We are destroying our beautiful homeland. Earth, the most precious creation that humankind has been given, might soon turn into a desert. In the process, thousands of species might disappear.

Humankind is different to other species, yes, and in some ways superior. But does that give us carte blanche to destroy — either directly or through inaction — other species? I believe it does not.

Not only that, but if you believe humankind to be superior, shouldn't it be humankind's responsibility to take care of all other beings? Especially since we all pride ourselves in our morality and empathy.

There are of course those who believe that humankind has rightly conquered Earth and that it's ours to rule. That other beings are either enemies or just annoyances that need to be dealt with.

That kind of rhetoric — purely based on evolutionary brutalism — contradicts itself. We have conquered Earth because of our superior intellect and the notion of morality, yes. But we if abuse of our power, aren't we coming back to being primitive? What makes us different from more primitive beings then? And if we acknowledge that we are no different, then we don't deserve any special treatment and rights in this planet.

On the other hand, if we agree that we are indeed special because of our intellect and morality, then it's our duty to use both to take care of our planet and the beings that inhabit it.

This is when rewilding starts. The notion of passive rewilding is simple: buy cheap land and let nature rule it. Don't intervene. Don't build skyscrapers. Don't hunt animals. Just let nature do its thing.

If we rewild Earth enough, we might slow down its destruction and make sure that hectars and hectars of its land stay intact from humankind's reach.

The first project that I have donated to in this field is Rewilder. Rewilder was started by a group of people passionate about both crypto and environmentalism, including Manu Araoz, a crypto OG and pioneer. From their website:

We're all kind of scared that we might not make it as a species past this century, given the rate at which we're destroying our home planet. As humanity creates the technology to expand life in space, we need to slow down the destruction of Earth. Nation-states are not the right technology to solve global problems. We should stop counting on slow-paced, fragmented bureaucracies to coordinate policies effectively at a worldwide scale.

Rewilder leverages crypto's transparency and NFTs to encourage donors to feel included in the process. Hopefully in the future having a Rewilder donor badge might be cooler than having a penguin as the profile pic — also crypto trends fade so quickly that people reading this might know nothing about such penguins — and hopefully we'll be able to kickstart a movement to take Earth back from the claws of unsustainable growth and greed.