Rewilding the planet: An archipelago constructed of sand is bringing new life

> rewilding

Highly highly recommend watching Wild Life: https://films.nationalgeographic.com/wild-life

From filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin.

After falling in love in mid-life, Kris and the outdoorsman and entrepreneur Doug Tompkins left behind the world of the massively successful outdoor brands they'd helped pioneer -- Patagonia, The North Face, and Esprit -- and turned their attention to a visionary effort to create National Parks throughout Chile and Argentina. WILD LIFE chronicles the highs and lows of their journey to effect the largest private land donation in history.

There’s a handful of efforts like this which I find really exciting and hopeful. It’s clear we can do damage to the environment but I think it’s important to try to learn and take positive restorative steps given our position of stewardship of the planet. I’ve heard this kind of effort be called “ecomodernist” as it’s a step after the idea that all human intervention is only destructive and the best option is to do nothing.

Pleistocene park in siberia https://pleistocenepark.ru/

American Prarie plains rewilding in Montana https://americanprairie.org/

Ecomodernist manifesto http://www.ecomodernism.org/

They did something like this with Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor. Not a completely new island, but greatly expanded from its 20th century footprint as a glue factory and trash dump, thanks to landfill from the Big Dig:

From 1935 to 1959, Spectacle Island became the city’s dump, bringing 350 tons of waste to the island daily.9 In this time, the island grew by almost 36-acres.10 The dump on Spectacle Island sat exposed, with trash seeping into the harbor, until 1992 when the “Big Dig” began in Boston. The Central Artery/Tunnel Project brought sediment to Spectacle Island to cap off the landfill and turn the island from an abandoned garbage dump to a park.

https://www.nps.gov/places/spectacle-island.htm

An interesting anecdote related to this: a friend of mine has done research at a marine biology institute based out of Hong Kong. Basically his work was in identifying and counting gastropods on islands in the South China Sea.

A year or so after his paper was published, as I understand it, he was approached by the Chinese government about fabricating data that would provide a biological basis for the claim that man-made islands in the South China Sea (created by the Chinese government) ought to be counted toward the territorial waters making up China's exclusive economic zone. Unfortunately I never got the details, but it was fascinating to hear the broad strokes.

Physical Properties of Soil: https://www.soils4teachers.org/physical-properties/#:~:text=....

Having lived there, I'm always amazed by the landscapes the Dutch create. They seem to have this ability to seamlessly integrate nature, water and modern architecture in a way I haven't really seen anywhere else. Truly beautiful place.

I visited this island cluster last summer, very impressive. It felt like a tranquil oasis.

A very Dutch statement: “When you cannot go back to the past, you have to find new ways.”

It’s interesting their pragmatic, modernist (before that was a thing?) take on people’s relationship with the world.

At heart they seem to be quite conservative about the small stuff, and quite brave about building a rough, running consensus about radical changes to the big stuff, while leaving room for folks who don’t or can’t get on board with the plan (eg “zuilen”).

Nice little country they have there, shame if something happens to it. Like global warming.

A bit off-topic here but I contribute to the rewilding efforts of mossy.earth and I think they do a very good job.

It could be worth to check them out in youtube and see if what they do resonates with you.

Isn't this polders but with more organic edges?

The original plan was to drain makermeer for land, but that was dropped in the 80s (or 90s)

Got Red Mars vibes from this for some reason. Very interesting.

> Taking sand and mud from the lake floor...

Eek. Cool idea but not necessary to disrupt the balance of something else to make this.

Regarding rewilding, I'm all for it, just not in the E. O. Wilson's racist half-earth way. Humans are and can continue to be part of nature. There might be room for bringing back some of the mega-fauna that we killed off around the world, though, with preserves and parks.