The Eight Freedoms of Farm Animal Wellbeing
Under the rubric of The Eight Freedoms farm animals are supported to live meaningful, happy, and long lives; they will have encounters that enrich their experience of living; they can enjoy expressing inborn behaviors and capacities; and they will feel safe with and cared for by their human companions, who call them by name, attend to their needs, treat them with affection, and shepherd them into becoming elders. Continue reading The Eight Freedoms of Farm Animal Wellbeing
Inside a song
Indeed, in a world where people are often mocked for expressing love or concern for the Earth, or where the constant racket of human activity stifles even the slightest urge to reflect, it becomes all the more important to speak up for nature. Continue reading Inside a song
WITNESS: Tiger magic
The Earth apex predators will revive will be vibrant, of habitable weather, a planet that will “pay us back” with knowledge, medicine, health, spiritual experience, aesthetic elation, and wisdom—the wisdom of understanding our place in nature’s order. Continue reading WITNESS: Tiger magic
The secret garden
Human supremacy sees with the eyes of nihilism, for nihilism (the profanation of existence) is the metaphysics of human supremacy. Continue reading The secret garden
WITNESS: Tales from the Sargasso Sea
Like everywhere on this planet, on the Sargasso life is attracted to life, electrified by curiosity, loving to feed life’s mirror neurons, ever in search of eating, mating, communicating, puttering around, resting, and playing. Continue reading WITNESS: Tales from the Sargasso Sea
The lie of the beholder
I live my life caught between conflicting impulses: on one hand, a wish to escape the shackles of human management; and, on the other, a reticence—out of ecological respect—to roam beyond its already-excessive bounds. Continue reading The lie of the beholder
Size of disappointment: Puzzles on the Moor
Three summers ago, I typed the words “most probably correct” in closing an Earth Tongues piece titled ‘Smiles and scowles: Puzzles in the Forest’. At that point, I felt that I had written all that I was ever going to on the subject of tourists experiencing curious English woodlands. But a recent encounter with an Italian couple, on a misty July morning, has set me penning this unexpected sequel. Continue reading Size of disappointment: Puzzles on the Moor
Just Save Perception
We need instead to cultivate the saving perception. This rests on the adoption of a non-reactionary sense of conservative gratitude for what we already have and what has come before us, including great artistic achievements. Continue reading Just Save Perception
Cloak and desecrate: The specter of deep-sea mining
The masterminds of deep-sea mining only deserve contempt. Indeed, I’m going to bypass decorum and say to the corporate-cum-political goons gearing up for more nature desecration: Your window dressing is repugnant and your actions worse. Continue reading Cloak and desecrate: The specter of deep-sea mining
Ecocentric thoughts on fishing
My ecocentric goals and touchstones (the thriving of all Earthlings, do least harm and love life and Gaia) are all severely violated by fishing. Continue reading Ecocentric thoughts on fishing
Why I am not going to consult AI
AI is the newfangled technological curveball that invites us to stop—and to resolve if we want to draw a line or to obey its summons. Continue reading Why I am not going to consult AI
Beware the Batesian rebel
The man’s pin bore the encircled hourglass that has been adopted as the symbol for Extinction Rebellion, and, being a rather passionate objector to species loss myself, I was eager to strike up a conversation. Continue reading Beware the Batesian rebel
Love, existence, and the nature of picture postcards
When you have the privilege of quietly observing these cold-blooded miracles going about their lives—when you watch them exist—the need to find any other justification for their being starts to ebb away. Continue reading Love, existence, and the nature of picture postcards
Open letter to Faroe Islanders: Please stop the slaughter of whales and dolphins
To massacre animals in this way is not what indigenous humans would do. On the contrary, the Grind is more akin to what Western vivisectionists did when they cut into living animals in the name of science. Faroe islanders do the same, under more turbulent, uncontrolled circumstances, in the name of tradition. Continue reading Open letter to Faroe Islanders: Please stop the slaughter of whales and dolphins
Go vegan!
Give your body over to the plants. They deliver magical micronutrients and purifying fiber. They deep-hydrate the body suffusing it with a quality of juiciness, which amounts to the gift of youthfulness regardless of biological years. Bypass meat-heavy dietary fads: such eating will stiffen and dry you into old age. Continue reading Go vegan!
Four seasons in Kiev
It was in the late 2000s that my son bought an old abandoned house in rural Ukraine, some 150 km from Kyiv. Unfortunately, we could not afford to buy something closer to the city; and we were seeking something “wild”. Continue reading Four seasons in Kiev
Ecocide – a religious (but non-Christian) view
Is nature sacred? If so in what way, and what difference does it make? Continue reading Ecocide – a religious (but non-Christian) view
Are humans part of, or apart from, nature?
