Explodapedia: Rewild E-Book

Ben Martynoga

• Herausgeber: David Fickling Books
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Serie: Explodapedia
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 135

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Rewild is a celebration of the vital role nature plays in our lives. It's a guide to reconnecting with the wild things all around us, and accepting that we humans are also part of nature.From river-nurturing wolves to climate-warrior whales and resurrected woolly mammoths, meet the creatures with the power to breathe fresh life into our fragile planet.Ben Martynoga and Moose Allain will inspire you to see the living world in a new light and empower you to act for its future.

Leseprobe

Welcome to

Explodapedia

, the indispensable guide to

everything you need to know!

This series is packed with in-depth knowledge you can trust;

it gives you the tools you need to understand the science

behind the wonders of our world. Read on to learn how

nature can heal our wounded planet in

Rewild

. . .

‘I am in love with this book! It’s joyful, fascinating, galvanising,

beautifully written, accessible . . . it’s an eye-opener and I can’t

wait to share it with all the children I know, and their parents.’

Isabella Tree, author & conservationist

‘Imbued with hope, humour and joy. This is a book that needs

to be read by every school kid, everywhere, and their parents.’

Lee Schofield, author & ecologist

‘

Rewild

is truly magical . . . Young or old, people are going to

love this book.’

Ben Goldsmith, author & environmentalist

‘A must-read for all young people who are interested in the

concept of rewilding and nature recovery.’

Derek Gow, author

‘

Rewild

gives you a real sense of how connected and rich the

diversity of life is, as well as how it’s in peril . . . This book will

inspire and inform the next generation.’

Leif Bersweden, writer, botanist, science communicator

BM: To Beda. Thank you for rewilding our lives.

May your generation – and those to come – find ways

to thrive amid a wilder future. x

MA: For Connor and Spencer, finally released into the wild.

EXPLODAPEDIA: REWILD

First published in 2024

by David Fickling Books, 31 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2NP

This ebook edition first published in 2024

All rights reserved

Text © BEN MARTYNOGA, 2024

Illustrations © MOOSE ALLAIN, 2024

The right of Ben Martynoga and Moose Allain to be identified as the author

and illustrator of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of

the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, trans-

ferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way

except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under

the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted

by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text

may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those

responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

ISBN 978–1–78845–278–6

Italic type is used in

Explodapedia

to highlight words that are defined

in the glossary when they first appear, to show quoted material and

the names of published works. Bold type is used for emphasis.

Contents

Nature Is Determined

7

Chapter 1: The Animal that Thought It Ruled the World

17

Chapter 2: Why Our World is Green

33

Chapter 3: The Wolves that Grew Trees

and Healed Rivers

49

Chapter 4: Into the Wild Wood

61

Chapter 5: Why You Should Give a Dam About Beavers

78

Chapter 6: Whales Are Climate Warriors

91

Chapter 7: Can We Raise Woolly Mammoths

from the Dead?

104

Chapter 8: How to Feed the World

116

Chapter 9: How You Can Help the Wild

132

Can We End the Anthropocene?

142

Our Rewilding Planet – in the Year 2050

147

Glossary

151

Index

156

Acknowledgements

159

About the Author and Illustrator

160

6

7

Nature Is Determined

Did you see that weed growing from the crack in the pavement?

Or the freckled butterfly next to the trainline?

Did you spot the falcon nesting high up on that skyscraper?

Or brush against the moss under the bridge?

And did you notice the trees springing up on the

abandoned building site?

Nature doesn’t wait for an invitation. It has a habit of just

arriving, whether we like it or not.

Some farmers’ fields provide an all-you-can-eat buffet for

mice, songbirds – and the odd swarm of locusts. And all sorts

of smaller ‘pests’ – ants, moths, flies, cockroaches and moulds –

pop up unprompted inside our homes. Meanwhile, larger

creatures make their presence felt on city streets across the

globe . . .

What does ‘private’ even mean?

We did.

The

fungus

.

That you hardly notice.

Though we’re all around you.

8

In recent years, leopards have even been seen loping through

parts of Mumbai, India, and in the UK, after dark, foxes throw

parties in London gardens.

Nature has zero respect for private property.

Eh? A

fungal mycelium

. . . that can talk . . .?

A mycelium. It’s basically a sprawling, branching, tangling,

constantly changing network of tiny tubes. Each tube is a

chain made up of thousands of microscopic fungus

cells

.

Lots of

fungi

live this way; only some of them ever grow the

structures we call mushrooms and toadstools. You often can’t

tell where one fungus’s mycelium ends and another begins.

A fungal what?

Who . . . said that?

And we weave our way around the Earth . . .

. . . through forests and grasslands.

Over hills . . .

. . . across your

fruit bowl.

