New Film Supports Work of E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation and the Half-Earth Project
DURHAM, N.C., April 20, 2024 — Conservationist and actor Harrison Ford has made a passionate plea to protect global biodiversity in a powerful short film produced in partnership with the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation and the Half-Earth Project.
The short film issues a call to listen to the voices of biodiversity and take action to reimagine how we care for our planet. Ford’s message was written in collaboration with Anthony Doerr, a Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction writer, and Dr. Paula J. Ehrlich, the president and CEO of the Foundation.
“Any individual life—mine or yours—is nothing but a wisp of thread in the miles-long rope of life,” Ford explains in the film, which will be available for viewing via the Foundation’s website and social media channels. “The most meaningful thing we can do in our time on Earth is to ensure that the rope isn’t too frayed for the next generation.”
Ford has been a friend of E.O. Wilson, the renowned naturalist, biologist, entomologist, and namesake of the Foundation, since the early 1990s. They worked together for nearly three decades to champion the conservation of global biodiversity, and Ford remains a strong advocate of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. In 2002, Wilson named a new ant species Pheidole harrisonfordi in recognition of Ford’s conservation work, and in 2010, the friends teamed up again to create the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.
In creating this message, Harrison Ford’s aim is to engage people in the importance of biodiversity to our lives and the enduring sustainability of our planet. “Harrison’s voice echoes the heart of E.O. Wilson’s greatest hope,” Ehrlich said, “that we nurture an exciting adventure in nature in order to best understand and care for nature.”
E.O. Wilson’s book, “Half-Earth,” is a call to protect half the Earth’s land and sea in order to manage sufficient habitat to safeguard the bulk of biodiversity. The Foundation’s Half-Earth Project is inspiring informed collective action to save the biosphere, and using geospatial information to inform what network of places should be prioritized for conservation in order to protect the most species.
About the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation
The E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation’s mission is to reimagine the way we care for our planet. The Foundation’s major initiative, the Half-Earth Project, is working to inspire informed collective action to save the biosphere. Visit eowilsonfoundation.org to learn more.
Contact:
Niquole Esters
Vice President of Strategic Engagement
nesters@eowilsonfoundation.org
(510) 631-7571
