How poetry can help us understand mass extinction events

Poetry and palaeontology both work with strata.

Kate Simpson, PhD Candidate, Extinction Studies, University of Leeds • conversation
Feb. 26, 2025 • ~7 min

Should we protect nature for its own sake? For its economic value? Because it makes us happy? Yes

With the world losing species at an alarming rate, a conservation biologist explains how ideas about protecting biodiversity have evolved over the past 40 years.

Bradley J. Cardinale, Department Head, Ecosystem Science and Management, Penn State • conversation
June 2, 2022 • ~10 min

E.O. Wilson's lifelong passion for ants helped him teach humans about how to live sustainably with nature

E.O. Wilson was one of the world’s leading experts on ants, but his other passion was convincing humans to see themselves as part of the natural world.

Doug Tallamy, Professor of Entomology, University of Delaware • conversation
Dec. 27, 2021 • ~8 min

From a lifelong passion for ants, E.O. Wilson guided humanity to think of sustainability

E.O. Wilson was one of the world’s leading experts on ants, but his other passion was convincing humans to see themselves as part of the natural world.

Doug Tallamy, Professor of Entomology, University of Delaware • conversation
Dec. 27, 2021 • ~8 min

Putting a dollar value on nature will give governments and businesses more reasons to protect it

When something is free, people use a lot of it. Economists are urging governments to compute values for natural resources – wildlife, plants, air, water – to create motives for protecting them.

Linda J. Bilmes, Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Public Finance, Harvard Kennedy School • conversation
May 11, 2021 • ~9 min

How to reverse global wildlife declines by 2050

Wildlife populations have plummeted by 68% since 1970. But we have a plan to turn things around.

Piero Visconti, Research Scholar, Ecosystem Services and Management Programme, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) • conversation
Sept. 14, 2020 • ~6 min

Protecting half of the planet is the best way to fight climate change and biodiversity loss – we've mapped the key places to do it

A new plan targets areas around the world that can store carbon and protect large numbers of species. It calls for preserving these lands, working with Indigenous peoples and connecting wild areas.

Greg Asner, Director, Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science and Professor, Arizona State University • conversation
Sept. 8, 2020 • ~9 min

Don't blame cats for destroying wildlife – shaky logic is leading to moral panic

Framing cats as responsible for declines in biodiversity is based on faulty scientific logic and fails to account for the real culprit – human activity.

Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Wisconsin-Madison • conversation
July 30, 2020 • ~7 min

Evolution: why it seems to have a direction and what to expect next

Evolution seems to lead to increasing complexity of species. But perhaps a dominant, intelligent species like humans will always end up destroying itself.

Matthew Wills, Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology at the Milner Centre for Evolution, University of Bath • conversation
June 2, 2020 • ~8 min

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