Popular media icon, renowned conservation biologist and overall environmental leader Jeff Corwin is concerned with the current state of our planet and the state of the millions of animal species that live on it.
“We are kind of in trouble,” Corwin suggested at the Students for Ecological and Environmental Development's annual fall speaker event Tuesday evening in Cahn Auditorium, referring to what he claimed was a modern occurrence of mass extinction, which has taken shape as a byproduct of humans' continuing lack of interest in nature and their environment.
Unlike previous periods of extinction whose incidences have been unavoidable and merely part of ‘life’s cycle,’ the popular Animal Planet host claims that the causes for current extinction can be directly linked to the combined forces of five main elements: habitat loss, climate change, pollution and environmental degradation, unregulated and often illegal exploitation of certain species and a continuously increasing human population.
Under these conditions, the earth loses a species of life every 20 minutes, as well as 3000 acres of land and habitat every hour. Further statistics show that in a decade's time, we risk the extinction of half of the world’s 6000 amphibians.
Corwin links this environmental issue with a growing trend of distancing ourselves from nature.
“Good people make bad decisions because they don’t have the information,” Corwin claimed. He advocated people's reconnection with nature, advising them to focus on their communities and on creating a relationship with their local environment and wildlife.
SEED, a leading environmental student organization at Northwestern commits itself to “pioneer, teach, and model environmental stewardship...and to support progressive environmental movements at Northwestern."
According to SEED member and Weinberg freshman Madeline Miller, “ SEED focuses on ways to get involved with sustainability movements in and around Evanston.”
Though the speech was blanketed by his concerns for the environment and a stress on conservation, Corwin dazzled his audience with ﬁrsthand accounts of animal ingenuity as well as personal stories and experiences that inspired his passion for nature and eventual career.
The speech was followed by a book signing for his book 100 Heartbeats, including further dissertation on the importance of conservation, as well as accounts of his most memorable moments from his years of ﬁlming and documenting wildlife.