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Keeping the Wild: Against the Domestication of Earth

George Wuerthner (Editor),

Eileen Crist (Editor),

Tom Butler (Editor)

3.56 · Rating details · 34 ratings · 12 reviews

Is it time to embrace the so-called “Anthropocene”—the age of human dominion—and to abandon tried-and-true conservation tools such as parks and wilderness areas? Is the future of Earth to be fully domesticated, an engineered global garden managed by technocrats to serve humanity? The schism between advocates of rewilding and those who accept and even celebrate a “post-wild ...more

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Paperback, 248 pages

Published May 6th 2014 by Foundations for Deep Ecology 3

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Jan 28, 2021 Cheryl marked it as to-read

Wuerthner wrote a valuable letter to the editor, High Country News, March 2020.

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Feb 09, 2015 Jen rated it liked it

Shelves: environmental-writing, land-ethic-reading-list

Humans have altered the Earth so much that scientists are actually beginning to agree that we have entered a new geological epoch known as the Anthropocene. This may not be news to you- the media has given "the age of man" some serious face time. What you may not realize is that behind this term is also a widening rift in the conservation world. Largely led by Peter Karieva of the Nature Conservancy and the well-funded Breakthrough Institute, a very high profile chorus of voices, termed "the new Humans have altered the Earth so much that scientists are actually beginning to agree that we have entered a new geological epoch known as the Anthropocene. This may not be news to you- the media has given "the age of man" some serious face time. What you may not realize is that behind this term is also a widening rift in the conservation world. Largely led by Peter Karieva of the Nature Conservancy and the well-funded Breakthrough Institute, a very high profile chorus of voices, termed "the new conservationists" have arisen to pair the arrival of the age of man with a new direction for conservation and the environmental movement. In a nutshell, their argument is that we've effed it up beyond repair, so therefore all the things we have been trying to do to save the Earth (preserve parks and wildlands, restore degraded ecosystems, work to protect species from extinction and preserve biodiversity) are silly, quaint, and backwards. They argue that there never was such a thing as a pristine, unaltered Earth. Therefore, in their view, rather than try to "save" the Earth, we need to plan our use of it in such a way as to utilize its resources to benefit the greatest number of people, particularly poor people living in the third world.

As one of this book's contributors, Curt Meine points out, like any deceptive argument, the most maddening part about it is that a lot of it is true. But a lot of it is also ridiculous. They say that now that the age of man has arrived, we need to just accept it, let the polar bears die already, and start seeing the natural world as a garden over which we and only we hold dominion. Writer Emma Maris is another voice in this new conservation chorus, and her book Rambunctious Garden is often quoted (and ripped apart) in this collection of essays railing against the new conservationists and their ideas.

It's fascinating reading to a degree, but this collection got really repetitive, which made it really hard to slog through. On that note, reading this does make you feel, at least a tiny bit, like you are witnessing an obscure fight between academics. Don't get me wrong. The ideals of the new conservationists are very real and are being put on the ground in applied ways, at scale-- especially through a huge global conservation organization like TNC. However, make no mistake-- Keeping the Wild and other essays I've seen on the debate over the Anthropocene is generally high level reading that will probably only get picked up and absorbed by the most committed conservationists. I would have rated this higher had the editors been more ruthless in the editing and chosen only the best essays to feature. ...more

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Mar 15, 2016 Mark rated it really liked it

Shelves: travel-and-nonfiction

This takes some time to get going. As with any collection of essays, some are better than others, and the initial ones in this volume are (perhaps necessarily) kind of vague and broad, since they're meant to rebut an entire ideological movement. The essays get a lot better as they gradually become more specific, but even then they are technical enough to probably not appeal to the casual reader.

