Nov 10, 2025
“The climate crisis is tied to the ways fossil fuels are baked into our lives, belongings, and occupations. It thrives on how our fractured societies justify the mistreatment of ourselves and our resources.” —Extinction Rebellion Scientists are raising the alarm that the global impact of humanity’s relentless push against Nature’s integrity will drive our species over the precipice as is already happening for many of the other life forms. The famed biologist E.O. Wilson put it succinctly: “The human impact on biodiversity…is an attack on ourselves.” He expressed doubt that humans would survive for more than a few months if we continue to eradicate our insect populations. We are afraid of insects and unwarrantedly pesticide them to death, but love the honey that bees provide us with. Although Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring became the launchpad for action against the destruction of Nature through the use of pesticides 60-plus years ago, her book is not considered mandatory reading in schools and might even be part of the ritual of book prohibitions that festers throughout many US school systems. At the same time, herbicides and pesticides are an ever-increasing multi-billion-dollar ecocidal industry. Is it any wonder that the well-known word “Anthropocene,” which denotes the predatory ascent of humans over all ecological systems as well as our climate through industrial society’s commodification of Nature, is now joined by other words that describe humanity’s destructive preoccupation since the Holocene? Increasingly Wilson’s term “Eremocene” (the age of loneliness) fits our predicament, as humankind over this century sends thousands of species to their extinction, leaving us with far fewer fellow Earthly creatures and ultimately leading to our doom. The Plantationocene speaks of the runaway colonization of the planet’s forests, such as in the Amazon for industrial cattle farming or expanding agribusinesses for soya bean production, in Indonesia for palm oil monoculture, or in Canada’s boreal forests, which have been converted into the enormous polluter that is the Alberta tar sands. In fact, for many historians the word “civilization” can no longer characterize or be the narrator of a shift away from mindless obsessed capitalism, as civilization and colonialism have been inextricably linked for too long and there are too many negative consequences associated with both. Then there is the Pyrocene: the age of unstoppable wildfires unquestionably caused by fossil fuels. The list goes on. Our epoch has created the age of solastalgia, which is a homesickness that permeates societies without our leaving our homes: the memories of a better place where we have lived. “Solastalgia” describes a dread for where our beloved local spaces will eventually rupture to, or, even more encompassing, for the slow untangling fate of the Earth’s biosphere. Glenn Albrecht, writing in The Conversation, warned: “Either we face a pandemic of solastalgia and related negative psychoterratic syndromes as a result of the havoc created by unsustainable development and climate change, or we use our intelligence and creativity to give rise to a world where our positive psychoterratic emotions can thrive.” https://tinyurl.com/home-anxiety The word “psychoterratic” joins two ideas: “psyche,”
Nov 10, 2025
“The truth is that we have failed to avoid an overshooting above 1.5C in the next few years. And that going above 1.5C has devastating consequences. Some of these devastating consequences are tipping points, be it in the Amazon, be it in Greenland, or western Antarctica or the coral reefs.”—António Guterres, UN Secretary General By bluntly stating what is at stake prior to the UN conference on climate change, and the failure of the Paris 2015 conference’s aspiration to stop a global temperature rise of 1.5 Celsius, António Guterres is publicly demanding that next week’s gathering of nations in Belém, Brazil vigorously negotiate in good faith to curb further lapses of climate action. This will not be easily achieved, particularly since billionaire Bill Gates recently threw a wrench into COP30 negotiations by declaring that while climate concerns are real, the world should—bizarrely—separate the impact of climate realities such as intensified droughts and floods from ongoing work that raises the levels of health and overall economic prosperity of the poorest people. Climate-carbon mitigation technology will come in due time, Gates proclaimed. Suggesting that we must choose either climate programmes or poverty alleviation is a false dichotomy. Gates says, “Our chief goal should be to prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions who live in the world’s poorest countries.” Has he not watched with horror what has happened to the Caribbean island of Jamaica as a consequence of Hurricane Melissa and rising ocean temperatures, or Vietnam receiving 5 feet of rain recently in 24 hours? Health is directly impacted by climate. Gates’ term “Green Premium” means, in his own words, “the difference in cost between a product that involves emitting carbon and an alternative that doesn’t.” To bring that premium to zero, as for example electric vehicles costing the same as internal combustion vehicles and thus eliminating the extra cost—the “green premium”—of buying an electric one, will initiate a far better prospect for climate stability