The most common way people give up power is by thinking they don’t have any.
— ALICE WALKER
We humans became human through our interactions with other animals. Knowing this fact gives us a new way to think about our responsibilities to help our hurt natural world today. . . .As we save other animals, we’ll be saving ourselves.
— BARBARA KING
For rewilding to become a transformative social movement, people from all walks of life, and with often vastly different interests, will need to work with one another. This will only happen if rewilding itself is regarded as a flexible concept that can be adapted to fit a wide range of different contexts and needs, and if the movement itself is undertaken from a spirit of humility, grace, kindness, compassion, and empathy. This is my vision of rewilding. To succeed, we must be both hopeful and pragmatic, idealistic and realistic, persistent and flexible, and kind to, and critical of, one another. We need to rewild our hearts and build landscapes of hope and heart. We must live with hope, not in fear. We need to recognize that we are also animals and therein lies hope for a much better future. The resilience of other animals and nature as a whole is being tested and strained to its limits, and at some point the rubber band will likely break. What a tragedy that will be for all beings.
As any reader of my Psychology Today essays knows, I feel very strongly about animal protection and conservation, and I am very grateful to have a public forum in which to express my perspective and hopefully convince others of the intimate connection between their lives and the lives of all nonhuman animals. As a result of my column, I also come face to face on almost a daily basis with the full range of other opinions people have on these issues. As I said earlier, I’ve found that most people feel very passionately about animals, and about how humans impact nature generally, and even those who flat-out disagree with me often raise valid points and offer perspectives that deserve consideration.
Clearly, we are a very complex species, and we live in an amazingly beautiful, magnificent, and complex world that constantly challenges us on many different levels. We are also a very talented and compassionate species; many people do not feel comfortable with what humans have and are doing to the planet and about what this says about who we are. Yet I also feel we often make things more complex than they need to be. On the one hand, I know that the messes we’ve made are not at all simple: We struggle to understand what’s happening and why, much less with how to fix the damage. On the other hand, I think if everyone made some simple changes to their lives, the world would soon become a more compassionate place for all beings and landscapes. At root, it’s about adopting the attitude that you can never be too kind or too generous or too compassionate, for these attitudes are our most powerful tools for connecting with others and with our world (for instance, see The Power of Kindness by Piero Ferrucci). Another vital attitude is to believe you can always do more. If we constantly challenge ourselves to do better within the context of our own lives, these good acts will radiate outward and transform our world.
The reality is that we are not all the same. People live in vastly different circumstances around the globe, and these circumstances often define what people can do. Many spend most of their time merely trying to survive, and their choices are limited. Others have more influence, affluence, and flexibility. People also have vastly different levels of caring. Some only become motivated to make changes to help nonhuman animals when their own lives are impacted, and in fact some may never be convinced to care about nonhuman animals or our environment. This is always hard for me to understand, but it’s important to acknowledge.
Sure, I admit I would like the world to be vegan and for all animals, human and nonhuman, to have high-quality lives, to be able to live in peace and safety, absent of abuse and suffering. However, I am also a realist. This is not going to happen anytime soon, if ever. So the real question is: Can we humans — complex beings who we are — agree to add compassion to our daily activities in ways that rewild our hearts and then stick to this through thick and thin? We owe it to future generations to do so. We really need radical compassion and radical rewilding that become part of who we are and how we act in the world.
As I circle the globe and meet a vast array of people, I find myself more accepting of different lifestyles and tactics for making the world a better place for other animals. I’ve learned we need to talk with people, not to or at them, because we need all people to be involved. We need researchers and scientists to take an interdisciplinary approach. We also need as many everyday people and families as possible to embrace compassionate conservation as a daily mantra. As I have said, science alone is not going to make us more compassionate, and we don’t need more data and information to convince us that action is needed. Moral decisions about who lives and who dies confront us right now, and the precautionary principle should lead us to address our wider environmental problems even without knowing every single cause.
In the best of all possible worlds, everyone would realize where we are at and do something about it. This may not yet be the best of all possible worlds, but it’s really pretty darned good. One of the key ways to rewild is to concentrate on what works. If we value the central ethic of rewilding, then we just need to pursue it in our own lives as best we can, while doing whatever we can to convert the unconverted.
