I am a professor of Biology at Western Washington University. My research focus is evolutionary autecology and I typically use deserts as my model ecosystem of research focus, and lizards as my model organismal system for investigating the major features of adaptedness in the integrated organismal phenotypes of the animal that have evolved to a particular range of biotic and abiotic challenges. The undergraduate courses reflect my focus: Animal Behavior, Comparative Vertebrate Physiology, Vertebrate Zoology, Ecology, Introductory Evolution and Evolution, and two concurrent summer field research courses: Ecological Methods, and Research in Reptile Ecology. More relevant to this website, however, is that I have a library of 50,000 pdfs and a few thousand books, from which I have derived much perspective and the temerity to attempt to launch this proposal for Origins & Extinctions Days, and a World Center for Survival of our Cultural and Biological Heritage, buttressed by Our Ethical Imperative.
A recent article in the Lancet revealed that the youth in the USA are suffering in various ways from “climate anxiety. ” See: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00278-3/fulltext . They understand that adults have known about the building climate crisis for decades and the youth know the efforts to end the crisis have been too little and they fear … More Responsibility to Contribute to Well-Being
Some of the “acronymic” entities of the UN that function in ways that are complementary to the O & E Days and World Center endeavors include the IPCC, UNFCCC, OECD, UNEP, and also Future Earth. The highly laudable efforts and accomplishments of the foregoing and also Global Commons Alliance must be gratefully recognized. The Global … More Organizations with efforts complementary to O & E endeavors
In 2015, Wales passed the “Well-being of Future Generations Act” and since then has diligently produced governance guidance for individuals and groups who wish to participate in developing policies and procedures and in their implementation. In an governmental website describing what Wales is attempting to do under the aegis of the act (see https://www.futuregenerations.wales/about-us/future-generations-act/ ), … More Well-being of Future Generations Act
Looking back to my first years in college, 1971-1973, at the approximate zenith of the middle economic class, I had recently witnessed big events of the prior decade, including such highlights as passage of Civil Rights Acts (1964, 1968), Voting Rights Act (1965, although substantially reduced in its effect by U.S. Supreme Court by Shelby … More Considering Political Cycles
On Common Dreams website I encountered some corroboration https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/02/23/call-all-progressive-candidates-and-officeholders-embrace-21st-century-economic
It occurred to me, given the credible, prevailing evidence that college professors do not indoctrinate students, and actually have little impact on socio-political views of students, then neither these professors nor teachers in middle school and high school have done enough to help students learn to think independently, particularly with regard to 1) the pitfalls … More Thoughts about thinking
On the Lists page of the Origins and Extinctions website is a list of 242 academic journals which were among those that have been rich sources of knowledge, creativity and wisdom for me. Those academic writings have impelled me to develop the website and call for annual meetings and a world center to integrate the … More Connecting the Academic Silos
It would be most gratifying if across the biosphere, faculty and their students at universities and colleges, along with public intellectuals not directly affiliated with higher education were to stand up and speak out during Origins and Extinctions Days. They could make the necessary leap forward that is needed to secure the integrity of our … More The Knowledge Integration Network
The elegant document Maintaining Humanity’s Life Support System in the 21st Century at http://consensusforaction.stanford.edu/see-scientific-consensus/consensus_english.pdf can be seen as a clarion call for the importance of Origins and Extinctions Days, the Knowledge Integration Network, and the World Center for Survival of Our Cultural and Biological Heritage. In our current political climate, the document remains searingly fresh four … More Maintaining Humanity’s Life Support
ORIGINS AND EXTINCTIONS 