The book, titled Il richiamo della montagna (The Calling of the Mountains), is a kind of essay in which the author, Matteo Righetto, reflects on the relationship between humans and nature, more specifically, mountains [5]. He uses recent events in the Dolomites as a narrative thread, such as the fires, the Vaia storm of 2018, and, of course, the 2022 glacier collapse.

One of Righetto’s main arguments is the growing disconnection between modern society and Nature, particularly among mountain communities. He asks: “Do we finally want to realize that these mountains are ourselves?”

Righetto is not the first to challenge the flawed Human vs. Nature dichotomy, highlighting that humans are, in fact, part of nature. This false duality is not an innocent lie but a harmful one, for us and the planet. By seeing ourselves as separate from the ecosystem — not just living in it, but being part of it — we allow ourselves to stop caring.

One of Righetto’s main arguments is the growing disconnection between modern society and Nature, particularly among mountain communities. He asks: “Do we finally want to realize that these mountains are ourselves?”

Righetto is not the first to challenge the flawed Human vs. Nature dichotomy, highlighting that humans are, in fact, part of nature. This false duality is not an innocent lie but a harmful one, for us and the planet. By seeing ourselves as separate from the ecosystem — not just living in it, but being part of it — we allow ourselves to stop caring.

Readers of Righetto’s book will recognize how different it feels to see the landscape as either a stranger in your own home or as someone who belongs to something bigger. Sadly, the former perspective — and lifestyle — is becoming increasingly common. This trend must be stopped. Our disconnection from the environment — what Ortega y Gasset (the Spanish writer and philosopher) already called in 1917 “being without a landscape” — is, in fact, dangerous [6].

It has become crucial to educate young people to feel that connection again; to develop a sense of belonging, not to a physical place in a regionalist or nationalist way, but as part of what Aldo Leopold calls the “Earth community” [7]. The Earth community is nothing but the continuum formed by water, air, soil, and all living beings — the planet itself.

We need an environmental education that reminds us that we are animals too — part of the ecosystem — and that brings us back to more mindful, sustainable ways of thinking and living. The book focuses on mountain communities and the need to re-learn respect for the natural rhythm of everything. The author stresses rejecting the rush of lowland life (the city rush) and returning to the slower pace of mountain life. To relearn nature’s rhythm — to hear what the mountain tells us. According to Righetto, this much-needed environmental education is actually a re-education — a wild re-education. So if you, too, feel like leaving your Homo sapiens behind and embracing your Homo selvaticus, you know what to do.

Cover image: Marmolada from Col di Rosc in Summer 2019. 2015 Michael 2015, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.