Posts

Showing posts with the label history

Best Nature Writing I Read in 2018

Image
Since finishing up at university, i've read a lot less nature writing. The books on this list are books that I read in my first year out of study, after finishing my Master's in Environment, Development & Policy at the University of Sussex. Aldo Leopold- A Sand County Almanac After using small excerpts and recycled quotes from Leopold throughout my Masters, I finally sat to read the full collection of his writings, which range from still-life journals to reflections on pinnacle realizations and moments in Leopolds career, including looking back at the senseless extirpation of wolves from Yellowstone which he was a part of, and advocating for their return. Masanobu Fukuoka- Sowing Seeds in the Desert: Natural Farming, Global Restoration, and Ultimate Food Security. This may be Fukuoka's later work, but it shows a full lifetime's introspection and attention to nature, snowballing into a heavy hitting look at the possibilities for a harmonious relati...

Language and Trees: Scottish Gaelic and Wilderness

Image
One of the things many conservationists, especially those involved in rewilding, in Scotland (or Britain in general) seem to turn to is the links between ancient British history and language and the wilderness that has since been drastically extirpated from the Isles. A consideration for the Celtic history of Britain can be found in texts such as George Monbiot's writings including his book Feral, which brought rewilding into British popular consciousness, and other texts that often highlight the plight of the Scottish or Welsh when faced with clearance and industrialised agricultural change. Organsiations similarly discuss the Celtic nature to Britain's wilderness, whether they are management trusts such as the Woodland trust, or rewilding organisations such as the Cambrian Wildwood project in Wales, or Trees for Life operating in Scotland. Many organisations have settled on exploring a particular era of linguistic history in the British Isles, namely the Brythonic (asides...