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Lecture on Habitat Size, Time to Extinction
Tom Lovejoy, president of The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics
and the Environment, and former president of the World Wildlife Fund, will
give a lecture titled “Teaming With Life: The Future at the Dawn of the Sixth
Great Extinction,” on Thursday, Oct. 21, at 4 p.m., at Konover Auditorium.
His talk is part of the Teale Series on Nature and the Environment.
Lovejoy will describe recent research that predicts how and when fragmentation of a habitat will result in extinction of species, and will explain what can be done to prevent these extinctions.
“Until now it has not been possible to know how fast a fragmented habitat would lose species,” says Lovejoy. “Now we know that habitats in the Amazon that are smaller than one square kilometer lose half their bird species in less than 15 years, too quickly for conservation measures to work, so we must preserve larger areas in advance.
“Understanding the connection between habitat fragment size and time to extinction for bird species in the Amazon will help scientists deal with similar problems in other areas and with other species.”
In 1979, Lovejoy founded the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Program, one of the most extensive and longest-running ecological projects. He is chair of the National Geographic’s Conservation Trust Advisory Board, the U.S. Man and Biosphere Program, and the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies, and is past-president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences and the Society for Conservation Biology.
Rights and Sovereignty Talk
Seyla Benhabib, Eugene Meyer Professor of Political
Science and Philosophy and director of the Program in Ethics, Politics, and Economics
at Yale University, will give a lecture titled “The Right to Have Rights
in Contemporary Europe: A Philosophical and Institutional Perspective,” on
Monday, Oct. 25 at 4 p.m. in Konover Auditorium.
In her lecture, Benhabib will elucidate the tension between rights and sovereignty in the context of contemporary Europe.
Her research and publishing have focused on issues of state, gender, citizenship, rights, and deliberative democracy.
In a forthcoming book, she explores how human rights and claims for self-determination are in tension, especially with increasing numbers of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.
Benhabib taught at Harvard University from 1993 to 2000, and at the New School for Social Research from 1991 to 1993. She was a Russell Sage Foundation Fellow during 2000-2001.
