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Ecological Systems in the Anthropocene Seminar Series
"Can Conservation Biology Survive the Anthropocene?"
This panel brings together world leaders in conservation science to debate how relevant conservation is today given the multiple threats that many species face: habitat loss, overexploitation, and climate change. We’ll begin by reviewing the current extinction crisis, then discuss how the multiple threats of the Anthropocene alter conservation biology---and what that means for how conservation organizations act to conserve and preserve diversity today and in the future.
Panelists:
JON HOEKSTRA
Executive Director, Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust
PETER KARIEVA
Director, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA; Senior Science Advisor to the President, The Nature Conservancy
M. SANJAYAN
Executive Vice President and Senior Scientist, Conservation International
Moderated by:
ELIZABETH WOLKOVICH
Assistant Professor, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology; Faculty Fellow, Arnold Arboretum
About the Series:
Since the retreat of glaciers poleward over 10,000 years ago, humans have left an ever increasing fingerprint on ecological systems across the globe. The environment is now dominated by people—approximately 1/3 of land area has been transformed for human use and 1/4 of global productivity diverted to human consumption. While concepts such as wilderness attempt to escape this reality, there is virtually no habitat on earth devoid of some sign of humans influence on the globe—be it chemical, thermal, or a missing or introduced species. Today, this imprint is so pronounced that scientists are actively debating naming a new geological epoch demarcated by the sign of humans on the earth system itself: the Anthropocene.
In the shadow of this debate, the HUCE seminar series "Ecological Systems in the Anthropocene" will examine the future of social-environmental systems in a globe heavily impacted by humans. Each year the series will present a set of speakers and events (e.g., seminars, panels, debates) focused on one perspective under this theme.