October 6, 2011
E.O. Wilson is one of the most significant scientists, authors and activists of the 21st century. Named one of America’s 25 Most Influential People by TIME magazine and recipient of the National Medal of Science and two Pulitzer Prizes, Edward Wilson is a man who not only sees the world as it is, but who acts in a way that influences what it can and should be.
Wilson’s work in the areas of biogeography and biodiversity give a whole new perspective on how to approach global conservation efforts. As Christian A. Johnson Excellence in Teaching Professor of Biology Ernest Williams said in his opening at the James S. Plant Distinguished Scientist Lecture Monday night, it is rare to find someone who can “alter the direction of scientific thought,” and alter it Wilson has.
Born in Alabama, Wilson was blinded as a young boy in one eye by the dorsal fin of a spiny fish, allowing him to explore the natural world from a different perspective. His life’s work includes the classification and ecology of ants. He explained in his lecture that we have scarcely begun to explore our biosphere, or the parts of the Earth that support life, and it is estimated we still have not discovered 90 percent of the species of organisms living on this Earth. Wilson consistently drew chuckles from the audience as he hinted at career paths in microbiology, virology and nematology as a way to discover more of the vast majority of species that are still unknown to science. Chuckling aside, Wilson used these examples to make a strong point: The biosphere is richer in diversity than ever before conceived.
At the core of Wilson’s achievements is the concept of biodiversity, categorized in three descending dimensions. The first dimension encompasses all the ecosystems in the world, the second includes all the species that are contained in these ecosystems, and the third consists of the genes that define different species. According to Wilson, our focus is too centered on the conservation of non-livable environments. He says we forget that biodiversity is diminishing in our livable environments through habitat destruction, introduction of invasive species, pollution, overpopulation and overharvesting. Wilson said we cannot expect to produce effective responses to the environmental challenges of the 21st Century without a greater understanding of diversity and the factors that promote it.
“What is it that keeps the world going?” asked Wilson. Could it simply be the preservation of biodiversity? If so, without much thought we are already causing the extinction of countless species of organisms, and that’s just the ones of which we know.
Why aren’t we doing more to preserve the biodiversity around us? Wilson’s ending request was that we promote greater efforts for the preservation of diversity through scientific, educational and monetary efforts. He ended his lecture with a quote by John Sawhill: “In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create, but by what we refuse to destroy.”