because the electric car pollutes far less. Until that happens, self-proclaimed “climate activist” Gates believes we must prioritize general poverty issues and cool our heels until green technology costs the same as the old fossil fuel technologies. He says, “This is a chance to refocus on the metric that should count even more than emissions and temperature change: improving lives… But remember that climate change is not the biggest threat to the lives and livelihoods of people in poor countries, and it won’t be in the future.” https://www.gatesnotes.com/ Yet the opposite is true: it is precisely the unprecedented temperature increase in the last 100 years that is preventing people in the poorest countries from transitioning to a better future. Colonialism’s handmaiden, fossil fuel, frustrates people’s aspirations for a just society. The Guardian newspaper covers climate regularly and reported recently on a study from respected medical journal The Lancet: “Rising global heat is now killing one person a minute around the world, a major report on the health impact of the climate crisis has revealed. It
Sep 28, 2025
“If we truly put a value on biodiversity, we would live in a really, really different world.”—Clover Hogan, youth climate activist and founder of Force of Nature “Azzam Alwash’s stubborn persistence that proved experts wrong is needed everywhere, he believes. For our civilization to continue—if not our very existence—will demand vision that transcends conventional wisdom and boundaries.” —Alan Weisman A blue jay’s wing feather is a remarkable sight. Finding one and using it as a bookmark for Alan Weisman’s new book, Hope Dies Last: Visionary People Across the World, Fighting to Find Us a Future, I was taken aback by its subtle blue and black pattern of colours that end with a flourish of striking white. Of course, countless animals have such odes to beauty, but this feather is one more proof of the inexhaustible creativity found throughout the natural world. Yet most humans fail to celebrate the stunning imagination of Nature, and indeed many have a reckless disregard for it. Fortunately, others are working tirelessly to give Nature the help it needs. One such person is Azzam Alwash, who won the Goldman Environmental Prize for his invaluable contribution with other community members to bring back the fabled Mesopotamian Marshes in southern Iraq after Saddam Hussein diverted the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in his bid to destroy the enemies he believed were hiding in the marshes. This happened in 1993, and 20 years later, after an ecocide that seemed irreversible, Alwash’s headstrong commitment to replenish the Middle East’s largest wetland had already begun to bring back the impossible: water flowed once more, and to everyone’s astonishment myriad forms of life re-emerged. Many years previously I had read Wilfred Thesiger’s fabulous book The Marsh Arabs, which speaks so passionately about life in the Mesopotamian Marshes, so I was particularly interested in learning about the area’s resilience to the ecocide. Another Earth hero, Rob Hopkins, a cofounder of the Transition Network, has striven to protect communities around the world that are threatened by climate breakdown caused by the burning of fossil fuels, by bringing people into community groups that provide inspiration to succeed locally. I have witnessed first-hand how these groups are able to make huge contributions to community involvement and resilience. Hopkins’ recent work focussing on the vital role of imagination to make our world truly a place of celebration is also an inspiration for many. https://transitionnetwork.org/ An extraordinary endeavour to bring before the world the plight of animals was initiated this year by THE HERDS. Setting out from Kinshasa, DRC in April to walk the 20,000km to the Arctic Circle with life-size articulated sculptured figures that mimic real animals in both appearance and mannerisms, the participants engaged thousands of people in an invigorating conversation and educational project. The work continues with Let the Wildness in, THE HERDS’ dynamic interactive education programme “designed to connect young minds with the wonders of Nature and the urgent need for climate action.” Visiting many diverse habitats, it takes students on “a journey through the world’s ecosystems, exploring the wildlife, challenges,
Jul 30, 2025
“Nature has a lot to say, and it has long been time for us, her children, to stop playing deaf.” —Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist Since 1989, UN World Population Day on July 11 has been an occasion to contemplate how humans can work together to forge a more just society. Earth’s 8.2 billion people must come together as never before to create an equitable planetary peace—a treaty, if you will—with all of Nature’s inhabitants. The world’s approximately 476 million Indigenous people are critical partners in that rising consciousness. They manage or hold tenure rights to approximately a quarter of the world’s surface area, accounting for a significant portion of the world’s biodiversity, nearly half of the protected areas, and over half of the remaining intact forests. Despite their vital role in conservation, Indigenous people experience disproportionately high levels of poverty. It is also not uncommon for Indigenous groups to bear the brunt of toxins and elevated air