wildlife and environmental conservation

The urban wilderness: The bear, raccoon, beaver or the lion in your yard, patrolling your neighborhoods and nearby recreation areas, and rising numbers of risky and close encounters with the wild animals in our backyards, and those when we’re in what we have designated as 'their space.' These rising encounters signify changes both environmentally and culturally, of our rapidly growing human footprint causing fuzzy boundaries of our understanding and attitudes toward wildlife, and those between what belongs to whom–– is it our back yard or their living room? We are provided with many opportunities for increased awareness about human and non-human communities as to how to interact with each other while living side by side, and, sometimes in the same places at the same time. Today we'll explore some of the facets around these issues and what can happen when we forget there really are wild things out there.

In the eons of time immemorial, life has eked out an existence from the fundamental ingredients of Planet Earth and its unique essences, our nature, our wildlife and .. us. In the few short centuries of Modern Man, earth processes have shifted in orders of magnitude, and so have ours. Whether you agree or not as to humanity’s role in these shifts is almost moot, for the point is that things have changed. That’s life, right? Life is a series of societal, cultural and personal shifts, a constant state of transition with big mile marker posts along the way. In this rebroadcast from 2015 the medley of thoughts and questions about our role on earth, who we are vs. who we can be, resonate with the world we are facing today. as well as some of the ridiculousness that we sell ourselves as solutions as we navigate these challenges. Have we, and are we, positioning ourselves in the best possible pathways for survival of earth and humankind?

Over the many episodes of Our Wild World, we’ve shared the wonder of wildlife and wilderness through a variety of perspectives from scientific, to solutions based, to a naturalist view, from that which brings about collapse to that which reimagines ourselves and thus our world, and all the myriad beings and life-forms with whom we share multitudinous relationships and the natural laws that sustain our vitally. In today’s rebroadcast from 2016, we find ourselves eerily facing many of the same issues and challenges that we could not have imagined just four years ago. In this episode I provided selected readings from favorite authors illustrative of the every-day spectacular happenings that surround, envelope and knit together the magnificence that is life, and the transformative role and influence we humans have had, and in that, how we can transform our future out of these desperate times.

The dangers of global wildlife trafficking have made global headlines. From an obscure wildlife wet market in Wuhan China, a frightening message jumped from the wild and right into a global pandemic crisis: COVID-19, a new zoonotic virus highly contagious to humans.My guest Dr. Peter Li specializes in Northeast Asian security, U.S.-China relations; China’s environmental governance and animal welfare politics of the People’s Republic of China. Dr Li’s decades of work highlight the direct relationship between income, social status and the importance of meat consumption to the Chinese consumer. China has become the world’s largest animal farming nation- from captive bred wildlife farms to large scale breeding of pork, beef and chicken. The message is clear: burgeoning human populations intersecting with wildlife in novel ways requires globally enforced environmental and wildlife protection laws. Nature has secrets, and we are not prepared to lift the lid on her zoonotic pandora’s box.

With Special Guest Philip Tedeschi , Clinical Professor, Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver. We’ll explore the changing paradigm of recognizing incorporating the bond and relationships between people and non-human beings and and the implications for animal abuse to public health and human security. Our relationships with animals has become an enduring feature in so many families, homes, and communities. For centuries, the importance of animals in people’s lives has been recognized beneficial effect that animals have on human health, well being, and motivation- across age, race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and life condition. Images of animals appear in literature of all kinds art, celebrations, dreams, fables, folklore, language, medicine, music, religion, work, and recreation. Animals are found in nearly every aspect of life.

Current data tells us our world has slid past far tipping points of no return. Viable populations of wildlife across the board are disappearing. Our human response for sustainable development and environmental goals are not compatible nor conducive to the continuance of ecosystem earth. We need intensive multilayered actions for creative solutions, options and alternatives. Today’s rebroadcast provides necessary background to remind us of critical changes that have happened in just 6 years, and the disastrous effects we see now. My guests Nick Lynch and Tim Gorski, two of WildiZe Observers to CITES reporting direct from Johannesburg in 2016. Here we are in 2020, in the midst of catastrophic climate changes, a pandemic of a virus transferred to humans from wildlife, and political machinations that remove underpinnings of environmental protections. New CITES CoP18 regulations were supposedly responses to these crises, however, we now see whole system failures.

COVID-19 has shifted our world and our consciousness. We are on the razors edge leading wave of a new paradigm. The shift is uncomfortable, frightening and exhausting while wondering what the future holds. This program has continuously focused on the tools at our disposal to work through crises, and find new models of how we live. This episode from 2013 could have been today. As we face COVID, climate change and economic crises, we need our great big brains to think us out of these crises. It is imperative that we shift how we relate to each other, and get down to the business of cleaning up our act, our oceans, our air and our policies and economic systems, and begin the processes of healing, for each other and earth’s natural and wild systems. We must rise above our differences and celebrate our common desires-life and respect, and get busy accepting magnificent opportunities of creating a whole new normal.