The state of our world, and the extent of the problems facing us, are sobering and can be overwhelming. For activists and anyone, it’s vital to avoid burnout and the debilitating anxiety and grief that leads to inaction. In fact, rewilding ourselves is the perfect antidote. We need to have some balance. We need cheerful moments and to celebrate successes, and we need time in nature and with other animals just for ourselves. Bruce Gottlieb, a good friend and outstanding psychologist, has talked with me about “secondary trauma,” which I believe can affect activists for animals and the environment. Also called “vicarious trauma,” this refers to “the stress resulting from helping or wanting to help a traumatized or suffering person.” Of course, the same stress can arise when working with nonhuman animals or even nature. In many ways, this trauma is what leads to burnout. No matter how hard people work, nor how many successes they have, there is always more suffering in the world.
I have often wondered why I haven’t burned out despite many decades as an activist working for other animals. The reason, I have come to realize, is that I’m constantly rewilding. Every day I connect with nature and the animals around my home, and I hold to the unwavering belief that I’m doing some good in the world. I work really hard on a lot of “ugly stuff,” but I nurture the resilience to keep at it by making sure my life is balanced: I’ve learned how to “get away from it all” for a while and return fully recharged. I believe in what I do, even if there isn’t a gold star at the end of the day. Indeed, I may not live to see the fruits of my labor, but that’s just fine.
I like to say I work hard, I play hard, and I rest hard. To get away from heady and depressing stuff, I often like to watch mindless movies or read mindless books and to sip good red wine and single-malt scotch. Sometimes I stir the scotch with Twizzlers. Those who know me well know that I’m addicted to watching tennis matches and cycling races over and over again. I don’t need any more reality drama in these restful moments. I really turn off my brain, or as Bruce would put it, I walk away from my cortex and leave it behind for a while. Among my compassionate mother’s last words to me was to be sure to play a lot, and I also laugh at myself, which is something my dear father told me long ago was essential for good mental health.
Animal suffering by human hands exists in all corners of the world, and we may never stop or end all of it. Yet I remain convinced that what others and I are doing is making positive, real progress. To maintain this attitude day to day, I realize that I often compartmentalize what is happening so that I can step away from brain, pain, and trauma as necessary. While what I do may not work for everyone, here is how I approach my work, finding balance and rewilding everyday, and how I keep the faith that we can indeed make the world a better place for all beings and their homes. For more discussion and advice, see Trauma Stewardship by Laura Van Dernoot Lipsky.
This is a modified version of the eight Ps of rewilding in chapter 3:
• Think positively. Don’t let people or “bad” situations get you down. I’m not a 100-percent blind optimist, but negativity is a time and energy suck. Remind yourself of the good things that are happening and rekindle your faith from time to time. Take deep breaths and do something you enjoy. The bottom line is take care of yourself. This is the most important thing to remember; otherwise you won’t have the energy to continue.
• Caring for animals, nature, or our planet is not radical, and it doesn’t make you the “bad guy.” You don’t have to apologize for feeling compassion or working for a better world. In fact, fighting to end callous indifference and needless harm to animals and Earth is heroic work.
• Seek to find areas of common ground. It is imperative that we work together as much as possible in the ways we can. To coexist with other species and retain the integrity of ecosystems, humanity must act as a unified collective. Often there aren’t quick fixes or individual solutions.
• Be vocal and have the courage to speak out. We need to encourage everyone to act as concerned citizens and responsible stewards. We must lead by example.
• Be proactive. Look at your life, or at what is happening in your community, and actively change what can be changed. Look at what can be improved. Don’t simply run around always “putting out the fires” that have started.
• Appeal to compassion with compassion. Be nice and kind to those with whom you disagree and move on if necessary. Sometimes it’s better to let something go or agree to disagree. In other words, pick your battles carefully, and don’t waste finite and valuable time and energy on people or situations you can’t influence or that won’t change. Some people love to fight and have no interest in finding solutions. Instead of engaging them, turn your attention to another way to help animals and Earth.
Compassion begets compassion, and there is a synergistic relationship, not a trade-off, when we show compassion for animals and their homes. There are indeed many reasons for hope; for inspiration, see Reason for Hope by Jane Goodall and This Is Hope by Will Anderson. Plus, according to Tali Sharot in The Optimism Bias, there is compelling evidence that we are natural-born optimists. And so, I’d like to end this book with a very positive vision and assessment of where we are. Many people around the world are working hard to reverse the harm for which we are responsible, and there are many reasons to hope that as a society we can harness our basic goodness and optimism and all work together as a united community.