pollution. As is the case for many marginalized people, toxic industries can be found close by. For decades the Aamjiwnaang First Nation community in Ontario’s Sarina “chemical valley” has been subjected to emissions of the carcinogen benzene from the INEOS Styrolution petrochemical plant, despite the Ontario government’s acknowledgement of the dangers present. Sulphur dioxide is also a problem in Sarnia, because it irritates the human respiratory system. Environmental racism is a curse that visits groups of people who are vulnerable to the vagaries of justice. tinyurl.com/sarnia-pollution Rights of Nature first came into focus with Christopher Stone’s Should Trees Have Standing? Towards Legal Rights for Natural Objects, published in 1972. He wrote: “Each time there is a movement to confer rights onto some new ‘entity,’ the proposal is bound to sound odd or frightening or laughable. This is partly because until the rightless thing receives its rights, we cannot see it as anything but a thing for the use of ‘us’—those who are holding rights at the time.” You can read this groundbreaking essay at tinyurl.com/trees-have-rights Robert Macfarlane’s recent book Is a River Alive? was born from the 50-year debate described in Stone’s essay, but it finds affinity with deeply rooted legal, scientific, poetic and both Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural stances—the bedrock of inspiration that encouraged him to write. Macfarlane’s undeniable passion and conviction bring Nature’s obvious centrality and necessary inclusivity into all primordial human relationships. Is a River Alive? is unquestionably a book we should all savour. One of the areas Macfarlane visits is Ecuador, which, along with Colombia, has the world’s greatest biodiversity. In one section of the book he describes the process whereby Ecuador’s constitution incorporated a Rights of Nature manifesto, through which Indigenous people have been successful in pushing back the oil and mining companies’ rapacious appetite for destroying the country’s most biodiverse areas. including cloud forests such as the area known as Los Cedros. Two of the judges who enabled the transformation of the Ecuadorian constitution into a pro-Nature legal document accompanied Macfarlane on his journey to the headwaters of the Los Cedros river system. Elsewhere in the book,
Jul 30, 2025
“The ocean is the cornerstone of Earth’s support system. It shapes climate and weather. It holds the key to our future.” —Sylvia Earle, marine biologist and oceanographer “We need to stop toxic chemical, plastic, and partially combusted carbon pollution now. Along with ocean acidification, nothing else really matters.” —GOES Foundation To celebrate World Ocean Day on June 8, here are 13 wonderful photos that will entice you to care about protecting our ocean: https://tinyurl.com/13-photos These images are an inspiration for people to do more for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), but in reality most of these areas are only protected on paper. The goal set out at the biodiversity COP15 in Montreal in 2022 and eventually agreed by 188 nations is to protect 30 percent of the ocean by 2030, but little progress has been made and indeed some of the larger areas deemed under protection are still subject to commercial fishing and proposed mining. https://tinyurl.com/marine-unprotected The reduced protections in the US, which has abandoned MPAs under the Trump administration, have made the likelihood of achieving the goal even slimmer. https://therevelator.org/trump-marine-protection Eighty percent of the planet’s biodiversity is found in the ocean. Scientists have so far identified 250,000 marine species but estimate that this covers only two-thirds of the life that exists there. More than half the oxygen production for Earth originates in the ocean. Yet humanity continues to orchestrate the ocean’s demise, even though 3 billion people depend on the ocean for their survival and livelihood. The ocean is a huge carbon sink, but the constant rise in greenhouse gas emissions is acidifying the water and making it difficult to absorb and sequester all the carbon. The ocean also soaks up about 90% of the excess heat generated by climate breakdown. The rise in temperature is already pushing the great coral reefs to their limit of tolerance and are threatening fish with extinction. Many fish are moving further north to escape this and lower oxygen levels. Predators don’t necessarily follow the migrating fish, and the fine balance that defines biodiversity is interrupted. And what happens to all the marine species who are unable to move to escape their drastically changing environment? Every year 11 million tonnes of plastic find their way into the ocean and have now reached even the deepest trenches, polluting the seas from the Arctic to the Antarctic and every species of marine wildlife, and thus entering the food chain on which billions of humans depend. These plastics include lost and abandoned fishing lines and nets, which entangle creatures from seabirds to giant whales. https://tinyurl.com/ocean-planetary The rapid melting of sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic is of critical concern as sea level rises threaten so many coastal communities. Small island states are now in jeopardy of disappearing entirely. Furthermore, a warming ocean fuels stronger hurricanes that bring more heavy rainfall and higher storm surge when they make landfall. The Copernicus Ocean State Report lays out the multi-level crises that now plague the global ocean. https://tinyurl.com/ocean-report One of the greatest threats to
