Urban jungle : wilding the city

Wilson, Ben2023

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Summary

An eye-opening and urgent exploration of nature and the city - past, present and future. This is thrilling re-examination of the way we live by a brilliant historian and thinker. For millennia, cities have seemed to represent our separation from the natural world and our victory over it. They are a kind of battleground, where humans have used technologies to reengineer the environment. In the early 21st century, we have reached a turning point- we have now urbanised our planet, but natural forces - be they rising waters, storms, droughts or pandemics - look set to determine the fate of our cities in the future. In fact, as Ben Wilson reveals, nature has always been at the heart of the city, and our post-industrial cities are much wilder places that we might imagine, with booming animal and plant populations. The project of rewilding the city has already begun. People around the world are realising that cities are not dead, artificial zones, but complex and diverse habitats, and a place that is healthy for animals and plants is healthier for humans as well. Where cities once built walls and towers to defend against attack; now they have to become greener to protect themselves from external threats. Rewilding the city is not a distant utopian dream- nature is already reclaiming the city. In a time of climate crisis, the city is both problem and solution. The extent to which cities strike a balance with nature will determine the fate of our cities. We stand at a crossroads. Our future-and that of the planet-will be made in the city.