In his latest book, The Nature Principle, Richard Louv paraphrases iconic civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. as follows: Any cultural movement will fail if it can’t paint a picture of a world where people want to go to. This is sage advice for everyone working hard to make the world a more peaceful and compassionate place for all beings. I’m thrilled to be part of an interdisciplinary and international program called Obstacles and Catalysts of Peaceful Behavior. Among the goals of this program is to develop a “science of peace.” This is not only important for the survival of other animals but also for the survival of humanity.
For starters, read Paul Chappell’s book Peaceful Revolution and Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler’s book Abundance: The Future Is Better than You Think, both of which I have enjoyed and which made me think even more about keeping my own dreams and hopes alive. Erle Ellis also argues that, despite the problems we’ve caused, we may have more time than we think, since we can’t know if the Earth really is approaching an irreversible tipping point. Dr. Ellis writes, “To deny the likelihood of an impending global tipping point is not to deny that we are transforming the biosphere profoundly and permanently in ways that are likely to disgrace us in the eyes of future generations. Much of our planet’s ecology can and will be lost unless we focus much greater effort on conserving and restoring it. . . . The claim that the biosphere is approaching a global tipping point remains no more than a contested and untested hypothesis. As we strive towards more sustainable stewardship of our planet, we must think globally — but let us not lose track of problems on smaller scales. The fate of the entire biosphere depends on it.”
I really like the phrase “leap and the net will appear,” the idea put forth by American naturalist John Burroughs. We need to have faith that what we do will have positive effects. In many ways we intuitively know what we need to do, but we can be afraid to commit to something when we are unsure of what the results will be. Instead, we keep our hopes and dreams alive by taking the step into action, doing something, anything, based on what our heads and hearts are telling us. We need to step out of our comfort zones and think out of the box and work with others. We need a new mind-set of cooperating with others who also care about animals and Earth. Hard work pays off. A report issued in May 2012 by the Center for Biological Diversity showed that about 90 percent of endangered species are recovering on time. The report notes that we still have a long way to go to know how well many species are doing, but there are success stories across the United States. These include the Aleutian Canada goose, California least tern, American crocodile, black-footed ferret, whooping crane, gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains, and the shortnose sturgeon.
We humans are deeply entrenched in virtually every single web of nature, and if we think of us all as one, we will find ways to support many diverse beings in a single community. In The Rational Optimist, British scientist and journalist Matt Ridley argues “that the world will pull out of its current crisis because of the way that markets in goods, services, and ideas allow human beings to exchange and specialise honestly for the betterment of all.” He calls this view rational optimism. I hope he’s right. Jeremy Rifkin, in The Empathic Civilization, also proposes that empathy will help us solve our various crises, and indeed, as I’ve mentioned, ample data show that both human and nonhuman animals are far more empathic and cooperative than previously thought.
As we move on, there will be give and take, and compromise and triage are not always easy or popular. It’s better to dance than to fight because we can get a lot more done working together. Rewilding as part of a global social movement can unify us once and for all. Rewilding has many faces and can easily be a pivot point and a magnet — a paradigm change — not only for bringing diverse people together but also for reconnecting people with their own hearts. Alienating ourselves from other animals and dominating them and their homes is not what it means to be human. We must stop this insanity now. Ecocide is suicide. I started rewilding as a kid and haven’t stopped. Maintaining hope and keeping our dreams alive requires a collective and selfless effort.
We live in a magnificent yet wounded world. Despite all of the rampant destruction and abuse, it remains a magnificent world filled with awe and wonder. If you’re not in awe, you’re not paying attention. So let’s get on with it. Open your heart to nature and rewild as you go through your daily routines and rituals. The beginning is now. We can always do more as we rewild. Rewilding is a work in progress from which we must not get deflected. How lucky we are that we are able to partake in this process, gratefully and generously blurring borders between “them” and “us” and their homes and ours.
Let’s make personal rewilding all the rage. We are all intimately interconnected, we are all one, and we all can and must work together as a united community to reconnect with nature and to rewild our hearts.