May 27, 2025
If you are old enough, you may remember the first time you touched a plastic bag or miraculously discovered that the shampoo bottle could bounce off the floor and not cause a mess by breaking like a glass one would. When I was a child, the reason why plastic shopping bags caught my interest was that their texture was so different from the familiar paper ones. Little did I realize that plastic would take over food packaging, and then take over the ocean, rivers and our bodies, including our brains. Plastics are indestructible, and our babies are being born pre-polluted. Microplastic bioaccumulation in the human placenta has been linked to premature births. “Plastic is an essential piece of the unravelling of our human existence,” says professor of paediatrics Leo Trasande in The Plastic Crisis: A Health and Environmental Emergency, a podcast conversation with three highly knowledgeable people who know what plastics are doing to our world. https://tinyurl.com/plastics-conversation An alarming statement, and the unravelling includes climate/biodiversity careening towards chaos because of the chemicals and fossil fuels that go into plastics. Consider that fewer than 20% of these chemicals have been investigated to understand their health implications. During The Big Plastic Count (https://thebigplasticcount.com), an estimated 1.7 billion pieces of plastic were thrown away in the UK in one week in March 2024. The most widely discarded were soft plastic from snacks and from fresh fruit and vegetables. Canada’s not doing any better. Want to give up single-use plastics in your life for a month? An interesting and frustrating story emerges. Here is what happened to one journalist who tried it: https://tinyurl.com/cut-out-plastics In many cases there appears to be currently no easy alternative. A partial solution is for governments to tax plastics and put into legislation the tools to steer an addicted public away from buying plastic-shrouded goods. Almost two decades ago a small island in the Caribbean was forced to give up glass bottles for plastic ones if they were to continue to drink a favourite beverage. People on the island were upset and tried get the government to refuse to accept the plastic bottles; the glass ones, which could be returned and a deposit refunded, could be used countless times—and most importantly they didn’t contribute to waste, which as you can imagine is a problem on an island. These local citizens didn’t succeed, in part because the government did not encourage public discussion. It was determined that it was a financially unacceptable burden on the beverage industry to clean and refill the glass bottles. Profit is everything, and who cares where the plastic bottles end up? Most plastic is made from oil, and the oil industry has little incentive to clean up after itself. To placate the public’s sense of outrage, a virtually symbolic paltry fine is imposed by governments hell bent on not disturbing the oil companies’ lobbying machinery, which ultimately funds political campaigns. Plastic waste ranging from toothpaste tubes to deodorant containers is exported to Java, Indonesia, to name just one country, where bakeries and street
May 8, 2025
“Oh human misery, how many things you must serve for money.” —Leonardo da Vinci It is an incredible sketch that Leonardo da Vinci drew between 1506 and 1512: bottles, rakes, lanterns, bagpipes, shears as well as other discarded goods have rained down on the Earth. He called it A cloudburst of material possessions. https://tinyurl.com/vinci-consumption Perhaps it is the first artistic rendering of wasteful consumption. Of course, overconsumption has vastly accelerated since the 16th century, and now oil-derived plastics are found in our bodies and in the ocean. Plastics in the ocean will soon outweigh all the fish. The first thing that can be accomplished to put an end to this carnage is to find and prosecute the largest petrochemical companies responsible for the enormous destruction they have negligently inflicted upon the world. Later this month an entire article will be dedicated to the bane of plastics, but for now let’s meet some of the people and organizations that are making a difference around the world, often in small towns or in the countryside. Many individuals have been hugely successful in tenaciously confronting local corruption in corporations and governments large and small. Issues pertaining to wildlife, climate breakdown and energy, mining pollution and disenfranchisement of local populations, ocean and freshwater zones as well as environmental justice have long been focal points for campaigns. Of course people like naturalist David Attenborough https://tinyurl.com/naturalist-attenborough Ecologist and Indigenous rights campaigner from India, S. Faizi https://tinyurl.com/ecologist-Faiziand Canada’s David Suzuki have long inspired actions that go on to galvanize whole communities to successfully demand legislation or litigation to protect ecologically pristine areas and support communities’ pollution-free rights against rampant greed. A classic example of how the public finds the courage to act was epitomized in the film Erin