Books and the Natural World

I recently finished reading two books about animals, the semi-fictional The Wolfling by Sterling North, and the coffee-table companion to the documentary series, Blue Planet II by James Honeyborne and Mark Brownlow.

Why do I do this to myself? I love animals, but reading about them is often depressing. Almost every
dog-centered novel ends with the dog dying and a little of my heart with it. Even nonfiction zoology
books aren’t immune to this, because endangered species make me feel so helpless and wish I could
change the world.

Sterling North is probably most famous for his excellent book Rascal, a memoir of one summer in his
boyhood when he raised a pet raccoon. North’s writing style is wonderful, not only artistic in his
descriptions of the natural world, but also exciting. In The Wolfling he goes back further than Rascal’s
setting of Wisconsin during World War I, and explores the life of a boy named Robbie in 1873.
Based in part on research and reminiscences of North’s father, The Wolfling is nevertheless fiction,
calling itself a “Documentary Novel.”

As one would expect, the majority of the novel is about how Robbie has his heart set on raising a baby wolf as a pet. He hears the howling of a wolf in the woods, and learns from his naturalist mentor and neighbor, Thure Kumlein (a real historical figure among North’s other fictional or composite characters), that the wolf is a female and will probably be giving birth to pups. The farmers and other folk nearby have a very different reaction from Robbie’s excitement, and the entire community goes on a hunt for the wolf, intent on destroying her and her whelps.

When the wolf’s den is found, it turns out to be part of a cave system that the adults can’t access.
They can’t smoke the wolves out, and they can’t barricade the entrance since the mother undoubtedly
has another exit. The only chance is to have one of the children go into the den. Robbie volunteers, on
the condition that he’ll get to keep one of the whelps alive as a pet.

I’ll stop the synopsis here because at this point the story gets really exciting, and I’d hate to spoil the
first-hand experience of the reader.

I really enjoyed The Wolfling, almost as much as my beloved Rascal. North does a good job of
describing life post-Civil War, of the difficult farm life, the economic struggles, the slow and inevitable
encroachment on the natural world by civilization, as well as exploring the various personalities of
peripheral characters by incorporating a few side-plots. What I liked best--and I don’t mind spoiling
this--is that, like the raccoon at the end of Rascal, Robbie’s pet Wolf does not get killed off at the end.

Blue Planet II, while containing a great deal of information on marine animal life that I didn’t know,
concludes with a long section on the precarious balance of the oceans and how humans have caused a
lot of destruction via overfishing, producing so much waste (mostly plastic), and even accidental
disruptions to the web of life such as electronic interference and noise pollution.

Like most secular scientific publications--and documentaries hosted by David Attenborough--Blue
Planet II leans heavily on the assumption that evolution is fact rather than theory, as well as treating
climate change as a purely manmade disaster. In contrast, I believe that the earth is much younger than
evolutionists theorize, and that God created it in seven days as the Bible relates; as for climate change,
I think there’s evidence that the earth goes through cycles of warming and cooling as a natural phenomena.

While my beliefs differ from the writers of Blue Planet II and similar books, however, I do agree with
them that humanity has shown itself a very poor steward of the earth’s resources. So, although I’m not
really an “environmentalist” in the extreme sense of the word, I do try to make wise choices.

It is frustrating to live in a culture that has built itself on an infrastructure of disposability and waste.
Modern-day manufacturers certainly haven’t made it easy for anyone who might want to go “plastic-
less.” It’s enough to make one feel hopeless, to give up because the task is so monumental. Why should
I go without straws if all the sea turtles are going to die anyway?

However, just because others may not care about being stewards of God’s creation, it doesn’t exempt
me from my duty. One of my favorite songs includes the lyrics, “Little is much when God’s in it.”
So maybe small sacrifices are more meaningful than I give them credit for. I never drink my beverages
with straws while I’m at home, so why should I at a fast food place? Instead of cans of juice wrapped
in plastic, can’t I buy juice packaged in cardboard?

One thing that both of these books did was to make me appreciate the natural world. All creation
declares the glory of God, and is a gift not only in its beauty but also in its ability to teach us about
ourselves where we fit in this vast universe. It’s easy in my city life to forget that the paved streets I
drive every day used to be dense forest or wide prairies. Reading books like this (particularly anything
by Sterling North) reminds me not to take any living thing for granted.