9

The wild creatures that surround us come in an eye-

wateringly massive variety of living forms, from the tiniest

bacteria

to wasps, tree frogs, jellyfish, cacti, fruit bats, toadstools

and corals to the tallest redwood trees, and everything else

in between. Biologists call these and all other living things

biodiversity

, which literally means ‘variety of life’. Our planet’s

biodiversity is unimaginably enormous: there may be up to a

trillion different

species

out there, no one knows for sure. But

each one has found its own unique way to hang on to life and,

when it gets a chance, to

flourish

.

Don’t be fooled though. Despite the amazing determination

of wild things, and the stupendous range of species, all is not

well with our planet’s biodiversity.

N

ATURE

IN

P

ERIL

Species go

extinct

all the time. They always have; they always will.

But the awful truth is that today, extinctions are happening at

a terrifying rate. In some parts of the world so many species

of plant, animal, fungus and

microbe

are

disappearing

that

landscapes and seas that once thrummed with wildlife are

falling eerily still and silent.

The last time Earth’s biodiversity shrank so quickly was

66 million years ago, when a gigantic meteorite slammed into

our planet, snuffing out the dinosaurs and 75% of all other

species.

*

We’re not quite at that point yet – thank goodness

– but we need to act now, before too many other life forms

vanish for ever.

*

Apart from the dinosaurs we now call ‘birds’ (see

Explodapedia: Evolution

).

Where did all the bees go?

What happened to all the fish?

But

why

are all these creatures disappearing?

It’s all down to you lot.

You’re the

meteorite now.

Sadly, our fungal friend is basically right. For centuries,

most people have been so focused on our own needs, that

we’ve scarcely noticed the harm all our human activities have

been doing to the rest of the living world. The reality is, we’re

in the middle of a

biodiversity crisis

.

W

E

N

EED

N

ATURE

Extinctions are sad. But do we really

need

all

these different life forms?

Well, you’d be a bit stuck

without us. We only:

Grow your food . . .

make your oxygen . . .

purify your water . . .

churn out your medicines . . .

encourage rain to fall

on your fields . . .

shelter you from storms . . .

stop floods . . .

soak up pollution . . .

break down your waste . . .

and stabilize the planet’s

entire climate.

Oh! So basically

EVERYTHING that

keeps us alive?

Yup. You need

us

way more

than we need

you

.

11

12

Wow. Fungi really

do all that?

We-ell, it’s not

just us!

We work

alongside all

kinds of other

living things.

Sunlight

Sunlight makes seaweed grow

Sea snail eats

seaweed

Starfish

eats sea snail

Waves refresh the

water and dislodge

unsuspecting inhabitants

They sure do. As you might know, biologists call the

communities of plants, animals, fungi and other forms of life

that exist in a particular place an

ecosystem

. Ecosystems are

made up of both

living

parts (e.g. plants, animals and bacteria)

and

non-living

parts (e.g. water, rock, weather conditions). All

the different parts of an ecosystem are connected. So if one

part changes – e.g. a storm blows in or an animal goes extinct –

that change can affect

everything else

in the ecosystem.

The living species in a healthy ecosystem have often been

evolving alongside each other for millions of years. Despite all

the eating – and being eaten – that goes on, they fit together

like the pieces of a beautiful puzzle.

Ecosystems can be very small, like a tide pool at the seaside:

13

Sun makes cloud

of

algae

grow

Wind

Cloud of algae

Shoal of small fish eat algae

Tuna

eats small fish

Great white shark

eats tuna

Ocean currents

move warm water,

living things and

nutrients around

the ocean

But we can’t carry

on supporting you

if our ecosystems

keep losing their

star players.

OK. This is dead serious.

What can humans do?

And together, ecosystems have awesomely powerful effects

on entire environments. We’ll see, as we read on, how they

basically act as a life-support system – for us and for all other

living things.

We can

rewild

as much of the world as possible. That’s

what this book is all about. It means getting better at living

Or very large, like an entire ocean:

*

*

Large ecosystems are sometimes called ‘biomes’, they often contain many smaller ecosystems.

alongside nature and, where appropriate, backing right off and

letting

natural processes

take control. Because, when we let it,

nature comes roaring back.

A H

ALF

-W

ILD

W

ORLD

Well, we don’t have to give it

all

back.

Rewilding

is about

mending our broken relationship with nature – remembering

that we are

part

of nature, that we

need

nature.

How much to rewild is definitely up for debate. But in

2016, one of the world’s leading biologists, Edward O. Wilson,

hatched a daring plan. He called it the ‘Half-Earth Project’:

In other words, he reckoned we should confine all our

building, farming and other human-focused activities to, at

14

Trust us! Sometimes, we

wild things know best.

