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CELCE-Extinction Studies DTP Seminar Series w/ Dr James Rosindell: Making Up Our Minds about Extinction

Date
Date
Friday 25 February 2022

The second talk in the joint series will run this Friday, 25 February from 3-5pm GMT. 

We will hear from Dr James Rosindell who is a Reader in Biodiversity Theory at Imperial College London. He is a co-founder, and current chair, of the charity OneZoom (https://www.onezoom.org/) which aims to provide easy access to scientific knowledge about biodiversity and evolution and raise awareness about the variety of life on earth together with the need to conserve it. 

Making up our Minds about Extinction: It is well known that humans are causing the extinction of species at an unprecedented rate. It is obvious to many of us that we should take steps to mitigate this catastrophe, and that our joint efforts so far have not been enough. A less obvious problem is making up our minds what we want. Are all species equally important to save? Do we mind if species are safe from extinction but remain extremely rare?  Should we take a gamble on the unknown in the hope we can save more species, or should we play it safe? What is a species anyway? This lecture will expose the hidden, multifaceted and subjective questions that we must make up our minds about if we are to direct our conservation efforts in best way that we can.