Canada and the Wild

George Monbiot is an award-winning environmental writer and activist with exceptional story-telling abilities. He is British and in his latest book, Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life he explores what it might mean to "rewild" areas of the British Isles. Great Britain has been virtually tamed through relentless deforestation and agricultural development, not to mention a relatively large population in a small geographical area. Monbiot describes the efforts, on a minimal scale, to allow areas to "go native" in both flora and fauna, without necessarily fitting the ideal of a restored landscape. After all, restored to what? Monbiot points out that the British populace seems to have a greater suspicion and fear of the wild than other European countries.

As I say, he is an excellent storyteller, although at times I wondered about the meandering thread of his thesis. What stung me about Monbiot's book was his introduction, in which he uses Canada as an example of what can go right and wrong when it comes to protecting wild places and ecosystems. He offers two "parables" and a cautionary tale. He describes the crash of the Atlantic cod stock, which was once seen as inexhaustible. It was only when the fish no longer existed that our government curtailed fishing. Duh. The other parable is of the forestry industry on Vancouver Island and the activists who persistently and bravely resisted the logging of Clayoquot Sound and surrounding forests. The cautionary tale is what is happening with the vast oil sand reserves in Alberta.

As a Canadian I actually see all three of these stories as failures of our various levels of government to protect what is both a natural resource and a sacred trust. In this vast, beautiful country we simply haven't been able to use our God-given brains to get past the "drawers of water and hewers of wood" mentality in order to live with some degree of balance with the natural order.

This past week Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot was in Canada and he fawned all over Prime Minister Stephen Harper as mentor and friend. Sadly, both have dismantled laws protecting the environment and insist that the economy trumps the environment. In what seems like a "dumb and dumber" pairing, they don't get that a sustainable environment will ultimately enhance the economy.

I do see care for our Earth as a sacred trust. I don't know about rewilding, but there is enough which is wild in Canada that we can protect it and live alongside it.

Thoughts?