Renowned scientist Edward O. Wilson discussed the various threats to the Earth’s environment Monday, Feb. 16 during the Voices of Discovery lecture and asserted that the investment needed to protect the planet’s most endangered areas is well within reach. Details…
The Voices of Discovery science speaker series, sponsored by Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences, invites noted scholars in science and mathematics to Elon to share their knowledge and experience with students. Earlier in the day, Wilson met with students in several science classes to discuss important scientific issues one-on-one.
A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Wilson likened human consumption of the environment to a family that inherits a large amount of money and is spending it down faster each year. “The long term prospects for the natural economy are not promising,” Wilson said.
While pointing out the wide gap between the world’s rich and poor, Wilson said the Earth cannot sustain consumption at the rate currently seen in America. “If the rest of the world lived like Americans, we would need four more planet Earths.”
Though we tend to think of the environment only in terms of our local communities, Wilson said everyone makes their mark on what he called the world’s “ecological footprint.”
“A little bit of Costa Rica you own and exploit for your coffee; a little bit of Saudi Arabia for your oil,” Wilson said.
Throughout the evening, Wilson echoed the plea for conservation made in his latest book, “The Future of Life.” He said he believes one of the first steps is to reverse the growth in human population, which is currently at 6 billion people and is expected to swell to 9 billion before reaching its peak.
“It is insane to think of human progress as adding more people,” Wilson said, especially since more than 800 million people live in what he defined as “absolute poverty.”
Preservation of the world’s rainforests, where the greatest environmental diversity is found, is essential to maintaining the delicate balance of life on the planet. Today, rainforests occupy about 6 percent of the Earth’s surface, or an area about the size of the United States. This is “about half of what it was when humans came on the scene,” Wilson said, and the current rate of rainforest destruction is equivalent to about half the state of Florida each year.
With various species going extinct 1,000 times faster than new ones are being created, Wilson said he believes funding for scientific research will increase. In a recent estimate, he and other scientists concluded that an investment of $28 billion would protect 25 “environmental hotspots,” as well as the tropical rainforests.
“That’s roughly a third of what we have just committed to Iraq,” Wilson said. “The resources to do it exist, and the cost is not high, it is actually astonishingly low.”
Wilson closed his speech by quoting business leader and environmentalist John Sawhill, who said, “A society is defined not just by what it creates, but what it refuses to destroy.”