Ep. 037: Taking Rewilding Mainstream with Alister Scott of the Global Rewilding Alliance

·1 hr 4 min·4 clips

A Global Rewilding Alliance study with Yale found nine animal groups could draw down carbon at IPCC-scale levels.

1. Wilder Podcast episode 37 focuses on Alistair Scott of the Global Rewilding Alliance and the question of taking rewilding mainstream. 2. Chloe and Tom host the conversation, and Alistair Scott appears as Director of Communications and Outreach at the Global Rewilding Alliance. 3. The episode asks what rewilding looks like as a mainstream movement and what stories, science, and policy could move it there. 4. Scott says the alliance works through four pillars: foundational science, global policy influencing, movement support, and public engagement through World Rewilding Day on 20 March. 5. He describes World Rewilding Day as a 'thunderclap' designed to make many people talk about rewilding at the same time. 6. Scott traces his environmental start to growing up on a farmhouse in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, where corncrakes sang at night. 7. He says silage making arrived nearby and, within two years, the birds were extinct in that area. 8. He recalls doing an environmental degree, writing a 40-acre nature recovery plan for an outdoor education center, and later seeing red squirrels and bullfinches on the site. 9. He says that early project showed him that he could make a difference. 10. Scott describes campaign work at Friends of the Earth, helping to make Antarctica into a whale park with protections against industrial exploitation for 50 years in 1991. 11. He says he later worked eight years on a national research program on global environmental change and then ran a communications agency for seven years. 12. He explains that a period when his wife was diagnosed with cancer forced him to reconsider what work made him feel most alive. 13. He says that reflection led him to focus on helping leaders make big change happen and eventually to write 'The Little Book of Making Big Change Happen.' 14. Scott outlines five stages of the rewilding movement, beginning with Dave Foreman's use of the term in the 1990s. 15. He credits Sulle and Noss with the 'three C's' of core areas, corridors, and carnivores, then adds a fourth C for chewers. 16. He places the Global Rewilding Alliance in a stage of preparing for scaling, with examples such as jaguars in Argentina, cross-border corridors, and continental visions. 17. He says a mainstream rewilding future by 2040 would include 30 by 30 targets, nature needs half thinking, street trees, cleaner rivers, and beavers reducing flood pulses. 18. He argues that rewilding can address both climate stabilization and climate anxiety by showing measurable benefits and giving people positive stories to engage with. 19. The tone is conversational and strategic, with Chloe and Tom asking broad questions and Scott answering with history, research, and practical examples. 20. Listeners who care about ecology, climate policy, and movement building will likely get the most from it, while people wanting a short entertainment segment may skip it.

As heard by us

A practical, exploratory case for making rewilding feel like common sense.

Wilder starts with a slightly frazzled introduction, then settles into a discussion about making rewilding mainstream and linking it to climate stabilisation and better wellbeing.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a hopeful case for making rewilding feel ordinary in cities.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Wilder Podcast