The dominant human is apart from nature and in centrifugal acceleration away from it—as human supremacy, oblivious to its self-reification, propels the world with giddy abandon toward terra incognita. Continue reading Are humans part of, or apart from, nature?
Abandoned and beautiful: A sketch of pre-war visits to an old rural house in Ukraine
It was in the late 2000s that my son bought an old abandoned house in rural Ukraine, some 150 km from Kyiv. Unfortunately, we could not afford to buy something closer to the city; and we were seeking something “wild”. Continue reading Abandoned and beautiful: A sketch of pre-war visits to an old rural house in Ukraine
Now live: Rewilding Successes
As a new initiative from The Ecological Citizen, Rewilding Successes has been launched to bring readers inspiring stories about nature’s rebounding from all corners of the Earth. Continue reading Now live: Rewilding Successes
WITNESS: The dissipation of wildness (a personal experience)
It was shortly after the winter solstice, eight years ago, when I did something that I had done nothing quite like before. Triggered by the cresting of a claustrophobia that had been growing for a decade-and-a-half, from the time I left my childhood home below the dark woods of a place named Dancing Green, it began with me shifting a sofa and an armchair tight against my living room wall and sliding an oak dining table across the carpet and into a corner. Continue reading WITNESS: The dissipation of wildness (a personal experience)
Inconveniences at the farmers’ market
A few days ago, in London, I was strolling along a nondescript stretch of pavement, in the direction of a farmers’ market, when I hit my head on the branch of a tree. It was one of those collisions where you find yourself poking at the point of contact in expectation of blood and other subcutaneous leakage Continue reading Inconveniences at the farmers’ market
Bare-faced forestry
Sated with nature’s wonders, I find an unwelcome thought returning, and I reluctantly begin to turn the focus-wheel clockwise as I lift my binoculars to the opposite shore. There it is: the ghastly sight of a recent hillside clear-cut. The devastation is obvious without the aid of magnification. Continue reading Bare-faced forestry
The death of Freya
Let’s not indulge in euphemism. Freya was a living mammal like us, who wanted to live. What you ordered was not euthanasia but a killing, or a murder. Continue reading The death of Freya
Don’t lose heart
It is said we are made of stardust. Perhaps that’s where accomplished meditators return. The rest of us may more easily return to what we’re made of by contemplating the first lifeform that emerged: the Archetype, which literally means “the first form.” Continue reading Don’t lose heart
What change? Whose reconciliation?
On Friday 22nd April, an unusual ceremony took place in Winnipeg, Canada. Represented by its governor, the Hudson’s Bay Company gave its massive retail store in the heart of downtown Winnipeg, dating from 1881, to the Manitoba First Nations. Continue reading What change? Whose reconciliation?
Demonic war
Our call: Love all, no more war on nature, nonhuman and human. Embracing peaceful coexistence heralds humanity’s return to our Earthling nature, our authentic identity. Continue reading Demonic war
A knowledge for thirst: Water, empathy, and kinship
Let me recount this short tale—a thin slice from my recent life—exactly as it happened. On a warm afternoon earlier this month, outside an old inn that overlooks an east-coast estuary and that was once owned by a prolific persecutor of witches, I met a recent immigrant to the British Isles. Continue reading A knowledge for thirst: Water, empathy, and kinship
A liberté without freedom, an égalité devoid of fairness, and a fraternité blind to kinship: Life as a bird in France
Despite strong public opposition in France, hunting’s ever-thinning guise of heritage still remains robust enough to satisfy many politicians. Emmanuel Macron, the President, claims to be serious about biodiversity but is an advocate of the suite of barbaric practices that make up this tradition. Continue reading A liberté without freedom, an égalité devoid of fairness, and a fraternité blind to kinship: Life as a bird in France
Ecocentric thoughts on whaling
It is obvious that humanity’s treatment of whale people constitutes an atrocity. This includes the deliberate murder of a so-called hunt, the quasi-deliberate murder of negligence, the effective murder of habitat destruction, or the oblivious murder of the unthinking. Continue reading Ecocentric thoughts on whaling
The discourse of COVID vaccination and the sovereign technological fix
How did we as a humanity lose touch with what is the most precious thing of all—our home planet and our relationship with it? How could we (let) unwind the breathtaking beauty of this Earth, the onetime gift of a living planet, and our love for our Earthling kin? Continue reading The discourse of COVID vaccination and the sovereign technological fix
Four weeks of solitude
Once you cut yourself off from media and start living as a recluse interesting things happen. Continue reading Four weeks of solitude
Beneath the birch and pine: Prelude to a series
