The extinction crisis
Friday, May 28, 2010 • 9:00am-3:30pm
Telluride Conference Center (AKA “High Camp” in the Mountain Village)
The Symposium is an all-day topical immersion that includes presentations, panel discussions and audience Q&A. Admission includes lunch from 12:30-1:30pm.
Scientists estimate that half of all existing species on the planet will be gone by the end of the twenty-first century. They say that we are currently living during what is called the Holocene Extinction, the sixth major extinction—but the first to be caused by humans.
Festival Director David Holbrooke says, “The statistics are staggering. We’re currently experiencing the worst spate of species die-off since the loss of dinosaurs 65 million years ago. It’s estimated that a species dies off every 20 minutes. Some scientists predict that between 30 and 50 percent of all species will be extinct by mid-century.”
This destruction of biodiversity is deeply alarming and considered by many scientists to be the paramount challenge facing the planet. E.O. Wilson has said that maintaining biodiversity—a word that did not exist twenty years ago—is the key to life continuing here. Quite honestly, we struggled with what to call this theme, a problem we did not have last year with Food. Many people are not clear about what “biodiversity” means, while “flora and fauna” seems a little soft. We’re concerned that “The Extinction Crisis” sounds too grim, but it is accurate because that is exactly what’s happening. That being said, however, there’s an enormous amount of exciting work being done to combat the crisis, much of which will be highlighted at Mountainfilm 2010.
 |
 |
| Josh Bernstein |
Welcome |
| Terry Root |
What is the sixth extinction and how do we know it's happening?  |
| Mike Fay |
What’s happening to many species’ key habitats—the forests
and jungles? |
| Nicole Rosmarino |
What is disappearing in our own backyard? |
Panel Discussion
Bernstein, Fay, Rosmarino & TBA |
What’s at stake with this increased rate of extinction? |
| Joel Sartore |
What are we losing? |
| Rick Ridgeway |
Why are migratory corridors so important to preserving biodiversity? |
| Greg Carr |
What can we bring back? How hard is it to re-populate an ecosystem? |
Panel Discussion
Bernstein, Carr, Foreman & Ridgeway |
What’s working? |
| Maya Lin |
What is Missing? |
| Louie Psihoyos |
What’s happening to our oceans? |
| Dave Foreman |
What is our ethical responsibility to other species, and what is their value to us? |
| Tom Lovejoy |
What’s a wild solution for climate change? |
Panel Discussion
Bernstein, Foreman, Lovejoy,
psihoyos & root |
What is the future for biodiversity? |
Josh bernstein- Introduction
Josh Bernstein, the emcee for the Symposium, has traveled all over the world for television shows on the History Channel and Discovery. He also owns and runs the Boulder Outdoor Survival School.
Terry Root - What is the sixth extinction and how do we know it's happening?
Terry Root is a scientist at Stanford University who studies the viability of species and populations. She is also a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment.
Mike Fay - What’s happening to many species’ key habitats—the forests
and jungles?
Mike Fay studied biodiversity up close when he walked through the jungle in Congo and Gabon for his remarkable Megatransect project in that took him through Congo and Gabon in 1997. A decade later, he traipsed the length of the entire Redwood Forest on the West Coast.
Nicole Rosmarino - What is disappearing in our own backyard?
Nicole Rosmarino is a scientist with Wild Earth Guardians, which works to protect and preserve biodiversity in the American West.
Panel Discussion - What’s at stake with this increased rate of extinction?
Joel Sartore - What are we losing?
Joel Sartore, a National Geographic photographer, has been working on a multi-year project photographing endangered species for his book, Rare.
Rick Ridgeway - Why are migratory corridors so important to preserving biodiversity?
Rick Ridgeway is an acclaimed alpinist and an executive at Patagonia, who has founded and developed, Freedom to Roam, an organization dedicated to establishing and preserving essential migratory corridors for North American species.
Greg Carr - What can we bring back? How hard is it to re-populate an ecosystem?
Greg Carr made his fortune marketing and selling voice mail. He’s since become a philanthropist who has committed $40 Million of his own money and 20 years of his life to reviving a moribund game preserve in Mozambique called Gorongosa, which was ravaged by civil war and drought.
Panel Discussion - What’s working?
Maya Lin - What is Missing?
Maya Lin’s last memorial is about the extinction crisis and is called, What is Missing. It’s a simple question with complicated and disturbing answers that force you to think about how shifting baselines have changed what we think of as ‘normal.’
Louie Psihoyos - What’s happening to our oceans?
Louie Psihoyos, who just won an Oscar for his documentary, The Cove, is making his next film on the extinction crisis in the Oceans and what that means for people living above ground.
Dave Foreman - What is our ethical responsibility to other species, and what is their value to us?
Dave Foreman, the founder of Earth First, has turned his attention to the calamities of the Sixth Extinction. His book, Rewilding North America, calls for restoring big wilderness based on the roles of large predators.
Tom Lovejoy - What’s a wild solution for climate change?
Tom Lovejoy coined the term, biological diversity and is a leading scientist on the subject of extinction. As the head of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment, he looks at how climate change is affecting species loss.
Panel Discussion - What is the future for biodiversity?
