From df44d537571bbfe795956287424d891b855d0c68 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Joe Carstairs Date: Wed, 13 May 2026 17:20:13 +0100 Subject: restoring the wild --- log.md | 25 +++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 25 insertions(+) (limited to 'log.md') diff --git a/log.md b/log.md index c66d265..e9aa8d0 100644 --- a/log.md +++ b/log.md @@ -6,6 +6,31 @@ author: Joe Carstairs ## 2026-05-13 +### @{restoring-the-wild} + +My general impression of this book is that reintroducing species is about +negotiating with the relevant interests, working hard on the ground, and +developing a mix of personal, community, and institutional relationships. He +hardly seems to mention grand ideals much at all, utopic or dystopic or +anything. Catastrophism is nowhere to be seen. + +When I read @{regeneration}, I thought it wasn't relevant because it isn't +apocalyptic. Seeing the same thing again, once again written by someone with +lots of experience of successful conservation work, I think it is not a +coincidence and highly relevant. These writers don't use the dominant +catastrophic framing of green issues, because it doesn't work for them. And the +key reason it doesn't work for them is because it de-emphasises the role of +private interests and flattens people into an imaginary collective interest. But +in order to get anything done, they have to put real private interests first. +They have to abandon catastrophic rhetoric, because in their world, those +narratives don't work for them. Catastrophic narratives, whatever they do, don't +function to get things done. They perhaps serve better as a tribal identity +marker for urban, middle-class people whose real need is to be seen to have +rightthink. This could play a big role in my argument: the function of green +catastrophism is NOT to motivate effective action, as we can see, the people who +ARE taking effective action are avoiding catastrophic narratives because they +obscure the role of interest, which is essential to getting things done. + ### @{cornerstones} There was a cracking bit of narrative in the last chapter. Big takeaways: -- cgit v1.2.3