The saga of the Mexican Grey Wolf is a story of how politics interferes in the efforts of independent scientists to recover an endangered species. With my guest David Parsons, who formerly led the USFWS efforts to reintroduce the Mexican Grey Wolf to the American Southwest from 1990-99, we learn how difficult it is to reintroduce a species and save it from extinction when powerful vested interests who control legislators hijack the policy process down to even the scientific modeling results for how many wolves are needed to recover the species. As we see our political agenda rolling back more and more of the protections previously implemented, the politically entrenched and vested interests in government is not reflective of the general public. As David explains, we have a huge political fight ahead to save this iconic species, and by extrapolating across this concept, these challenges affect security for the environment that provides for the health of all living beings.

With this rebroadcast from 2015, we see so many parallels, as so many is global crises converge. My guest, clinical social worker, Philip Tedeschi, Denver University, Institute for Human Animal Connection (IHAC) provides real-world situations for graduate students and continuing programs and presentations to the public, which offer solutions that provide for healthy avenues to recognize challenges, and grow the social skills for youth and adults to clearly understand the relationships and benefits between humans and non-human animals. and the significance of living systems and animals in human health and wellness, specific animal welfare and conservation activity, research, education.

A critical component of any discussion in wildlife trade that is glaringly missing from major decision making processes such as CITES, is the real-world understanding wildlife markets and pricing. My guest, the late renowned economist Alejandro Nadal, leads us into deep research on the shifting connections between macroeconomics and the environment, working toward new models reaching crucial objectives of trade in wildlife and endangered species: This concerns the survival of the entire biosphere, including us. With so much at stake, these vital connections have so far received little attention by both the academic and policy-making communities. Major transformations are required in economic structures and policy recommendations, in conjunction with deep and sweeping economy-wide reforms and shifts. The elephant is standing in the room, with ‘Macroeconomic Policies’ stamped on its forehead- while to our detriment and peril, we continue spending billions ignoring it.

Eli wrote this episode six years ago, March 2014, and it aired as The Wild Effect. We are now living in the consequences of a global pandemic caused by human intersection and our ever-increasing intersections fracturing ecosystems importance of our wildlife, especially predators. Healthy ecosystems are the glue that binds a healthy planet, which in the end, means healthy human and wildlife populations, and ultimately the survival of all of us. We have the tools: science, data, and expertise, and just plain commons sense in asking the right questions. There is common ground for co-existence, but that decision requires human, societal, cultural, and political action and behavior shifts. Over the past fifty years much has changed for the better, yet we are still losing wildlife in increasing numbers. With COVID-19 shifting our future, we need to implement we have known about for decades, massive transformative action for conservation of the future of life as we know it.

Are conserving wildlife and protecting animals the same thing? Award winning environmental reporter, Glen Martin, guides us as this question applies to Africa's mega fauna. Conservation planning of large landscapes and species survival includes the cascades of biodiversity that depend upon them. Animal rights, animal activists, and animal welfare consider each individual life as critical, and that none should die because of us. Animal rights restrictions present a challenging paradox for making long-term species survival and large landscape conservation, workable. Through one-on-one conversations with legendary figures throughout Africa’s game management history in wildlife rich range states from E Africa to S.West Africa, Glen's book “Game Changer” originally aired here in 2014 vividly demonstrates even 6 years on, how our world's last great populations of wildlife are hostages in the battle between those who love them, those who kill them and those who want to save them.

“East Africa, is just a microcosm, where you can still see open plains shared by so many different people and creatures has a visceral impact on most humans who see it, and fill the most jaded of us with a profound sense of wonder. If we follow our present path of development and rate of destruction, we will see the unique megafauna of Africa disappear. We are living through the antithesis of genesis right now. All those billions of years to reach a place of such wondrous diversity, and then in just a few shockingly short years, an infinitesimal pinprick of time, to annihilate it.” In his newest book, ‘Inherit the Dust’, my guest, Nick Brandt, photographer, conservationist and Cofounder of BigLife Foundation, brings into stunning conversation what visualization and conservation together can accomplish to highlight not only in our minds, but on our earth fundamental and necessary changes and a way forward and to become involved.

