The Arrogant Ape. The Myth of Human Exceptionalism and Why it Matters by Christine Webb

“The argument of The Arrogant Ape is that human exceptionalism–aka Anthropocentrism or human supremacy–is at the root of the ecological crisis.”

This book is exceptionally appropriate for anyone who cares about, stewards, or protects land. In fact, when I first saw the cover and title I immediately thought of our forests and the way much modern practice treats them. We often act as though they need and depend on us to manage them, though they do not.

It seems that I can recall a day when forest management was primarily focused on generating wood products over the long term. People would identify an area of forest deemed appropriate for timber production and then devise a management plan to yield useful products, while manipulating the forest for a future with better and more valuable timber products. Other areas were preserved and managed passively for nature and for human enjoyment. 

These days, when a person hires a consulting forester, collaborates with a conservation manager, or assembles a group of agency heads to discuss their mission, there is much less discussion of products and much more about other motivations. We hear about “forest health,” “ecological integrity,” “climate resilience,” and “resistance” in the face of…natural disturbances; human stresses; invasive pests, pathogens, and plants; and climate change. And, as I explore elsewhere in this issue, we hear about “biodiversity” and the goal of maintaining the anthropogenically-dependent species from Henry Thoreau’s landscape. 

These conversations suggest that many people have suddenly concluded that past management was poor or negligent; that nature needs fixing; and that we, with our chainsaws, herbicide, heavy equipment, and deep insight, are here to help. This posture is not about halting climate change or conserving land from developers. It is about going into state and national forests and parks or private woodlots and repairing past mistakes, predicting the future, warding off disturbances, or planting and selecting the “species of the future.” Evidently having managed poorly in the past, we are suddenly gifted with new knowledge (but largely the same old tools) and are inclined to tinker with and improve (in this generation’s judgment) nearly every forest and conservation area we encounter.

I yearn for a future where we can grant nature and every species agency, treat it and them as co-equals here on earth, and follow one of two simple paths with forests. The first path: Grant them free will and let them be, with no tweaking, tinkering, or…improvement. Or, the second path: Manage them explicitly for human benefit—wood products, recreation, specific desired habitats, and beauty. 

Our recent paper, Beyond the Illusion of Preservation, calculated that if we reduced our demand in appropriate ways, New England could meet its wood product needs from local production while expanding Wilderness and other Wildlands across at least 20 percent of the region, and perhaps as much as 30 percent. That paper envisions only two important directions for active management: reducing the degrading management of forests in the northern part of our region, and engaging landowners in the southern part of the region to conserve and plan for their forest’s future.

Hubris and human exceptionalism abound today. Fortunately, the next generation of ecological foresters will know even more, and will come back to fix our mistakes.

And that is why I love The Arrogant Ape. This book gives nature credit. It provides a compelling argument that we should accept other species and all life as equal. And it underscores how little we actually know about nature and how poorly we have applied that limited knowledge. Much of our greatest limitation in knowledge is rooted in human exceptionalism. We evaluate all on our terms.

Based on her own research with primates; that of many colleagues with other life forms; and with a growing appreciation of other, especially Indigenous, approaches to life, nature, and knowledge, Christine Webb envisions a different path forward. It is humble, less assertive and domineering, and gentler. Reading her excellent writing provides a breath of fresh air. Rather like a nice undirected walk in the woods.

Learn more and purchase the book at Penguin Random House.

Recommended by David Foster