Feral by George Monbiot

Book club selection for January 2020

A wonderfully literate book on the environment that calls for rewilding landscapes. We enjoyed the book. There was much here that was economic- the jobs and wealth created from rewilded places was much larger and more widespread than the extractive economy; and place based- the book deals with the environment around Wales but is very applicable to California. Readers were interested in how they could rewild within their community. They were also impressed with the vocabulary- often looking up a word every other page.



Questions for Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea, and Human Life


 Is the dream of a wilder California which replaces entire areas of cattle farming with natural ecosystems, and restores species that have long since disappeared, viable? What species would you like to see restored to the Bay Area?

Can the ecological biography of nearly half a million years ago still be read in today's landscape?

Are violent ranchers, corrupt politicians and the agro-business lobby a recipe for genocide?

Why is it important for the landscape to be wild? For the author? for California? for the Green New Deal?

How does the prose evoke the sheepwrecked landscape? Is heather a product of ecological destruction?

What literary work does Feral remind you off and why? I was reminded of Return Of the Native by Thomas Hardy and Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez.

How are trophic cascades and apex predators linked to ecosystem complexity? In San Mateo?

Should conservation areas be connected? Should the community be involved? What is the value of transparency and subsidiarity?

Can the natural world be protected from politics? Should policy be based on science?

Popular books like The Old Man and The Sea stage the struggle against the imperative to land the catch. Why is this book built against the elements?

What difference is there with rewilding and Aldo Leopold's land ethic: "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

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