It is of upmost importance for academia to promote interdisciplinary approaches to understand and support biodiversity, the variety of life on Earth as a whole and within smaller ecosystems. As we are now in or entering a crisis of mass extinction, discovering means to communicate what biodiversity is and why preservation is needed, especially when a means included spiritual justification…
Read MoreThere have always been extinctions of species occurring at a background rate of approximately one species disappearing every seven hundred years. A mass extinction event occurs when many species disappear within a short period of time, causing a considerable loss of global biodiversity, well above the background extinction rate. Today, Earth is experiencing, or is close to experiencing, a mass…
Read MoreWhile on my paddle board early one morning, a thick fog rolled in, limiting what I could see to what was within a few feet. Unable to orient myself to the sun or familiar landmarks, I drifted, uncertain where I was in the lake and in which direction I should paddle. As I waited for the fog to lift, I…
Read MoreWhile protecting large swaths of wildlife habitat is essential for conservation, those habitats are often intersected by urban and suburban areas. Small-scale rewilding projects on less than an acre of land, repeated throughout neighborhoods, are crucial for connecting habitats while providing benefits for wildlife and the humans who undertake them. This paper aims to make a case for rewilding in…
Read MoreUncertainty created by the global crises of climate change, environmental degradation, and biodiversity loss creates anxiety and challenges one’s ability to feel hopeful and to act to mitigate or solve those crises. This paper aims to position positive, nonviolent interactions with wildlife as opportunities to build the active hope required to address those global crises. The impact of hope on…
Read MoreWildlife rehabilitators and rescuers are partaking in intimate and transformative experiences with nonhuman animals regularly. They engage in perceptual reciprocity and cultivating personal ecosophies, and often act outside regulatory and social norms employed by government agencies and environmentalists to protect humans and nature from each other. This paper examines the unique relationships forged between wildlife rehabilitators and the animals in…
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