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This is a book about reconnecting to nature wherever we find ourselves living and the personal benefits that can ensue. It explores how we can appreciate the natural world on our doorstep in line with the latest research from a range of disciplines, including ecology, outdoor and environmental education, learning for sustainability and mindfulness studies. It does so by means of a blend of encounter-based photography, connection with nature and reading the landscape.
There has been a tendency for people to lose contact with nature. The industrial growth society generated a catalogue of ecological disasters including acid rain, the hole in the ozone layer, the sixth mass extinction and climate collapse. Slowly, we are waking up to the fact that this society is fundamentally extractive and exploitative and the burden of costs has shifted onto the environment and future generations.
In appreciating and understanding the enormity of this crisis, we risk compounding it with the mental health crisis that is sweeping the globe. Healing that relationship requires us to slow down and to seek reconnection with nature which can help revitalise and sustain us. Life passes by all too fast when we are oblivious to nature's presence and are unable to be fully involved in nature.
Wild Places, Wild Encounters provides the means to break this cycle. Wild Places, Wild Encounters's essence is essentially about reconnecting with and learning to relate to nature as explored in these wanderings through the green heart of Scotland's capital city and the wild nature reserves of the Lothians. Nature is still there, all around us.
Dr Glen Cousquer is a naturalist, photographer, outdoor educator, wilderness guide, International Mountain Leader and a lecturer in Conservation Medicine and One Health at the University of Edinburgh, where he supports professionals in learning how to collaborate across disciplines to seek optimal health for humans, other animals and the environment.
