E. O. Wilson to Speak at Goshen
College
Goshen College’s first annual Christner Memorial Lecture will feature the celebrated E. O. Wilson, Professor of Biology at Harvard University, and one of the most highly respected scientists in the world today. Wilson will speak on biodiversity, the irreversible harm done to the planet and to the human race when species are lost, and the actions we can take to prevent mass extinctions.
The lecture will take place October 23, 2007, 7:30 p.m. at Sauder Hall in The Music Center, Goshen College, Goshen, IN.
The E.O. Wilson’s lecture is open to all at no charge; tickets are not required.
“I expect that E.O. Wilson will draw a crowd,” says Luke Gascho, executive director of Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College. Previous hosts report that attenders drove two or more hours one-way to attend their events.
E. O. Wilson was hailed as one of “America’s 25 Most Influential People” by Time Magazine, and has twice received the Pulitzer Prize for his books, Ants and On Human Nature. Wilson has also been one of the most prominent scientific voices to speak out about the crisis of species extinction that has engulfed the earth in the past half century.
Wilson’s talk at Goshen College will draw on the ideas of his best-selling book, The Future of Life (2002), to make a passionate and eloquent plea for a new approach to the management and protection of our eco-systems. Marshalling arguments from science, economics, and ethics, Wilson will demonstrate that proper stewardship of the earth’s bio-diversity is not an option; it is a necessity, and a choice we must make if life is going to continue to thrive on the only home we have.
Despite the grim news in parts of his book, Wilson wraps up The Future of Life with the claim that most ecosystems and species can still be protected—and that doing so is “the best bargain humanity has ever been offered.” He puts the price tag of global conservation at $30 billion, or one-thousandth of the (2002) annual world domestic product. A one-cent-per-cup tax on coffee could protect and manage the world’s existing reserves, Wilson says.
One of the action steps Wilson is likely to mention in his talk is a new project entitled, The Encyclopedia of Life, begun this May by a consortium including Harvard and the Smithsonian. The goal is to create a vast electronic database of all available information about all known species and to accelerate the discovery of species still unknown. This project is needed because “we will never completely understand and preserve the living world around us at our present level of ignorance,” Wilson says.
In his most recent book, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth,
Wilson initiates a dialog between Christians and his own secular humanist perspective.
The subtitle of the first section aptly describes this brief volume as, “A
call for help and an invitation to visit the embattled natural world in the
company of a biologist.” Wilson challenges Christians to embrace care
of the earth as an important part of their calling.
“[R]eligion and science are the two most powerful forces in the world
today…” Wilson says. “If religion and science could be united
on the common ground of biological conservation, the problem would soon be
solved.”
“I greatly respect E.O. Wilson’s commitment to engage faith-based communities,” says Ryan Sensenig, a biology professor at Goshen College and Merry Lea’s Lindsey Fellow. “It should strengthen the church’s resolve to articulate care of the Creation which is grounded in the best science.”
“I am eager to hear what opportunities for dialog have emerged for E.O. Wilson since The Creation was published, Gascho muses.
The E.O. Wilson lecture is a gift from the late Nancy Christner de Targioni and the Christner Foundation. Although de Targioni’s home was in Spain, her family had roots in Indiana in the Wabash area, and she believed strongly in the importance of environmental education for Hoosiers.
Before her death in April 2007, de Targioni chose E.O. Wilson as the first
speaker for the Christner Memorial lectures. “Her enthusiasm was vibrant
in every communication as plans were made,” says Gascho, who worked
with her on the lecture series. De Targioni and the Christner Foundation have
also provided funds for a scholarship for Merry Lea’s Master’s
in Environmental Education.
E.O. Wilson’s lecture is open to all at no charge; tickets are not required.