Book HackIs a River Alive?By Robert Macfarlane
In a Nutshell
Acclaimed writer and environmentalist Robert Macfarlane explores the animacy of rivers and highlights global efforts to protect them.
Favorite Quote
One way to stop seeing trees or rivers or hills only as 'natural resource' is to class them as fellow beings — kinfolk. I guess I'm trying to subjectify the universe, because look where objectifying it has gotten us.
Ursula K. Le Guin, author
Introduction
Rivers are crucial to the health of our world, but, like most parts of the natural world, they are under threat from humans and the climate crisis we have created. Would we treat our rivers differently if we thought of them as 'alive'?
Robert Macfarlane is a writer and Fellow of Emmanuel College at Cambridge University whose work explores nature and its relationship with people.
In his 2025 book, Is a River Alive?, Macfarlane recounts powerful encounters with waterbodies in Chile, India, and Canada, and the people working to protect them.
Macfarlane also spotlights the Rights of Nature movement, which campaigns for formal protections for the 'more-than-human,' such as rivers.
Here are the 3 key insights from this Hack
- 1.The Rights of Nature movement is saving rivers from exploitation
- 2.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc volutpat, leo ut.
- 3.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc volutpat, leo ut.
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