For decades, Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, has been at the forefront of our thinking about the relationship between human and nonhuman animals. I first encountered his work in 2000, when I interviewed him for a newspaper column about our evolving cultural attitude about dogs. In a long-term study, his researchers had asked, “What do you think is the biggest problem with open space?” Respondents could choose from among these answers: “too many dogs,” “too many people,” “too many unruly dogs,” “too many unruly people,” and “other.” More than 90 percent of those surveyed answered, “too many unruly people.” He also studied dog and human behavior and found that most of the time when dogs are bad in public, humans have led them astray. His most surprising finding: dogs on a leash tend to bite people more than free-running dogs. “On the leash,” he says, “they’re more territorial and frustrated.” Not unlike people.
In countless papers and books, Marc has illuminated the experiential intersection of humans and other animals. Now, in his remarkable new book, Rewilding Our Hearts, he provokes deeper thinking — sometimes comforting, at other times discomforting — about our relationships with other animals and our fellow humans. Not everyone will agree with every position he takes, but one of Marc’s distinguishing characteristics is that he can hold strong opinions while remaining open and genuinely curious about the views of others. This admirable quality speaks to the subtitle of this book: Building Pathways of Compassion and Coexistence. Here, he stresses the idea of “personal rewilding” as a compassionate social movement, one that goes beyond merely connecting with nonhuman animals, to weaving new connections among humans.
I’m flattered to be mentioned in these pages, and I view Marc as one of the leaders of what I’ve called the New Nature Movement, a movement that includes but goes beyond traditional environmentalism and sustainability; one that maximizes the potential of nature to enhance our minds, our personal and societal vibrancy, and our resilience. This New Nature Movement revives old concepts (in health and urban planning, for instance) and adds new ones. It combines the gifts of both technology and the natural world. It’s about saving energy but also producing human energy — in the form of better physical and psychological health, higher mental acuity, and creativity. It’s about conservation, but it’s also about “creating” nature where we live, work, learn, and play. It’s about preserving wilderness but also about transforming cities into engines of biodiversity.
Building such a movement requires more than intellectual excellence, policy debate, or public demonstrations; it demands personal compassion and coexistence with other animals, including other humans. We do not have to agree on everything to move forward to nature. Rewilding, as Marc defines it, is, yes, about becoming reenchanted with nature and nurturing our sense of wonder. But it is about more than that. It is about how our connections with other life, human and nonhuman, can change us, make us more compassionate and empathic, and harness “our inborn goodness and optimism.” Rewilding is achieved through that most radical of acts: opening ourselves to others. In essence, it is about unleashing our hearts.
— Richard Louv, author of The Nature Principle and Last Child in the Woods