There are many highlights, and most of those are because of you, yes YOU, the countless amazing people fervently engaged in nature recovery efforts around the world. It's been both genuinely humbling and supremely inspiring to see what you do with relentless passion and unceasing stamina. The natural world is, today, in a better place because of you.
My 2024 has given me numerous blessings. For one, I got to head off into the early retirement sunset ...
... and that in turn gave me the time to focus all the more on rewilding, and creating the Rewilder Weekly newsletter. This started out as an experiment in April, with my expectation that maybe a few hundred people would eventually subscribe. Well, more than 30 editions later, the Rewilder Weekly has over 4'000 subscribers - thank YOU.
A constant rush of rewilding hope
Curating the Rewilder Weekly editions has meant (and continues to mean) scouring the world wild webs for rewilding stories. Invariably I get to discover more people and more places and more projects where nature recovery takes precedence to profit at all costs. In the first 31 editions of the Rewilder Weekly I've covered over 200 stories, rewilding efforts from across the globe, from Finland to Portugal, from the Ukraine to Italy, and from the UK to the US and Asia. With everything I see happening, I also see the challenges, and I also see the financial need to ramp up and scale to new heights. We're far from where we need to be - but we're a lot further than we were - again, thanks to YOU.
In addition to your stories, I've also shared my own. I don't even want to contemplate the number of posts written over the course of this year - must be a ridiculous amount. But occasionally I also take the time to go a bit deeper with articles. Invariably, as I research more, I learn more. What I chose to write about ranges wide and far - whatever grabs my attention. If you're up for a few excursions - here is a selection of 12 articles I wrote in 2024:
The Nature Pyramid: How're you doing, nature-wise?
I believe that a huge chunk of our lovely species has lost respect for nature - and that's not because they’re bad people, but because they’ve grown apart from nature over the past few centuries (I’d argue that last 100 years have been the worst with more and more people flowing into megacities and deserting rural lands).
Meet the pangolin: The world's most trafficked animal
I find I'm having a hard time writing about this, because every time I begin, my mind instantly goes to the many human beings around the world involved in hunting (more like collecting, really - more on that later), trafficking, selling, buying and finally consuming parts of this curiously beautiful animal (this, or any other illegally hunted and traffi…
The only good way forward for our species is with more, much more, nature
I've recently connected and shared a few exchanges with Professor Dana R. Fisher, who has just published her 7th book and graciously shared a copy with me. It's called "SAVING OURSELVES - From Climate Shocks to Climate Action. It's a good read, an important read - offering ways forward for humanity, offering hope ... and I have to admit that I have far …
Rewilding is all about connection
I wanted to find out about the origin of the term 'rewilding' and found that, according to the Cambridge University Press (and why wouldn't I, right?), it put in a first appearance in print fairly recently, in 1990 (it's actually 1844, but more on that later!). Back then, the term was neither clear, nor understood as the thoroughly positive global movem…
When it comes to nature, the time has come to retire the term 'conservation'
I realize that this is challenging. The term is used everywhere and, for the most part, no doubt well-intentioned. But whether you look at it etymologically, historically or logically, the term 'conservation' nowhere near describes what is happening - and what needs to continue to happen for many, many decades to…
Wondering and worrying about de-extinction efforts
A species is here, and then it isn't. For whatever reason, it goes extinct. According to Wikipedia "More than 99% of all species that ever lived on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, are estimated to have died out." Let that sink in. Now, what if you could bring them back? Would you? Should you? How would you choose? And what be the undoubte…
Alpine pastures - let's do it E. O. Wilson-style
Famed biologist E. O. Wilson's vision was for a Half-Earth, a way where half of Earth is nature-protected, a place for flora and fauna to recover and thrive, and where the other half still offers ample room for all of humanity's endeavors. That, so his theory, would provide a healthy balance beneficial for everyone.
It is high time to end grouse shooting estates
This industrialized grouse slaughter-pastime needs to end: because it is intolerably cruel; because it destroys, systematically and regularly, flora and fauna; because those moors could and should be biodiversity havens; because those moors are needed with healthy peat to fight climate change (carbon sequestration); and because none of any of that is ev…
How the world was created: a wolf story
As the insane persecution of the wolf continues, I thought I'd share a story for a different perspective. Much of the fearmongering with wolves goes back to fairy tales and ancient tales and legends. Yes, the wolf is a predator and the proverbial 'big bad wolf' in some of them - but he is also serene, courageous, helpful, wise - a guide, a brother, even…
The electrified beaver
This, unfortunately, is a story of woe. Mind you, the beaver wasn't killed - but he was most certainly made to depart from the neighborhood ... and it had all started so gloriously!
We can have it all: Food security, rich biodiversity - and climate change mitigation
Where there's a will, there's a way - and humanity has shown its will (for better and for worse) a million times over. The maximization-driven world of meat and dairy industries are at the heart of the solution. Now, if only there were that will.
Florence to Rome: back from an amazing one-month hike across Italy
We need breaks. We all do. These can come in the form of a single deep breath, a cup of tea, playtime with the kids, a sunset walk with a loved one. I hope you manage to take your breaks, too - if you don't, you lose out on life. You may not burn out, you may struggle on and muddle through and not just manage but succeed time and time again. But unless …
I've written more, of course (among the many things also a next novel - if you want to read it, don't feel you need to buy it. Just let me know and I'll gladly send you the manuscript in pdf form). Plans for next year? Writing, writing and more writing, of course! And a lot of that will be rewilding-focused, as you might imagine (got an idea for a book and, who knows, I may just get it started in the new year!).
That's it for this year (but no worries, the Rewilder Weekly will come your way as usual this coming Tuesday). Greatly looking forward to a 2025 that'll hopefully see rewilding taking another leap forward (30x30 is just 5 years away, after all!). So please keep on doing what you're doing and know that your rewilding efforts don't just restore nature's land and seascapes - and they don't just bring back rich biodiversity in both flora and fauna - they also give hope and lift hearts and spirits of people near and far you. And so let me end by simply saying
Happy holidays to you and your loved ones and thank you for being you.
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