Columns:: Worth repeating

since 12/15/98

Columns::April 7, 2003

Worth repeating

Edward O. Wilson delivered the spring Charter Lecture in the Chapel March 25 to a standing-room-only audience. He discussed “The Future of Life.” An excerpt:
“Our relation to the rest of life is this: Scientists over the past couple of decades have found the biosphere to be far richer in diversity than anyone had imagined. This biodiversity, which took over three billion years to evolve, is eroding at an accelerating rate, a loss which will inflict a heavy price on our economic life, wealth, security, and our spirit. Altogether I think the 21st century will be the century of the environment. . . . The immediate future, I think, is well-summarized with the concept of a bottleneck. We are into a bottleneck. We are still growing the population--it’s at 6.3 billion. Now United Nations figures speak of the peak being reached somewhere in the second half of this century . . . probably at around 8.9 billion. In a way that’s good news. . . . Our goal should be, in this coming century, to get humanity through this bottleneck and bring much of the rest of life along. . . .
“Science and technology, combined with the lack of understanding on the part of our species and the paleolithic obstinacy that characterizes us, brought us to where we are today. If science and technology combine with foresight and hope, they can see us through that bottleneck--one hopes by the end of the century.
“There are a couple of collateral effects of the bottleneck to keep in mind. . . . The first is the income difference between the wealthiest countries and the poorer countries. The ratio in income: 30 to 1 in the 1950s, now it is 74 to 1. Eight-hundred-million people still live in what the United Nations classifies as absolute poverty. No clean water, rampant disease, and periodic starvation. . . . We should consider this a matter of urgent national security: to look after the environment and the health care of people who live in developing countries.”

--Beth Roberts

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