We have deeply manipulated the earth’s landscapes and wild places like no other time in human history, and we are now wholly facing the impacts we've forced upon the biological world that gives us life. Our 'use' model has proven to be unsustainable yet we are still being duped by this veneer of ‘successes’, which has no realistic basis on the capacity of our resources, our earth to sustain life as we know it. Across Africa and the world, we have come face to face with the unintended consequences of our version and definition of Sustainable Utilization. Our loss of respect and responsibility for our environment have unleashed deadly consequences under an onslaught of sustained abuse. In this rebroadcast with Pieter Kat from 2015- it is evident, we are the catalysts of where will will be for the future. The question is, what will we do to get out of this mess?

As COVID19 has us sheltering in place, our lack of presence outside has reduced pressures on wildlife: A changed world is happening outside our windows. Wildlife is coming into our yards, streets, green spaces natural habitats. We now may find ourselves face to face with our wild neighbors who have taken a liking to our yards or homes. In this rebroadcast with my guest John Hadidian, we talk about how wildlife and the natural environment are important to our psyche and well-being, but that our wild neighbors find our homes fulfill their needs very nicely. This is where conflicts can arise- the raccoon in our chimney or the deer who find our lawns and parks quite yummy. Dr. John Hadidian is the Director of the Humane Society of the U.S. Urban Wildlife and conflict resolution project. Join us today as John helps us to see the world from our wild neighbors perspective, and how we shift our paradigm to co-existence and creating holistic landscapes.

Rewilding has long been a conservation term for connectivity and creating corridors for wildlife movement. In recent decades, it is the concept finding suitable existing habitats for species on the brink of extinction that may exist outside of where they currently live or are being extirpated. Today there is a new meaning. With Marc Bekoff, and his newest book, ‘Rewilding Our Hearts: Building Pathways of Compassion and Coexistence’. Rewilding in this sense brings us to an understanding if not to undo, at least find ways to fix what we’ve done, to transform and rehabilitate ourselves. A necessary primer and reminder for Compassion 101, not only for those who have forgotten, but a preparation for those yet to learn- how to embrace the concept of compassionate co-existence, to renew how we see ourselves, each other, and especially our wild world and all its magnificence. A pathway and to reimagine and redefine what we can believe is possible.

What is an urban bear? Sharon Baruch-Mordo helps us answer this question as a result of a multi year experiment and study in Aspen, CO that evaluated on-site education in residential and construction sites; Bear Aware educational campaigns in neighborhoods; and elevated law enforcement, and using the carrot and the stick approach to get people to secure garbage to reduce confrontations. Interestingly, the study found little support for education or enforcement in the form of daily patrolling in changing human behavior! What she did find was more support for proactive enforcement, and mandating bear-resistance refuse containers. The end result found that evidence-based decision-making is critical for implementing conservation actions for human-wildlife conflicts by altering human behaviors through public education and enforcement of wildlife-related laws. When we can get humans to stop irresponsible behavior in wildlife habitat, we are both protecting them and the bears.

Wouldn’t it be great if today’s headlines were : It’s okay. We can all come out now! the Global crises are over, and We’ve Won! because humanity came to its senses the other day. With the COVID19 pandemic our latest crises, this previous broadcast is as relevant as ever. In these unprecedented times we must globally come together to turn our wild world around to create a paradigm shift for the future. Each of us can say to the other, here’s what I did today, and I’m going to do it every day from now on, and we change who we are.

The dangers of global wildlife trafficking have made global headlines. From an obscure wildlife wet market in Wuhan China, a frightening message jumped from the wild and right into a global pandemic crisis: COVID-19, a new zoonotic virus highly contagious to humans.My guest Dr. Peter Li specializes in Northeast Asian security, U.S.-China relations; China’s environmental governance and animal welfare politics of the People’s Republic of China. Dr Li’s decades of work highlight the direct relationship between income, social status and the importance of meat consumption to the Chinese consumer. China has become the world’s largest animal farming nation- from captive bred wildlife farms to large scale breeding of pork, beef and chicken. The message is clear: burgeoning human populations intersecting with wildlife in novel ways requires globally enforced environmental and wildlife protection laws. Nature has secrets, and we are not prepared to lift the lid on her zoonotic pandora’s box.

Today, with returning guest Ashwell Glasson, we address deep seated Wicked Problems as a root cause of civil unrest and social disruptions that are occurring globally, as a result of unrestrained economic growth leading to environmental problems. We gain an understanding that we cannot isolate environmental issues to a specific region as they have far reaching effects and lead to interconnected series of problems on national and global scales. We must break our cycle of short term thinking and pushing problems off, as we are only going to see more “day zero’s” with less and less resources. These underlying wicked problems permeate the globe and it is time for deep seated reforms – politically and socially, nationally and internationally, economically and environmentally, and the normalization of the abnormal break down of civil society. it’s time to face up to our collective human responsibilities and address these issues.