species-rich habitats and marketing of wild animals for food and luxury items.
Wild Earth magazine in previous decades, and now Rewilding Earth, have been sharing the science, the inspiration, and the success stories that chart a path toward a wilder, healthier world for all: furred, feathered, finned, flowering, and human kind (in more modest numbers).
As the pandemic spread, the Rewilding team wondered if they should delay publication of the second best-of anthology. Then they realized: to the contrary, it is needed now more than ever. Adding a global pandemic to the worsening extinction and climate crises makes evident even to mainstream Americans that humans must change our relation to the natural world, must begin to accept limits and relearn how to live with, rather than against, wild Nature.
So they sequestered themselves in their homes, found a printing press still working, and put out REWILDING EARTH: Best of 2019, edited by John Davis and Susan Morgan, and featuring articles and art by scores of leading advocates for the natural world. The elegant volume inspires from the start, with a joyful rewilding vision on the cover – featuring Puma, Wolf, and Salmon come home to the Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Reserve – painted by esteemed children's book illustrator and author Steven Kellogg.
In Rewilding Earth are stories of heroes saving and restoring wild places and endangered species. In it are the ingredients for people adopting positive, healing roles in the desperate work of abating the extinction and climate crises and preventing future pandemics. In it are common-sense suggestions on how to peacefully relax human numbers (in terms of population and consumption) to levels that allow a renewed flourishing of biological diversity.
While people are sitting at home wondering why the world seems to be falling into ruin, Rewilding Earth contains explanations of the crises. More important, it contains solutions to the crises.
On June 22, 3PM EST all are invited to virtual "Best of Rewilding Earth" event; visit rewilding.org to learn more and how to participate.
Rewilding Earth includes the work of many conservation and restoration leaders. Most of these wilderness and wildlife champions are available for interviews, podcasts, and talks. Please contact Susan Morgan or John Davis for interview inquiries.
Book sample, images, in full media kit.
SOURCE The Rewilding Institute
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