Where can one go to learn about “Living in the New Normal” and protecting our ever increasingly fragile environment? For me, attending on behalf of the Jay Heritage Center, that destination was Colorado and the 2012 Aspen Environmental Forum presented by the Aspen Institute (AI) and the National Geographic Society.
E. O. “Ed” Wilson, Pulitzer Prize winner, Harvard biologist and author of “The Social Conquest of the Earth” kicked off the opening session on Friday, June 22nd. His lively conversation with AI’s Executive Vice President of Policy and Public Partners, Elliot Gerson, drew an attentive audience that included scientific colleagues like renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle. Wilson touched on everything from inspiring young people to study nature through his new biology textbook app “Life on Earth” with its Pixar-quality images to his own current efforts to protect biodiversity through establishing wildlife corridors: “American flora and fauna need room to expand.” Beyond online access, Wilson was adamant “You’ve got to get the kid out in the woods, in the natural environment, as much as you can.” Looking back on his own childhood, he declared that every child goes through a “bug period” and confessed that when he was young he viewed entomologists as “demi-gods.” That passionate advice is harnessed in his latest book project, previewed in his “Letter to a Young Scientist.”
When I asked him to weigh in on threats endangering our native species today, Wilson enumerated the following primary factors which can be remembered by the acronym HIPPO (Habitat destruction, Invasive species, Population, Pollution, Overharvesting). He was emphatic – if we continue at the present rate of eliminating species, half of them will be gone by the end of the century.
Other superb presentations featured Department of the Interior Deputy Secretary David Hayes, Osvel Hinojosa-Huerta, Director of the Water and Wetlands Program of Pronatura Noroeste, and Jonathan Overpeck, Director of the Institute of the Environment at the University of Arizona. With the news of the Colorado wildfires very much on everyone’s mind, these 3 individuals candidly balanced the continued threat of severe droughts and unpredictable water shortages in the coming years with optimistic news of collaborative initiatives to reclaim and redirect water in new ways that benefit people and the natural environment.
Overpeck shaped the discourse clearly and forcefully with an overview of the Colorado River Basin which is home to 40 million people. Some of the fastest growing states in our country are in this region along with many Native Nations. The 7 states dependent upon the river’s flow include California (southern), Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Water here is already over-allocated or inequitably apportioned and unfortunately it is impossible to model the epic droughts that are almost certain to hit us in the next century. But what was most heartening to hear was the positive exchange between Hayes and Hinojosa-Huerta discussing the innovative avenues the US and Mexican governments are exploring now to conserve water for cities and habitats, creating models that eventually may be used coast to coast.
The conference was 4 days long and there were also sessions to explore the environmental impact of natural gas development; groups for brainstorming about solutions for cleaning up marine debris in our oceans; news and healthy debate about the creation of a 3.5 million acre wildlife preserve and open prairie in Montana; and opportunities to hear directly from the DOI Deputy Secretary Hayes about climate event preparedness and safeguarding our most vulnerable American places like the Everglades. All of these discussions had universal resonance with an audience that hailed from almost every state. I left inspired to spread the news to live more sustainably in our own home towns wherever we are because the “new normal” seems here to stay.
Suzanne Clary
