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NCSE Releases E.O. Wilson Lecture on Biodiversity Loss The National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) has released The Future of Life, a report containing the text of Dr. Edward O. Wilson's address at the Second Annual John H. Chafee Memorial Lecture on Science and the Environment, a highlight of NCSE's annual conference.
In the lecture, Dr. Wilson discussed human influences on biodiversity loss. Wilson described the challenges of raising the standard of living for humans around the world while keeping intact as much of the natural environment as possible. He summarized his lecture as follows:
Our relations with the rest of life can be put in a nutshell: scientists have found the biosphere…to be richer in diversity than ever before conceived. And that biodiversity, which took over three billion years to evolve, is being eroded at an accelerating rate by human activity. The loss…will inflict a heavy price in wealth and security and spirit.
Wilson described the "ecological footprint" that humans leave on the environment in order to meet their needs for food, water, housing, energy, transport, commerce, and waste management. Using the rapid thinning of the stratospheric ozone layer due to chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as an example, he described how homo sapiens have become a geophysical force capable of perturbing natural environmental cycles and systems. Wilson discussed the limits to scientific knowledge about the extent of biodiversity and the impact of habitat destruction and invasive species on that biodiversity. He closed his lecture with a mixed review of the progress made by global conservation efforts.
Wilson is the Pellegrino University Research Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. He was hailed as "the new Darwin" by Thomas Wolfe and as one of "America's 25 Most Influential People" by Time magazine. Wilson is a pioneer in the field of sociobiology and has written numerous books on ecology and conservation biology, for which he has received two Pulitzer Prizes. His many awards include the U.S. National Medal of Science and the highest scientific award in the field of ecology, the Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. His best-selling book, The Diversity of Life, established him as a leader in the environmental movement and an advisor on preservation legislation at the highest levels of U.S. government.
Dr. Wilson's Chafee Memorial Lecture was presented at NCSE's 2nd National Conference on Science and the Environment, Achieving Sustainable Communities: Science and Solutions. The report can be accessed online at http://www.NCSEonline.org/NCSEconference. Dr. Wilson expanded upon themes presented in the lecture in his book, The Future of Life¸ published in 2002 by Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
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