Following up on yesterday’s post – having to deal with an overpopulation of deer through culling, and the question whether to sell that meat or not -, this TED talk is an interesting alternative approach. This thought came to me after a friend responded to my post that one of the reasons that there are so many deer in the States is that wolves have been nearly eliminated, and thus their main natural predator is gone. Clearly, rewilding ecosystems very close to human settlements – touching on the problem of deer encroaching on suburbs and public parks – might be more challenging, but George Monbiot makes a powerful argument for stepping back and giving nature a bit more credit instead of trying to micromanage ecosystems as we are currently doing. I loved loved loved this talk, not only because Monbiot is a great public speaker but also because he takes a refreshingly novel approach, arguing even for reintroducing hippos and elephants in Europe – why not?
I would like us to be able to show a bit more humility, really, to create some scope for other species to flourish a bit more than they do at the moment. – George Monbiot
P.S. If you only have 3 minutes time today instead of 15, consider checking out this really cute animated guide to Monbiot’s idea of rewilding: