IRES Seminar Series

Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm (every Thursday)

View video.

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Shaping a Better Nature in the Anthropocene

Global evidence confirms that human societies have gained the capacity to transform our entire planet. Could this unprecedented capacity be redirected to shape a better future for both people and the rest of nature? This presentation explores the possibility that some of the same social processes that have transformed this planet for the worse could also transform it for the better. Working together, people are a force of nature. The planet we make will reflect the people we are.

Erle Ellis

Professor, Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Bio:
Erle Ellis is a Professor of Geography and Environmental Systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). His research investigates the ecology of human landscapes towards sustainable stewardship of the biosphere in the Anthropocene. He teaches environmental science and landscape ecology at UMBC and has taught landscape ecology at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. He is a member of the Anthropocene Working Group of the International Commission on Stratigraphy, a Fellow of the Global Land Programme and a Senior Fellow of the Breakthrough Institute. His first book, Anthropocene: A Very Short Introduction, was published in 2018.