This lecture will advance an alternate explanation of post-colonial political conflict. Yet, not everyone shows these adverse reactions. This talk will focus on efforts to understand why some people react more extremely than others to social rejection and the pernicious consequences of such overreactions. The earth's biological diversity is in serious jeopardy.
Species are in decline and ecosystems have been compromised.
In the face of these potentially catastrophic changes, we must use our best science and policy formulation to stem the degradation of the biological world on which we so heavily rely. To do this will involve a two-pronged approach. First, we will need to muster the political and economic will in the financial capitals and halls of government throughout the world to set aside and sustain as many natural lands as possible. Next, we will need to employ the best laboratory and field biologists and train legions more to inventory and map ecological, species, and genetic diversity on a scale and over a time frame unprecedented in the scientific research community. This scientific effort will allow us to pinpoint exactly which areas need to be set aside and protected in order to hedge against the cascade of extinction that follows a decline in ecological and genetic diversity.