This is the first post in a category titled ‘Beneath the birch and pine’. The uniting theme for this series—beyond the writer’s nature-centred standpoint—will be the inspiration that each piece finds in some aspect of life in the Scottish Highlands. Continue reading Beneath the birch and pine: Prelude to a series
Broken mirror
The real way forward, away from suffering and toward hope, lies in denouncing the root cause of our predicament, the human-supremacy story, the destructive platitude of human specialness. Continue reading Broken mirror
Four frameworks for Agroecology
We must make food in harmony and collaboration with nature: healing for the planet, replenishing soils, with kindness to animals and reverence to plants, wholesome and available to all people. That is the way of Agroecology. Continue reading Four frameworks for Agroecology
Technoscepticism and the machine-proof Muir
As someone with serious misgivings about many technological ‘advances’, I do find there to be something oddly amusing in the resilience of the QWERTY keyboard. Continue reading Technoscepticism and the machine-proof Muir
Smiles and scowles: Puzzles in the Forest
Near the southern end of the modern border between Wales and England – on the side of the latter – the sea-seeking River Wye and the Severn Estuary provide the aquatic outline for a curious wedge of land. Continue reading Smiles and scowles: Puzzles in the Forest
Earthling (we/us)
Earth keepers call out to one and all to opt out of the sociocultural identity game, to choose freedom from anthropocentric herd costumes that furnish simulacra of reality for a sleepwalking, and now moribund, existence. Continue reading Earthling (we/us)
Hunting: A personal ecocentric view
Slowly, over the years, intimate knowledge has allowed me to realize all wild lives are significant, and while sometimes enormously different from mine, they are not inferior. Continue reading Hunting: A personal ecocentric view
Shutter the factory farms
At first glance, it may strike us as odd that human food is made from the suffering and torture of animals. But it’s the fact that it is not odd that should command our attention. Continue reading Shutter the factory farms
Changing the world by re-discovering your story
Four years ago, I made an alarming observation that completely changed my game plan as a young organizer. I decided to use the power of story, word, and intention to confront a dominant narrative that defies the natural laws that govern life on Earth. Continue reading Changing the world by re-discovering your story
Grace versus dystopia
Earth is a place of exquisite vitality pervaded by the mystery of awareness. It is being catastrophically impoverished. Artificial intelligence will not bring back what is vanishing, nor replace it. If you wish to know transcendence, forget the machine. Look for an octopus teacher. Continue reading Grace versus dystopia
Reversing environmental racism
The term environmental racism refers to the way in which the neighborhoods of disadvantaged socioeconomic groups are disproportionately burdened with the negative effects of environmental exploitation. Continue reading Reversing environmental racism
Reversing ecofascism
The term ecofascism is often defined as “a totalitarian government that requires individuals to sacrifice their interests to the well-being of environment.” In the alternative conception, ecofascism applies to murdering environmental activists, and ignoring the slaughter and suffering of billions of nonhuman living beings. Continue reading Reversing ecofascism
The poverty of identity politics
Considered ecocentrically, identity politics and exclusive social justice activism have serious flaws. They include encouraging destructive human narcissism, a stunted range of ethical sympathy, and a disregard for a healthy natural world as the precondition for any politics at all. Continue reading The poverty of identity politics
On rational and sacred ground
Do people actually believe that humanity can cause a mass extinction and there will be no consequences? I am not talking only about consequences for human physical well-being, which will be numerous. I am talking about an everlasting legacy of sorrow to human posterity. Continue reading On rational and sacred ground
The ethics of mothing
One night years ago, in a park in Florida, I met a wonderful couple, Carol Wolf and her husband, Herb. They introduced me to the joys of mothing, the practice of attracting moths to suspended sheets with ultraviolet lights at night, and photographing them. This can get quite exciting, especially when a new, or unusually beautiful, species turns up. Continue reading The ethics of mothing
Making my decisions – do least harm
It seems obvious to me that my first principle should be to try to consider the effect of my every decision on all other life forms at both the individual and species levels. Continue reading Making my decisions – do least harm
The zebras of Kidderminster
In a grand revival of natural history lies a significant proportion of the work that needs to be done if humanity is to awaken to the appalling crisis of life’s erasure. Continue reading The zebras of Kidderminster
Before midnight
Even as the existential threats of mass extinction and climate upheaval are gathering intensity and becoming increasingly inescapable, the world’s superpowers and many other nation-states, in alignment with the corporate-industrial sector, are busy adding insult to injury. Continue reading Before midnight
Earth Tongues 