Richard Leakey, the Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist and politician, gave an engaging, hour-long lecture Wednesday night at Aquinas College. Leakey, who along with his archaeologist parents Louis and Mary Leakey was selected as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century, was the guest of the World Affairs Council of West Michigan, and the much anticipated presentation did not disappoint.
Leakey's talk focused on a similar topic as his seminal 1995 book The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind: Earth has had five major extinctions in its existence, and is currently in the midst of its sixth thanks in large part to man-made environmental degradation and climate change. He defined an extinction as at least 80% of plant and animal species ceasing to exist; at the rate it is occurring now, a unique species dies out every 20 minutes. Climate and environmental changes are happening faster than their inhabitants can evolve, making it impossible for some to survive.
Regardless of the inherent and controversial politics of the topic, by using a potent mix of scientific fact and emotional appeals to the packed house's common sense and decency, Leakey made a compelling argument. He told the story of a pride of lions that experienced a huge decline in numbers, a die-off that was eventually linked to a pesticide working its way from crops to smaller animals to the lions. It turns out that that particular pesticide had previously been banned in North America and Europe, but with laxer regulations in Africa, the manufacturer was able to sell it there. Only when the infected meat of chickens and ducks started showing up in village markets and killing people did the government eventually act to ban it. But wouldn't you know it, that exact same pesticide is now back in Kenya, only under a different brand name. Mitt Romney would say corporations are people, but in this specific instance, those people don't seem very nice.
He joked that he is comforted by his own mortality, because he won't have to deal with these huge problems the world face. Another example - he explained how one hundred years ago, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hovered around 250-280 parts per million; now, in 2014, that number is around 400 parts per million. At 450 parts per million, the wheat crops growing in our fields, the basis of most diets around the world, will begin to suffer a precipitous decline in its nutrition and caloric value. So we've got that going for us...which is nice.
He was quick to add that it's not too late to reverse this trend, but that it will require a combination of strong leadership at the top of government and a democratic, grass roots-led movement to demand tougher, smarter decisions from our elected officials. So far, we have neither. And with the third-world undergoing their own industrial revolutions, on an even quicker scale, these emissions stand to increase even more without some sort of drastic action.
Regardless of the inherent and controversial politics of the topic, by using a potent mix of scientific fact and emotional appeals to the packed house's common sense and decency, Leakey made a compelling argument. He told the story of a pride of lions that experienced a huge decline in numbers, a die-off that was eventually linked to a pesticide working its way from crops to smaller animals to the lions. It turns out that that particular pesticide had previously been banned in North America and Europe, but with laxer regulations in Africa, the manufacturer was able to sell it there. Only when the infected meat of chickens and ducks started showing up in village markets and killing people did the government eventually act to ban it. But wouldn't you know it, that exact same pesticide is now back in Kenya, only under a different brand name. Mitt Romney would say corporations are people, but in this specific instance, those people don't seem very nice.
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| Turkana Boy, the most complete early human skeleton ever found, was discovered by Leakey's team in 1984. It is 1.5 million years old. |
He was quick to add that it's not too late to reverse this trend, but that it will require a combination of strong leadership at the top of government and a democratic, grass roots-led movement to demand tougher, smarter decisions from our elected officials. So far, we have neither. And with the third-world undergoing their own industrial revolutions, on an even quicker scale, these emissions stand to increase even more without some sort of drastic action.
An audience member asked him during the Q&A if the great asteroid that struck down in the Yucatan 65 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs with its resulting changes in climate and environment, was an analog for the situation we find ourselves in today. Leakey replied that the analogy only worked if you consider the human race an asteroid with no means of changing its collision course. Our crash landing is not inevitable, even as it grows more and more likely.
He shared one last example of the negative effects of these environmental changes. Malaria, even with everything we know about it and the strides we've taken to eradicate it, is spreading across the Atlantic into the equatorial areas of South America. The high altitude areas there, which used to get cold enough to kill off mosquitoes, now serve as an ideal breeding ground during the rainy season.
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