Orion Magazine is a wonderful source to learn about the natural world and how people perceive and connect to it. This article describes an ecologist, Carl Safina, and his work encouraging us to look at the world around us and realize that for most life on earth, life has not slowed down as ours has. In the article, he responds to a series of questions, the first being about his book, Becoming Wild, and how it observes the culture within animal groups by learning about species’ different ways of learning from their previous generations. In response to a question about how we should interact with the “wild world” post-pandemic, Safina hopes that we learn from the “broken relationship” that we have with wildlife. If we continue to allow diseases to come alive through factory farming and wildlife markets, we are threatening the “fundamental aspects of being human” as it brings us into isolation. He encourages us to observe the natural world and learn from its culture and social interactions in order to better ourselves. An excerpt from his book is provided, which allows the readers to begin to see the parallels that Safina describes between humans and wildlife, and how much we can learn from life outside of our own species. To continue engaging with nature, Orion Magazine provides a vast amount of articles and resources that will grip its readers and bring new understanding.
