J.B. MacKinnon Books
J. B.
Known for: The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be
Books by J.B. MacKinnon
The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be
J.B. MacKinnon’s The Once and Future World asks a radical but deeply practical question: what if the natural world we now consider normal is only a shrunken remnant of what once existed? Blending environmental history, ecology, philosophy, and vivid reporting, MacKinnon shows how humans have gradually accepted ecological decline as ordinary. Forests seem healthy even when they hold only a fraction of their original life. Oceans appear productive even after immense depletion. Cities feel complete despite being built atop erased wetlands, grasslands, and migration routes. The book matters because it challenges one of modern society’s most limiting assumptions: that conservation is about protecting the little that remains. MacKinnon argues instead for recovering a larger vision of abundance, one that sees restoration not as fantasy but as a serious cultural and political project. He writes with the authority of a seasoned environmental journalist, drawing on scientific evidence, historical accounts, and contemporary restoration efforts from around the world. The result is both sobering and hopeful: a compelling invitation to rethink what nature was, what it has become, and what it still could be if human imagination expands as quickly as human power once did.
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Historical Perspective: The Abundance That Was
The most powerful environmental idea in this book is also the simplest: we cannot understand loss unless we first understand former abundance. MacKinnon invites readers to look beyond the depleted landscapes of the present and imagine the world as it existed before industrial extraction, large-scale...
From The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be
Stories We Tell About the Wild
How we treat nature depends less on facts alone than on the stories we believe about it. MacKinnon shows that every era frames the nonhuman world through cultural narratives. In some traditions, animals were relatives, messengers, or spiritual presences. In the modern industrial worldview, they ofte...
From The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be
The Great Diminishment of Life
Environmental decline is often discussed as a series of separate crises, but MacKinnon’s deeper claim is that they are all expressions of one long process: the great diminishment of life. Across continents and oceans, humans have reduced the scale, diversity, and density of wild beings. We have empt...
From The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be
Shifting Baselines and Ecological Amnesia
One generation’s tragedy becomes the next generation’s normal. MacKinnon builds on the concept of shifting baseline syndrome: people assess environmental health against the conditions they grew up with rather than against longer ecological history. As a result, each generation inherits a diminished ...
From The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be
Landscapes That Reveal Human Transformation
Big environmental truths become clearest when seen in specific places. MacKinnon uses transformed landscapes as living case studies to show how humans have altered the Earth not only through destruction, but through redesign. Farmland, suburbs, dams, plantations, industrial fisheries, and managed pa...
From The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be
Rewilding and the Return of Ecological Process
Rewilding is often misunderstood as abandoning land or excluding people, but MacKinnon presents it as something more precise and more exciting: the restoration of ecological process. A rewilded landscape is one where natural relationships regain room to operate—predation, migration, disturbance, suc...
From The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be
About J.B. MacKinnon
J.B. MacKinnon is a Canadian journalist and author known for his works on environment, sustainability, and culture. He co-authored the influential book 'The 100-Mile Diet' and has written extensively for publications such as The New Yorker and The Atlantic. His writing often explores the intersectio...
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J.B. MacKinnon is a Canadian journalist and author known for his works on environment, sustainability, and culture. He co-authored the influential book 'The 100-Mile Diet' and has written extensively for publications such as The New Yorker and The Atlantic. His writing often explores the intersectio...
J.B. MacKinnon is a Canadian journalist and author known for his works on environment, sustainability, and culture. He co-authored the influential book 'The 100-Mile Diet' and has written extensively for publications such as The New Yorker and The Atlantic. His writing often explores the intersection of human life and the natural world.
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