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1-Page Summary of Feral

Overview

When was the last time you were exposed to nature? Perhaps you went for a walk in a park or visited botanical gardens. However, those green areas are artificial creations. True nature is wild and feral.

Now, ask yourself again: when was the last time you were truly in nature and felt inspired by your surroundings? When were you last really in wilderness?

For author George Monbiot, there are real, tangible benefits to making countries wild again. It will have a positive impact on the local ecosystem and it’s something that humans need as well. There are lessons we can learn from this idea that can be applied globally.

Let’s get a little crazy.

In this pack, you’ll learn about the different types of British fish that shouldn’t be touched and how children interacted with nature 1,000 years ago. You’ll also learn why a thick carpet of bluebells is bad for the forest.

Big Idea #1: Gold mining in the Brazilian rainforest endangers the environment and harms indigenous tribes.

The author will make some bold claims about the environment. He knows that he needs to give a little background information first, though. Monbiot was sent to Brazil in 1989 by an environmental organization and saw firsthand how mining companies were destroying the Amazon rainforest.

There was a lot of violence in South Africa at the time. Over 1,500 miners were killed during confrontations with gold-supply companies and other mining companies.

But the indigenous Yanomami suffered as well. They were not immune to diseases brought by miners, and many died from them. The miners also shot some of the tribesmen, and they destroyed several villages.

The author was intrigued by the Yanomami tribe and appalled at how they were treated. He went searching for them, but it took a long time to find them because of the jungle terrain. Once he did locate their village, he discovered that they lived in traditional round houses called malocas made from palm leaves.

As many of the elders had died or been killed, an 18-year old boy took on the role of village chief. There were a lot of sick people who needed help, so the author and others worked to fix roofs and provide other forms of assistance.

However, the Yanomami tribe couldn’t be protected from this. Despite international calls for protection, their population dwindled by 20 percent during the gold rush.

Big Idea #2: The indigenous way of life can be enticing for those brought up in the West.

The author has had many experiences with indigenous people. In 1992, he traveled to Kenya and met a Maasai warrior named Toronkei. He was surprised at how different their lives were from what he was used to in the West. For example, they made decisions quickly without overthinking them like most Westerners do. One day Toronkei decided on a whim to run 35 miles just because his friend lived there and that’s where he wanted to go for the day. The next thing you know, he eloped with a woman whom he met along the way!

However, on their way out of the woman’s village, they accidentally stirred some sleeping dogs. This caused her brothers to wake up and follow them. They caught up with the couple and implored her to return home with them. However, she refused; she married soon afterwards. The author was jealous when he heard about this romance and elopement because he saw how much stronger their relationship was than his own Western life which lacked spontaneity. And many other people felt this way back then too; in fact Benjamin Franklin thought that Europeans who were taken prisoner by native Americans often became acclimatized to that culture after living among them for a while, so few wanted to go back to European culture once they had experienced it first-hand. Some white Americans even willingly “defected” from colonialist society into indigenous American communities.