But even when this book is at its most erudite and inaccessible, its message is incredibly important. ...more

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Dec 13, 2018 Michael rated it really liked it

Shelves: wilderness

This is a book of conservation essays released by the Foundation for Deep Ecology. It is split into three parts: Clashing Worldviews, Against Domestication and The Value of the Wild. The first two parts are similar - refuting arguments by more mainstream environmentalists (especially Peter Kareiva, former lead scientist for the Nature Conservancy) who lately claim that protected wild areas are not the environmental panacea as were hoped, and efforts to protect them and keep them wild should be a This is a book of conservation essays released by the Foundation for Deep Ecology. It is split into three parts: Clashing Worldviews, Against Domestication and The Value of the Wild. The first two parts are similar - refuting arguments by more mainstream environmentalists (especially Peter Kareiva, former lead scientist for the Nature Conservancy) who lately claim that protected wild areas are not the environmental panacea as were hoped, and efforts to protect them and keep them wild should be abandoned. The last part, which is the most interesting in the book, are essays about why wild protected areas are important, and what is lost if they disappear.

Unfortunately, the essays in the first two parts are inconsistent and very repetitive. Most of them present similar refutations of the same arguments against wild places - especially the concept of the “Anthropocene” where nature is managed for human use, and the idea that all wild places have been altered by man for millennia, so there really aren’t any wild places or a need to keep them wild anymore. While the arguments made in these essays refuting this and supporting wild lands are good and important to read, they are made over and over again, so there isn’t much new after the first few essays, at least until part 3. The editors could’ve cut out almost half of the essays and the book would still be impactful. Out of the 21 essays, I marked 10 as good reads, and perhaps 3-4 of those are must reads.

The essays range from readable and engaging (stalwart conservation biologist Michael Soulé, Roderick Frazier Nash of “Wilderness and the American Mind” fame, or Paul Kingsnorth, whose own book of essays “Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist” covers much of the same ground, and I would recommend over this collection) to academic and somewhat technical delves into philosophy. While not all of the essays were to my taste - some I found very dry - there is something here for everyone. I do think it is an important book that should grace the shelf of every environmentalist, especially given the dearth of good deep ecology-focused environmental books out there. ...more

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Feb 12, 2021 TimothyMSwartz rated it it was ok

One common criticism of edited collections like this is that they tend to be too disjointed, reflecting each author's unique interpretation of the brief or concept. Not so with this volume. This book was extremely repetitive, with nearly every essay having an introduction containing the phrase "the so-called Anthropocene", the body containing direct, yet often unsubstantiated, criticisms of Emma Marris and Peter Kareiva, and capped off with a conclusion full of dire warning about the looming dem ...more

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Dec 13, 2018 Dean rated it liked it

This is an anthology, and there are several brief chapters about environmentalism.
Ideally, this would be great for someone working in the field, or someone who has been an activist for years. If you are looking for information and resources this may not be for you.
I think this is more for someone who's already writing about this topical academically or freelancing for magazines.
...more

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Nov 23, 2015 Mark Bailey rated it it was amazing

Shelves: melony-office

Contains a lot of essays refuting the claims of Nordhaus and Shellenberger that because there are no lands that have not at least been minutely effected by man there is no more wilderness and therefore we should give up on protecting for wilderness. Michael Soule does the best job of painting the current status of conservation (versus environmentalism) and how the big conservation NGO's have mostly gone over to the land as resource for people and corporations.

Makes me glad to be the puny David ...more

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Dec 28, 2014 Robert rated it liked it

Shelves: environment

I was torn between three and four stars. Four was what I was hoping for the book when I started, but three was the reality. This book suffers from some of the weaknesses that can plague essay collections, repetitiveness being the most common in this collection.

That said, this book is still a valuable and worthwhile challenge to the new conservationists. The authors repeatedly emphasize that those who value wildlands do not do so because they think them "pristine." I think they are largely right ...more

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Feb 08, 2015 Melissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, non-fiction

3.5/5 I think this book is best for professionals in related fields or (most likely) for college students needing to cite sources in a paper. While the ideas are interesting, it's not really a book that you want to sit down and read straight through. I've picked it up (and put it down) several times over the past year. ...more

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Jan 06, 2015 Jake Berlin rated it liked it

Shelves: animals, anthropology, environment-sustainability, essays, nature, science

a variety of compelling points supporting a broad and important argument, although it does get a bit redundant, and with some of the essays of such a higher quality than the others, it undoubtedly could have been significantly shorter.

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Feb 22, 2016 Graeme Smith rated it liked it

This book reviews interesting ideas of how to tackle the ever-growing problem of climate change and global warming, but could be more 'user-friendly' by using language that the average reader can follow. ...more

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