Peter Kareiva, “Conservation in the Real World”

June 28th, 02011 by Austin Brown

Environmentalism for THIS Century

A Summary by Stewart Brand

Kareiva began by recalling the environmental “golden decade” of 1965-75, set in motion by the scientist Rachel Carson. In quick succession Congress created the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act—which passed the Senate unanimously.

Green influence has been dwindling ever since. A series of polls in the US asked how many agreed with the statement, “Most environmentalists are extremists, not reasonable people.” In 1996, 32% agreed. In 2004, 43% agreed. Now…

Read the rest of Stewart Brand’s Summary here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 28th, 02011 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Long Now Announcements, Seminars.

Milliontrees

I attended Kareiva’s Long Now talk this week. It was consistent with several articles that he has published in the Conservancy’s magazine and blog in the past few months. The Conservancy seems to be reordering its conservation priorities, perhaps in response to the increasingly loud voices of scientists who are expressing concern about the costs and environmental damage that are the unintended consequences of the “restorations” which have evolved out of invasion biology.
Since the Conservancy is one of the only (perhaps only) environmental organizations that is science based, this change should be a powerful influence on other organizations. There is nothing scientifically new in what Kareiva has said recently. What’s new is that he speaks as a representative of one of the most important environmental organizations in the world. Therefore, he makes a connection between theory and action. That is new….very, very, new and very encouraging to those who believe that the native plant movement has a death grip on the public lands of the Bay Area..