Brockovich. The film portrays a woman who stops a gas and electric company from continuing to flout regulations that were meant to stop groundwater contamination in Hinkley, California 30-plus years ago. The Goldman Environmental Prize was established in 1989 by Richard and Rhoda Goldman, who felt the strong need to give a public voice to and thus multiply the viability for “ordinary” people to take action to confront groups that desecrate Nature. “The Prize recognizes individuals for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk. The Goldman Prize views ‘grassroots’ leaders as those involved in local efforts, where positive change is created through community or citizen participation. Through recognizing these individual leaders, the Prize seeks to inspire other ordinary people to take extraordinary actions to protect the natural world.” https://www.goldmanprize.org/ The 2025 prizes were awarded this Earth Week to winners from six corners of the planet. These remarkable people through years of painstaking work defied the largest companies in order to achieve justice. Laurene Allen from New Hampshire spearheaded the closure of the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics plant that had caused “20 years of rampant air, soil, and water pollution.” Besjana Guri and Olsi Nika of Albania received the prize for stopping the building of a hydroelectric dam on one
Apr 25, 2025
“Somewhere between action and reaction there is an interaction, and that’s where all the magic and fun lie.” —Tyson Yunkaporta, Indigenous Elder, author and scholar When studies are made of human impact on almost 100,000 ecological sites across the globe and all give similar results showing that humans directly and deleteriously affect the viability of those sites, we know that human populations are completely out of balance with other forms of life—and ultimately with their own interests. This is the sobering conclusion of an article in Naturemagazine titled “The Global Human Impact on Biodiversity,” which compiled 2,133 publications covering 3,667 independent comparisons of biodiversity impacts. https://tinyurl.com/activity-and-biodiversity Monarch butterflies are frequently spoken of as being a source of wonderment. These extraordinary insects migrate 4,800 kilometres from the sacred fir trees of central Mexico up to eastern Canada and northeast USA, and then back again. They achieve this journey by propagating a few generations of butterflies along the way. It is an amazing story. Yet the fate of these charismatic creatures is a well-documented example of humans’ overreach into Nature, witnessed in the catastrophic effects of human activity on the endangered habitats along the insects’ migration routes and in their final destinations. As we know, monarch butterflies are in trouble in eastern North America, but they are even more so in the west. But we can help to reverse their tragic decline. We can do so much more to support them when they arrive by making sure the right milkweed plants are available for the caterpillars to eat. This month Oliver Milman wrote in The Guardian: “Last year, the US government proposed the species be listed as endangered for the first time, its numbers winnowed away by habitat loss, pesticide use and the onward relentless march of the climate crisis.” https://tinyurl.com/butterfly-migration Publications like The Guardian are committed to making it transparent that the world’s ecological integrity is being put in danger by humans’ propensity to tear down an astonishingly crafted evolutionary system. The newspaper has dedicated much work to educating western readers and alert them to the huge crises the planet is facing now, but a large, long-term sustained effort is also being made to engage people in acting because they love Nature. By creating a pathway for wonder and contemplation of Nature much has been achieved. The Guardian even has a contest for invertebrate of the year and encourages people to vote for their favourite. “We backboned beasts are a tiny minority, barely 5% of the planet’s species,” writes Patrick Barkham. “Most life on Earth has chosen a spineless path, and they are animals of amazing diversity: beetles, bivalves, bees; corals, crabs, cephalopods; snails, spiders and sponges… Many of these animals perform vital functions for our habitable planet. Invertebrates supply the vast majority of pollination that enables us to grow food, and enjoy flowers. Invertebrates make soil, and keep it fertile. They clean water and tidy land, devouring poo or decomposing animals, repelling everything from bad smells to deadly diseases.” For more on this and a range of
Apr 15, 2025
