WHO: Dr. Steven Sanderson, President and CEO Wildlife Conservation Society; introduction by environmental journalist Eugene Linden
WHEN: EARTH DAY, April 22nd, 2005 -- 12 noon complimentary lunch; 12:30 talk followed by Q&A
WHERE: National Press Club, First Amendment Lounge, 529 14th Street NW, Washington, D.C.
Could the "culture of life" reverse the "death of environmentalism"? Shouldn't the culture of life -- the latest catch phrase in the national discourse on human life and death issues -- also include wildlife and wild lands, clean water, clean air and a sustainable, healthy environment?
Brought to the forefront by the Oscar-winning film "Million Dollar Baby" and other current events, the focus on individual life has created a debate about the very foundation of our commitment to life on earth. Strangely, though, the planet's health as part of that culture is being virtually ignored: the value of the environment has diminished in the public mind, environmental protections have been weakened, fish are less safe to eat, and wildlife refuges are no longer sanctuaries for animals.
On Earth Day 2005, Dr. Steven Sanderson, President and CEO of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) will challenge conservationists, lawmakers, and the media to create a culture of conservation that has the ability to retrieve the "culture of life" from mere rhetoric and make it a more genuine affirmation of life on earth.
Steven Sanderson is President and Chief Executive Officer of WCS. Prior to his appointment in 2001, he was Dean of Emory College, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, at Emory University in Atlanta. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University (1978). He has studied the politics of rural poverty, biodiversity conservation and environmental change, and is a specialist in Latin America. A former Fulbright Scholar in Mexico, Dr. Sanderson has also held fellowships and grants from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution, the Council on Foreign Relations, NASA, and the Ford, MacArthur, Rockefeller, Tinker and Heinz Foundations. He is the author of numerous books and monographs on Latin American politics and the environment, and the author of articles on conservation that have appeared in publications including Foreign Affairs.
Since its founding in 1895, WCS has been dedicated to saving wildlife and wild lands. That mission is achieved through a conservation program that manages and protects wild places on four continents, through the nation's largest system of wildlife parks, including the flagship Bronx Zoo, as well as through environmental education programs that reach more than three million people nationally and internationally.
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