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.
If logistics do not permit the venue to be held on tribal lands then in November 2023, the first Origins and Extinctions Days events may happen on the campus of Western Washington University, in Bellingham, WA, along the shores of the Salish Sea. Bellingham is a city of 80,000, in the northwest corner of Washington … More The venue for Origins & Extinctions Days
60 % of the species of terrestrial megafauna are classified as threatened with extinction on the IUCN Red List. The impending tragedy is most imminent in sub-Saharan Africa and in southeast Asia, and these also are the places with median human ages under 20 (https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-09-08/these-maps-show-where-world-s-youngest-and-oldest-people-live). That is, the locations for the greatest potential for human … More Terrestrial Megafauna in Peril
The profoundly important concept of intergenerational equity arguably came to the forefront in conservation science with the publication of Edith Brown Weiss’ book, In Fairness to Future Generations (1989) and with Robert Costanza’s book Ecological Economics (1991). A brilliant essay combining the IE concept with the need to guide our cultural evolution was written by … More Intergenerational Equity & Cultural Evolution
Two books which cogently discuss the ethical challenges of climate change are: Debating Climate Ethics (2016) by Stephen M. Gardiner and David A. Weisbach and A Perfect Moral Storm (2011) by Stephen M. Gardiner.
Three recent documents are worth your contemplation: Click to access Ripple_etal_BioScience_2017.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305687531_Saving_the_World’s_Terrestrial_Megafauna Click to access lpr_living_planet_report_2016.pdf
The Smithsonian! … More Update: Smithsonian extended Earth Day Event
Under the aegis of the Roosevelt Institute, in 2015, Dr Joseph E. Stiglitz (Awarded the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences, 2001) and colleagues published a compelling report “Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy,” subtitled “an agenda for growth and shared prosperity,” which can be accessed here: http://rooseveltinstitute.org/rewriting-rules-report/
This is the excerpt for a featured content post. … More Language Diversity
This is the excerpt for a featured content post. … More Indigenous Rights & Human Rights
ORIGINS AND EXTINCTIONS 