Tony Juniper

The Spix's Macaw is one of the rarest birds in the world due to its popularity in the pet trade. Collected nearly to extinction, the last few wild individuals were gathered up to start a breeding program. Filled with corruption, people with "white saviour syndrome" and the desperation of the Brazilian government to gain control of its own species again, this book examines the Spix's macaw and how the greed and selfish mindsets of individuals can threaten species and derail conservation show more efforts. Since many parrots find themselves in similar situations, these kinds of discussions are important in educating the general public (especially those who want to own a parrot) about the ethical issues surrounding parts of the pet bird trade.

While I was aware of the specie's fate I was very interested to get to delve into the details of what happened. Getting to meet some of the key players (some of whom aren't great) and getting to see some of the struggles. I appreciate that he didn't paint the trappers as the evil villains people like these are often painted to be and focussed on the causes and the reasons why this kind of behaviour even occurs in the first place. (I'm not saying they're saints of course and neither is the author, but they definitely aren't the root of the problem either). I am glad to see that there is more order than there were in the early days and that the Brazilian government is no longer being as excluded as they once were (unfortunately a common sentiment - people from third world countries need others to step in and have someone else take over when it comes to endangered species and get minimal input. Although thankfully things are getting better, these kinds of practices still exist in conservation and local communities often don't get enough of a voice).

Since this book was published, some captive-bred individuals have been released into the wild, and seem to be doing better than the last attempt. Although the captive population is definitely growing, giving the species a better chance of survival, only time will tell how successful these efforts have been. show less

The rush of modern life these days means that we have precious little time to engage with nature, let alone consider exactly the role that it plays in the ecosystem of our country. Yet unbeknown to us nature just gets on with it. But our meddling with the way things work; industrial farming, building on flood plains, clearing forests and moors and trying to build flood defences really doesn’t help.

Juniper looks at a number of schemes and working examples where people and organisations have show more had the foresight to see if they can work with the natural world around them, and more importantly their results from doing so. Subjects covered include flood protection, water security, using nature to heal, marine ecology and restoring fish stocks, restoring the insect population and ensuring that the soils of the land are healthy. These projects are profitable and sustainable too; there are examples of companies spending small amounts of money, and saving large sums later on as they don’t have to rectify a larger problem later on.

Sadly though the present government doesn’t share this view, and it still thinks pandering to large companies whose only desire is profit is the way to do it.

It isn’t

These projects Juniper writes about are much needed. We need insects to pollinate plants for food, rivers to absorb winter floodwaters, and a full and healthy eco system. In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t cost much. Written with passion he has a convincing set of arguments for changing our way of doing things in this country. show less

This is an amazingly good book about humanity and its (lost) relationship with nature, about ecology on a deep level and about how we are going to live our future.

While I did know that the Prince of Wales was very involved in all sorts of charities, I did not know at all that he had actually built up such a deep and developed understanding of the world as he is demonstrating in this highly recommendable book.
He initially calls for a revolution - an internal revolution of our mindsets geared show more towards global and local sustainability. While he is highly critical about modernity (and apparently everything that happened after Descartes) he is apparently highly conservative. From this starting point he manages to draw an almost utopian plan for a better, durable and more harmonic world. This encompasses many areas of life, especially architecture, agriculture and urban planning. His ideas comprise concepts and patterns that are typically thought to be radically ecological: deep ecology, strong sustainability, spirituality, indigenous people's cultures, strong criticism of capitalism and economic growth and many more. The authors manage to actually bring together the green environmental movement with conservative, traditional values. I greatly appreciate this!

Who would have thought that? This book makes sense on a deep level and can be read by anyone who is interested in ecology, sustainability, environmental protection, tree-hugging or simply by anyone who has grown weary of the promises of economic growth and corporate power. Anyone who feels that the world in which we live is foul on deep level, unsustainable and artificial will find ideas how it can be improved. This book is well written, exciting to read and radical on a fundamental level.

One would hope that this book finds a lot of readers! show less

Although at times he takes on the patrician tone of a monarch lecturing to his recalcitrant subjects, overall Charles comes across as someone who has given a great deal of thought to his place in the world, and how he can best make use of his bully pulpit to make it a better place.

He starts with a fairly standard description of the challenges facing the environment (climate change, pollution, deforestation, mass extinction, etc.), then makes the case that the underlying cause is our show more disassociation from Nature. He goes through the history of what he calls "harmony" and essentially amounts to a rejection of the mechanization typifying the modern worldview.

Along the way we learn about his deep-seated hatred for modern architecture, which perhaps isn't too surprising for someone who splits his time between living in a castle and living in a palace (technically Clarence House is neither, but you get the point).

I listened to audiobook version, which he narrated himself, and he comes across as deeply caring about the holistic approach to sustainability, and provides lots of examples of his personal involvement without being too self congratulatory, which isn't easy to pull off. Some of his ideas are a bit too traditional or conservative for my taste, and I think that he downplays some of the benefits of modern technology to potentially solve some of our problems, but overall there are a lot worse things for him to focus on. show less