Rewilding

Ecology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meredith Root-Bernstein

Rewilding is an increasingly recognized approach to conservation and restoration, among academics, land managers, and the public. Although a number of different definitions have been proposed for rewilding (see Definitions of Rewilding), most approaches called “rewilding” include ideas about restoring a habitat to a less-anthropogenic state, restoring ecological processes and allowing them to take their own course without managing for a target ecosystem condition and (re)-introducing missing (usually large) species as a way to restore those ecological processes. Conceptualizations of rewilding and actual rewilding projects draw on a wide range of cultural and ecological ideas and practical knowledge, which are detailed in this article. Several organizations now represent rewilding interests to policymakers and the public and set up or facilitate rewilding initiatives in Europe and the Americas. Much of their philosophies, practice, data, and outcomes are not published. The Wildland Research Institute is an influential source of research on wilderness mapping, rewilding, restoration, and policy analysis in Europe. The European Centre for Nature Conservation (ECNC) supports and facilitates the conservation of large herbivore populations and their habitats at large scales in Eurasia through its Large Herbivore Network. Rewilding Europe implements rewilding projects throughout Europe, bringing together financing for large herbivore reintroductions and luxury wilderness tourism. Their European Rewilding Network brings together rewilding-related services and knowledge exchange. Similarly, the True Nature Foundation is a European foundation that works to restore habitats, reintroduce primarily large herbivores, and create sustainable tourism in nature areas. Wild Europe seeks to promote and lobby for the protection of large, “wild” natural areas. Similarly, the European Wilderness Society is an advocacy organization that identifies and promotes the stewardship and protection of large wilderness areas. The Rewilding Foundation is an international organization promoting and working toward the conservation of large areas of habitat and corridors for large carnivores. The Wildlands Network is an American organization that similarly seeks to conserve and connect large habitat areas and reintroduce apex predators. The Rewilding Institute in the United States also promotes protecting large habitats and creating corridors for large carnivores. There are also numerous site-based rewilding projects, which largely preceded the consolidation of rewilding as a concept. Many of these, through their creative rethinking of ecological and paleo-ecological orthodoxy, have influenced the development of rewilding practice and theory.

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. e1400103 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Ripple ◽  
Thomas M. Newsome ◽  
Christopher Wolf ◽  
Rodolfo Dirzo ◽  
Kristoffer T. Everatt ◽  
...  

Large wild herbivores are crucial to ecosystems and human societies. We highlight the 74 largest terrestrial herbivore species on Earth (body mass ≥100 kg), the threats they face, their important and often overlooked ecosystem effects, and the conservation efforts needed to save them and their predators from extinction. Large herbivores are generally facing dramatic population declines and range contractions, such that ~60% are threatened with extinction. Nearly all threatened species are in developing countries, where major threats include hunting, land-use change, and resource depression by livestock. Loss of large herbivores can have cascading effects on other species including large carnivores, scavengers, mesoherbivores, small mammals, and ecological processes involving vegetation, hydrology, nutrient cycling, and fire regimes. The rate of large herbivore decline suggests that ever-larger swaths of the world will soon lack many of the vital ecological services these animals provide, resulting in enormous ecological and social costs.


1973 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
H. G. Nicholas

Elections satisfy both the practical and the theoretical requirements of classical democratic theory if they answer one question only: Who shall rule? Judged by this test the American elections of 7 November 1972 returned as clear and unequivocal an answer as the United States Constitution permits – crystal-clear as to individuals, equivocal as to parties and political forces. But the student of politics and society cannot resist treating elections as data-gathering devices on a wide range of other questions, on the state of the public mind, on the relative potency of pressure groups, on the internal health of the political parties, and, of course, on the shape of things to come. In this ancillary role American elections, despite the generous wealth of statistical material which they throw up – so much more detailed and categorized (though often less precise) than our own – Suffer in most years from one severe limitation, a limitation which in 1972 was particularly conspicuous; they do not engage the interest of more than a moderate percentage of the American citizenry. In 1972 that percentage was as low as 55 per cent, i.e. out of an estimated eligible population of 139,642,000 only 77,000,000 went to the polls. Since this circumscribes the conclusions which can be drawn from the results themselves, as well as constituting a phenomenon of considerable intrinsic interest, it seems worthwhile to begin any examination of the 1972 elections by an analysis not of the votes counted but of those which were never cast.


2021 ◽  
pp. 121-137
Author(s):  
Sandro Galea

This chapter evaluates the central role of compassion in preventing the contagion next time. During COVID-19, compassion revealed just how many people in the United States are deeply vulnerable to poor health. This vulnerability was often a product of underlying health conditions. There are many health challenges in the United States which annually generate a level of mortality comparable to that of COVID-19, challenges like obesity and addiction. However, America have not addressed these challenges with anywhere near the level of urgency they brought to bear in addressing COVID-19. A key reason why is, arguably, because these challenges are not infectious, making it possible for the public at large to escape the visceral feeling of vulnerability to a disease which transmits through the air and can strike anybody. Instead, they see these challenges somehow as niche issues, the niche being the lives of the marginalized and disadvantaged groups. This outlook allows them to evade the feeling of common humanity which gives rise to compassion. Compassion, then, depends on the understanding of the true nature of health and of the shared vulnerability to disease.


