一般財団法人環境イノベーション情報機構
The Biotic Crisis: Mass Extinction of Species and Disruption of Future Evolution?
【募集期間】| 2002.04.10〜2002.05.02 "The Biotic Crisis: Mass Extinction of Species and Disruption of Future Evolution?”
Invitational Lecture, Seminar Room, 1 Floor, UNU/IAS
7 May 2002, 11.00 - 12.30.
Professor Norman Myers, Honorary Visiting Fellow, Green College, Oxford University
This invitational lecture will explore the biotic crisis overtaking our planet and its potential to precipitate a major extinction of species. The central argument is that in the long term this could disrupt and deplete certain basic processes of evolution with consequences likely to persist for millions of years. Distinctive features of future evolution could include a homogenisation of flora and fauna in particular areas, a proliferation of opportunistic species, a pest-and-weed ecology, an outburst of species that prosper in human-dominated ecosystems, an end of the widespread speciation of large animals, and the depletion of the “evolutionary powerhouses” in the tropics.
Despite this likelihood, we have only rudimentary understanding of how we are altering the evolutionary future. As a result of our ignorance, conservation policies fail to reflect the long-term evolutionary aspects of biodiversity loss.
This invitational lecture is open to the public, and registration is not required.
For further information, please contact Ms. Shimizu at shimizu@ias.unu.edu.
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Professor Norman Myers is one of the world’s leading environmental thinkers and has pioneered a lengthy list of research issues from his early work in the 1970s when he challenged the contemporary thinking of the rate of species extinction and significantly influenced a whole generation of biodiversity experts. Throughout his career he received many awards and prizes. Most recently, he was awarded the Blue Planet Prize in 2001 from the Asahi Glass Foundation.
【登録日】2002.04.25