“I don’t think you can have a really satisfactory life today without joining in the fight to save our planet…. We’re past the moment where inaction is acceptable.” —Kristine Tompkins You may not know who Kristine Tompkins is, but her Patagonia outdoor clothing company’s products can be found around the world. She is also one of the world’s foremost conservationists. The millions of acres of pristine lands that she and her now late husband Doug bought in southern Chile and Argentina have been the basis for national parks there. With the indispensable aid of many local groups and the added expertise of other conservationists, a widely successful campaign to bring back the jaguar and other megafauna continues to accelerate. Recently Tompkins spoke with Nate Hagens, the driving force behind The Great Simplification broadcasts, which, through conversations with inspiring individuals, endeavour to make sense of the climate and biodiversity crises and the possible solutions available to our world. In an interview titled “Rewilding 15 Million Acres: Why True Wealth Means More Than Money,” listeners learned that Tompkins’ approach to helping solve the world’s problems is to go at them relentlessly with all the power she can muster—and not look back. She speaks forcefully about how otherwise educated and well-off people abdicate their ethical responsibilities for a blinded consciousness. We usually think of the word ‘abdicate’ as in giving up, voluntarily or not, one’s kingdom or position as head of government, but Tompkins is clearly making this personal. Sure, increasingly governments, educational institutions and corporate executives have brazenly relinquished their social and Nature leadership roles, but so have most individuals, and particularly so in the rich west. This powerfully wrought interview points directly at us. https://tinyurl.com/tompkins-true-wealth So let’s talk cruise ships and the decision to take them as an abdication of our responsibility to be informed citizens. Most people have bought into the fake narrative given by the largest cruise companies that those ocean or river voyages are, or are on the way to being, a non-polluting way to have a vacation. Bluntly put, this is pure rubbish: food waste, specifically. Some liners are burning it for energy, while others are considering serving up smaller meals, but it seems that many privileged holidaymakers think that huge portions of food go with a cultural experience, and that abundance of food is an entitlement. We all know that food waste is at epidemic levels in our society, but cruise ships are famous for it. The sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from the heavy oil used in cruise ships have a massive impact on human health, but although there has been a push by cities affected by this pollution to electrify cruise ships while at port in order to allay local outrage, a minuscule number of ships have taken advantage of this objective. Although the cruise industry is embracing ‘natural’ gas energy to power its ships away from very dirty oil, methane gas (euphemistically called natural gas) contains its own turbocharged climate baggage, so it is not
Mar 31, 2025
“What’s important is that children have an opportunity to bond with the natural world, to learn to love it, before being asked to heal its wounds.”—David Sobel, Beyond Ecophobia Nurturing young people to internalize a deep sense of wonder and connection with Nature is paramount if future generations are to thrive. Jessica Adams takes up this joyful quest with great enthusiasm. I asked her about her educational work and her commitment to make a difference for many Nature-deprived children. Jessica, can you tell our readers how your childhood influenced your present work? I was fortunate to grow up with family members who shared their curiosity and appreciation for the natural world. My parents kept close watch on the visitors to our bird feeder, monitored and recorded when migrant species returned, and would marvel at the chorus of frogs that erupted each spring and the curious winnowing of the Wilson’s Snipe as it performed its aerial display over the field in front of our house. Appreciating Nature for its beauty and brilliance was a part of life. I also had an incredible natural setting to my childhood. We moved to the Eastern Townships from Brossard when I was five. I had almost 20 acres of forest to explore behind the house, and neighbours who didn’t mind if I wandered onto their property to investigate different ecosystems or scout out some good climbing trees. When my parents shared about Nature, I wasn’t always listening with rapt attention and I wasn’t always keen to head outside when my parents told me to. Sometimes I just wanted to do the easy thing—watch TV, for example. But most of the time they’d insist, so out I’d go (little brother usually in tow). Sometimes we would complain that there was “nothing to do” or that we were bored, but eventually we’d find something to do and get completely engrossed in it. As an adult, I’m incredibly grateful for these moments. Learning how to be in and curious about Nature happens very organically when given the opportunity. All of this meant that, when I was presented with the option to pursue university studies in either veterinary medicine or wildlife biology, the choice was obvious. You write about Nature Nerding. What does it mean to be a Nature Nerd? Completing my bachelor’s in Wildlife Biology brought me to the next level of nerdiness. I’d learnt so much and also gained a humbling appreciation for how much there was that I didn’t (and might never) know. I found this incredibly exciting. It meant that the opportunities for discovery were endless, and it also got me thinking that the wonder, awe and joy I experienced when learning about Nature were something I just had to share. Working with Parc d’environnement naturel de Sutton enabled me to hone my identification and animation skills, but most importantly I found my voice as an educator and communicator. In developing and leading programs for various audiences, I found that I favoured an enquiry-based approach that involved using
