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Rewilding made simple: an animated guide

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    (birds chirping}
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    {lion growling)
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    (birds chirping}
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    ♪ (guitar music) ♪
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    Rewilding means reversing
    the destruction of the natural world
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    and attempting
    a mass restoration of ecosystems.
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    (sound of bulldozer passing)
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    (birds chirping)
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    ♪ (guitar music) ♪
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    Why is it that trees
    are so amazingly resilient
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    that you can smash them,
    you can twist them and splinter them,
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    but they still come bounding back?
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    And why is it that understory trees
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    like box and holly and yew
    are so much tougher
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    than the big trees like oak and beech
    and ash in the forest canopy.
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    ♪ (guitar music) ♪
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    I think the same answer applies to both
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    and that is elephants.
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    Does that sound crazy? I'm sure it does,
    but elephants were everywhere.
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    ♪ (guitar music) ♪
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    Our ecosystem was dominated
    by giant straight-tusked elephants
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    and if trees could not resist them,
    they would be wiped out.
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    ♪ (guitar music) ♪
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    And the elephants in Britain,
    they were driven out
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    by the ice into the southern Europe
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    and they persisted there
    till about forty thousand years ago.
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    So did rhinos and hippos.
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    Lions and hyenas lasted much longer.
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    But they were all eventually
    wiped out by human hunters.
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    ♪ (guitar music) ♪
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    We live in a shadow land, in a dim,
    flattened relic of what there once was.
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    (sheep bleating)
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    And rewilding offers us
    this fantastic opportunity
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    to start restoring systems or
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    allowing them to restore themselves. I see
    it as reintroducing missing plants and
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    animals, then stepping back and letting
    nature get on with it.
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    One estimate suggest that between 2000
    and 2030, around 30 million hectares of
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    land will be vacated by farmers, and that
    is an area the side of Poland.
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    So maybe, we're being a bit unambitious if
    we're talking about just wolves and lynx
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    and bisons, and otters and beavers, which
    are already spreading fast across Europe.
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    Perhaps, we should also be thinking about
    bringing back some of the lost Megafauna.
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    it seems to me that, REWILDING offer
    us more than just the restoration of
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    the ecosystem; it brings back into our
    lives a lot of thrill, and wonder and
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    enchantment. And wouldn't it be amazing if
    everybody had a Serengeti on their
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    doorstep.Rewilding the ecosystem offers us
    a chance to rewild our own lives as well.
Title:
Rewilding made simple: an animated guide
Description:
more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
Amplifying Voices
Project:
Rewillding
Duration:
02:50

English subtitles

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