2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
HSIN-HUANG MICHAEL HSIAO ◽  
PO-SAN WAN ◽  
TIMOTHY KA-YING WONG

AbstractGlobalization has led to a redefinition of the functions and roles of the state. Based on data drawn from a cross-national social survey, this article examines the influences of globalization on the public's attitudes towards their state in Australia, China, India, Japan, Russia, and the United States, by focusing on satisfaction with government performance and demands on the government. The six countries differ extensively in their sociopolitical and technological situations, as well as in the experiences of their people with globalization in terms of the following aspects: connectivity with the world through personal ties and digital means, English language capacity, and support for the forces of globalization. There are also huge disparities in the public rankings of government performance and demands for expanding government spending in a wide range of policy areas. Our analysis reveals that, although both intra- and inter-country variations in the influences of globalization on public attitudes towards the state are not particularly prominent, those who support globalization not only are more inclined than others to be satisfied with the government's performance, but also demand more government intervention.


Author(s):  
David Vogel

This chapter explores some of the broader implications of studying the dynamics of policy convergence and divergence, the relationship between political institutions and policy styles, and the public perception of risks. The extensive literature on policy convergence addresses two issues: the extent of policy convergence and direction of policy convergence. A second body of literature addresses the impact of convergence on the direction of public policy. Much of this literature focuses on the impact of increased economic integration and global competition on the stringency of environmental regulation. The fact that both the United States and the EU have adopted a wide range of comprehensive consumer and environmental regulations suggests that powerful political and economic states enjoy substantial discretion in responding to domestic pressures for more stringent consumer and environmental regulations.


Author(s):  
Gianni Pirelli

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview intended to summarize essential introductory information to help the reader consume the material provided throughout the remainder of the book. First, the authors review the history of firearms across numerous contexts, including military, law enforcement, corrections, civilian, and pop culture. They then outline the available statistics from various sources related to firearm ownership and use in the United States, as well as provide comparisons across states. Next, they set forth important foundational information about firearms. They then address issues related to the public sentiment and attitudes toward firearms, gun control, and related concepts. Finally, they review a wide range of Second Amendment and other firearm-related groups, including gun control, gun violence prevention, and antigun groups.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 298-301
Author(s):  
Sarah Smith ◽  
Beth Frates

The popularity of yoga in the United States and across the globe has been steadily increasing over the past several decades. The interest in yoga as a therapeutic lifestyle tool has also grown within the medical community during this time. However, the wide range of styles available to the public can make it difficult for patients and physicians alike to choose the one that will offer the most benefit. This guide was created to assist physicians in making informed recommendations for patients practicing yoga in the community. When the most suitable style is selected, yoga can be an extremely useful lifestyle tool for patients seeking to improve fitness and develop a mindfulness-based practice.


2022 ◽  
pp. 016555152110681
Author(s):  
Truong (Jack) P Luu ◽  
Rosangela Follmann

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues to have devastating effects across the globe. No nation has been free from the uncertainty brought by this pandemic. The health, social and economic tolls associated with it are causing strong emotions and spreading fear in people of all ages, genders and races. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many have expressed their feelings and opinions related to a wide range of aspects of their lives via Twitter. In this study, we consider a framework for extracting sentiment scores and opinions from COVID-19–related tweets. We connect users’ sentiment with COVID-19 cases across the United States and investigate the effect of specific COVID-19 milestones on public sentiment. The results of this work may help with the development of pandemic-related legislation, serve as a guide for scientific work, as well as inform and educate the public on core issues related to the pandemic.


Author(s):  
Tim Rutherford-Johnson

By the start of the 21st century many of the foundations of postwar culture had disappeared: Europe had been rebuilt and, as the EU, had become one of the world’s largest economies; the United States’ claim to global dominance was threatened; and the postwar social democratic consensus was being replaced by market-led neoliberalism. Most importantly of all, the Cold War was over, and the World Wide Web had been born. Music After The Fall considers contemporary musical composition against this changed backdrop, placing it in the context of globalization, digitization, and new media. Drawing on theories from the other arts, in particular art and architecture, it expands the definition of Western art music to include forms of composition, experimental music, sound art, and crossover work from across the spectrum, inside and beyond the concert hall. Each chapter considers a wide range of composers, performers, works, and institutions are considered critically to build up a broad and rich picture of the new music ecosystem, from North American string quartets to Lebanese improvisers, from South American electroacoustic studios to pianos in the Australian outback. A new approach to the study of contemporary music is developed that relies less on taxonomies of style and technique, and more on the comparison of different responses to common themes, among them permission, fluidity, excess, and loss.


Author(s):  
Kathryn A. Sloan

Popular culture has long conflated Mexico with the macabre. Some persuasive intellectuals argue that Mexicans have a special relationship with death, formed in the crucible of their hybrid Aztec-European heritage. Death is their intimate friend; death is mocked and accepted with irony and fatalistic abandon. The commonplace nature of death desensitizes Mexicans to suffering. Death, simply put, defines Mexico. There must have been historical actors who looked away from human misery, but to essentialize a diverse group of people as possessing a unique death cult delights those who want to see the exotic in Mexico or distinguish that society from its peers. Examining tragic and untimely death—namely self-annihilation—reveals a counter narrative. What could be more chilling than suicide, especially the violent death of the young? What desperation or madness pushed the victim to raise the gun to the temple or slip the noose around the neck? A close examination of a wide range of twentieth-century historical documents proves that Mexicans did not accept death with a cavalier chuckle nor develop a unique death cult, for that matter. Quite the reverse, Mexicans behaved just as their contemporaries did in Austria, France, England, and the United States. They devoted scientific inquiry to the malady and mourned the loss of each life to suicide.


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