I propose that only by committing

half

of the planet’s surface to nature

can we hope to save the immensity

of life forms that compose it.

But what will happen to our towns, cities and

farms if we let everything go back to nature?

15

most, 50% of Earth’s surface. And that would mean putting

the other 50% back into the capable hands (not to mention

paws, roots, wings, fins and tendrils) of nature.

If we did that, Wilson calculated, we’d protect

85%

of

Earth’s species from extinction.

We’re a

long

way from hitting that goal though. In 2023,

less than

17%

of the planet’s total surface (land, freshwater, ice

and ocean) was officially protected for nature.

*

The trouble is, as well as the biodiversity crisis, we’re

wrestling with the equally terrifying

climate crisis

. As our planet

gets hotter, weather systems are becoming increasingly violent

and unpredictable. Wildfires,

droughts

, storms and rising

water temperatures are hammering ecosystems, making the

biodiversity crisis worse.

But here’s the thing: since natural ecosystems – from jungles

to

peatlands

to seaweed forests to frozen Arctic

tundra

– help

to keep the climate stable, if the biodiversity crisis gets worse,

*

And simply saying a site is ‘protected’ isn’t enough – to actually help wildlife, rules must be enforced

and, often, work done to improve habitats.

16

the climate crisis will too. If we don’t do something – and

quickly – both crises will spiral out of control.

We certainly will. But the good news about rewilding is that

it’s part of the solution to the climate crisis too.

Actually, rewilding projects are already underway all over

the world. We’re about to get to know some of the scientists,

conservationists, local communities and, most importantly,

other species that are doing their utmost to usher

life

back into our wounded world. Plus, we’ll look at some of the

ways these efforts to rewild will help

you

and how

you

can help

them

.

But first of all, we’ve got to face up to some dark realities . . .

Then you’ll really be in a mess.

So, let’s get on with it!

17

CHAPTER 1

The Animal that Thought It Ruled the World

H

OW

W

E

G

OT

INTO

THIS

M

ESS

Rewilding is all about healing our damaged world by boosting

the biodiversity and

abundance

of its living species. But, before

we can find out how the solutions work, we need to understand

the problems. This chapter’s not going to be an easy read, but

stick with it, because knowing all the challenges the world

is facing actually gives us an amazing opportunity. If we can

welcome enough of the wild back into our landscapes, our

oceans and our day-to-day lives, we’ll be the first generation of

humans ever to have

attempted

to leave the planet in a better

state than it was when we arrived.

I want to be part of that! So –

deep breath – tell it like it is.

T

HE

R

ELENTLESS

R

ISE

OF

THE

H

UMAN

In 2021, builders on a new housing estate near Plymouth,

south-west England, unearthed a hidden cave. Inside were the

remains of woolly mammoths, reindeer, wolves, hyenas and

woolly rhinoceroses – animals that are either long extinct, or

haven’t lived in Britain for centuries. These bones give us a way

of seeing Britain as it must have been around 40,000 years ago,

during the last Ice Age.

A human jawbone found in a nearby cave shows that

during the same period, modern humans (i.e.

Homo sapiens

)

were reaching Britain for the very first time. By that point our

species had already existed for about 250,000 years, but for

most of that time our ancestors had all lived in Africa. So,

40,000 years ago, intrepid bands of

hunter-gatherers

were on the

move, gradually occupying the rest of the world.

Compared with the way you live today, life was

unrecognizably different for your ancestors 1,500 generations

ago. On every continent, temperatures were typically five or six

degrees Celsius

colder

than today’s, and ice, up to a mile thick,

covered huge parts of the globe. As sliding glaciers scoured the

rocks, they stirred up clouds of rock dust that dimmed the sun

and fell in drifts across the wintry landscapes.

In short, life was tough. And humans were just another

kind of fairly insignificant animal.

Exactly. It was a far wilder age, and your human ancestors

would never have doubted that they were

part of nature

. At

any moment, a blizzard, a

cave lion

or even a small infected

cut could have brought life to an abrupt end. As a result, the

human population of the entire planet was about the same as

that of a large town today.

But, against the odds, humans clung on and,

eventually, the population started to grow. By

pooling ideas, controlling fire and inventing more

effective tools and weapons, they began to clear

patches of forest and have a bigger impact on the

wildlife around them.

Then, around 11,000 years ago, the Ice Age

finally ended. As the climate became less harsh,

some groups of people started to farm, burning

and hacking their way through more forest to

create their fields. Eventually, around 9,000 years

ago, the global population swelled to around 10

million (the same as Portugal today), and the first

cities appeared.

20

We barely noticed you back then!

Over the centuries, humans built

towering pyramids and mighty castles;

they formed religions; fought wars; used

sailing ships, carts, camels and mules to