In the culminating event of the book club reading of Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for life, Half-Earth Project members Paula Ehrlich, Walter Jetz and Piotr Naskrecki answered audience questions, digging into how this visionary concept is bringing conservation efforts of all types under a single umbrella, with all parties using their unique skills and expertise to advance the goal of Half-Earth.
The Essence of the Half-Earth Project
“When E.O. Wilson wrote Half-Earth…he wrote a book aimed at bringing out the best in people by inspiring collaboration, common purpose and future possibilities. It takes hope to meet great challenges, and the book Half-Earth challenges us to be the best that we can hope for in facing a challenge we intend to win.”
— Paula Ehrlich, President and CEO of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation and lead of the Half-Earth Project
The Loss of Unknown Species
“The fact is we are racing against something that not many people are aware of. We are racing not only against the loss of habitat, but we are also racing against the loss of species that we don’t even know exist yet…So, one race that we have to win is we have to significantly, by an order of magnitude, outpace the rate of species loss. Why? Because you cannot effectively protect something if you don’t know it exists.”
— Piotr Naskrecki, Half-Earth Chair and Director of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory, Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique
The Global Picture of Species Diversity
“It’s the species that are ultimately the unit that we are talking about here. A species doesn’t exist in our minds until it’s been discovered. There is something actually, a deeply ethical question around that, the ignorance with which we could continue to go about on this planet not even knowing about the life around us and the species around us.”
— Walter Jetz, Yale University and E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation Scientific Chair
Balancing the Needs of Species and People
“In some cases what we are talking about in Half-Earth is not necessarily huge new parks or reserves…In many cases we’re talking about what Ed actually called a “gerrymandering” of reserves if you will, of places that are seeing species put first and human uses potentially put second, but not excluded.”
— Walter Jetz, Yale University and E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation Scientific Chair
Connecting Conservation Areas
“What we are trying to do now is to create a corridor that stretches for about 150 km from the coast inland, a corridor that will encompass all possible types of landscapes and ecosystems that can be found in this part of the world. Now again, we cannot just declare that this is a protected area, we have to work with local communities, we have to work with the government and we have to decide what is the best strategy that will satisfy both our requirements for conservation, but also will make this conservancy beneficial to people who are already there.”
— Piotr Naskrecki, Half-Earth Chair and Director of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory, Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique
Companies for a Half-Earth Future
“There is I think a mindset that’s shifting amongst businesses and individuals around what we should value….Ed writes about this a little in the book. The products that cost less to manufacture, that need less frequent repair and replacement, that give the highest performance with the least energy will be the winners.”
— Paula Ehrlich, President and CEO of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation and Half-Earth Project Lead
The Loss of the Buffering Effect
“The richer the biosphere, the more species we have, the greater the buffering effect…Maybe the reason we are having the pandemic right now and other outbreak of the diseases is not necessarily because we are encroaching on those ecosystems and getting closer to those organisms, which is probably true, but because we have removed something that was between us and those organisms.”
— Piotr Naskrecki, Half-Earth Chair and Director of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory, Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique
This book club was a collaboration of the Half-Earth Project and the Mickey Hart Book Club, and featured individual conversations with:
