Humans and the New Wild
In Bill McKibbons’s first book, The End of Nature, he works with the premise that nature is a process that previously operated independently from human beings but is now directly affected by the actions of people: it is no longer independent, but dependent upon us. He wrote, “If the waves crash up against the beach eroding dunes and destroying homes, it is not the awesome power of Mother Nature. It is the awesome power of Mother Nature as altered by the awesome power of man, who has overpowered in a century the processes that have been slowly evolving and changing of their own accord since the earth was born.” Many conservative commentators have reacted to this idea as they have to climate change itself, saying that it is arrogant to think that human beings could be so important to the processes of the Earth. However, based on how Bill McKibbon exhaustively explained it, and as the years since it’s publishing in 1988 have illustrated, I think he was right. Nature on Earth no longer operates independently of humans, but is influenced at almost every level by our actions.
On one hand, this is a devastating reality, for it means that human actions are immensely important for the future of the climate and in the current economic and political reality this doesn’t bode well for our future. On the other hand, it means that we must take this responsibility seriously and work to have a positive effect on the future of Earth and the organisms who are still alive. We can work in harmony with Earth’s processes and seek positive outcomes.
One name for this way of thinking is the “New Wild”. It postulates that not only do humans now have this power to work with Nature, but that we have a responsibility to embrace this reality and operate in harmony with Nature and help it thrive. It is no longer optional. If we leave Nature to regulate itself now, it will, of course, do so, but the results may not be to our liking, as the affects of humans past decisions about fossil fuel use, industrialization and so on continue to play out. In this scenario, many species, including ourselves, may become extinct or at least be severely and negatively impacted. The New Wild envisions a natural world tended by humans, but also supporting us. Humans not separate from Nature, but a part of it, thriving side by side.
I think we need to embrace this new paradigm.
“Earth, A New Wild”, hosted by Dr. M. Sanjayan, is a PBS show that partly inspired this blog. I recommend it. It addresses this idea that humans need Nature, and now that humans have damaged it so severely, Nature needs humans. The show tells stories about how the systems of the Earth and human culture are interrelated, about how humans can not survive without Nature, and how Nature would survive without humans, but be deeply altered. For example: one episode tells how in India, people were completely dependent for centuries on vultures to get rid of the bodies of dead cows which are too sacred to eat and are dragged out of cities to the countryside to rot and be devoured by vultures. However, an drug used to inoculate cattle was toxic to vultures and they began to disappear, with catastrophic consequences. Carcasses began to build up, spreading disease and resulting in a plague of feral dogs and rats well fed on rotting bodies. Eventually, humans had to intervene, banning the drug and learning to breed vultures and repopulate them around India. Vultures are slowly recovering and with them the countryside around cities. In another episode, scientists and ecologists are working with New York City to bring back the oysters and mollusks is the bay and rivers of New York to clean the water and bring back other species such as fish and birds. Again, human intervention can regenerate an Earth system, but one that is badly needed to combat the slime and jellyfish taking over the waters around New York.
The example of this closest to my current reality is growing food. All agree that soils worldwide have become degraded by conventional agricultural and building practices. The soil in my gardens was scrapped off for building, mixed, piled up and then bulldozed back around my property willy-nilly. Previous to that it was range land with cattle and then horses, probably overgrazed, compacted and degraded before being sold off for building lots. Digging down I had clay, poor water absorption, little fertility and compacted soils. I could leave it alone and go grow food somewhere else…I could use conventional methods of tillage and pouring fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides on it which would be a temporary solution with other environmental problems….or I could educate myself about soil health and work with Nature to regenerate the soil. This takes time, labor, lots of organic material and education on my part. I am four years in and many loads of manure, ground up leaves and garden waste later and I am seeing some improvement. In order to grow food for our family as well as for donation to food pantries necessitated my intervention in a natural system that was deeply degraded by human activity.
This is not a new thought, people have worked with Nature all through human history, but it is a new paradigm to recognize that it is the key to human survival. For too long humans have lived and worked with Nature as an expendable resource. Humans have been the center of our theology, our worldview, our industry, our inventions and our way of life, and Nature was a tool to serve us. The new wild accepts the reality that we are and always have been completely dependent upon the systems of the Earth and it is only by recognizing how enmeshed we are that we will survive.
Coral reefs are disappearing, but the oceans need reefs as nurseries and breeding grounds. Humans need the ocean if we are to continue to live as we have. We may need healthy oceans just to survive as a species. The good news is that humans are learning to rebuild new reefs and plant new coral. Humans need to alter what we pour into the oceans and devote resources to restoring reefs. Humans eat great amounts of meat, but the conventional methods of producing meat are gradually degrading the range lands and polluting our rivers and oceans. But people are learning new ways of keeping ruminants on the land, moving them around quickly so they graze, poop and dig up the soil with their hoofs, regenerating the range land. We can have meat and healthy land, but we have to learn to raise animals in a new way (see the work of the Savory Institute as an example). There are countless examples of people more knowledgable than I am who are already developing, implementing and writing about these ideas all over the world. If you start looking, you’ll be amazed, and maybe you already are. My point today is just to highlight this new paradigm, a new way for us to think about our relationship with Nature. We can’t think about Nature in the same old ways, we are now and always have been, part of the wild.