E.O. Wilson Wins TED Prize
Us Eco Chicks love E.O. Wilson; his books include Biophelia, The Future of Life, and his latest, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth, are masterworks of nonfiction writing about the environment and our place in it.
Each year, the TED Prize is granted to three individuals with the
talent to change the world. Winners receive $100,000 and something
much more valuable … a wish. These wishes are announced during
acceptance speeches at TED, and the community marshals resources to
help them come true. This year’s winners — former U.S. President
Bill Clinton, biologist E.O. Wilson and photojournalist James
Nachtwey — announced their wishes last month at TED2007.TEDPrize winner E.O. Wilson wants to create the Encyclopedia of
Life. (Imagine a dedicated wikipedia to index all things living)As E.O. Wilson accepts his 2007 TED Prize, he makes a plea on behalf
of his constituents, the insects and small creatures, to learn more
about our biosphere. We know so little about nature, he says, that
we’re still discovering tiny organisms indispensable to life; and yet
we’re steadily, methodically, vigorously destroying nature. Wilson
identifies five grave threats to biodiversity (a term he coined), and
makes his TED wish: that we will work together on the Encyclopedia of
Life, a web-based compendium of data from scientists and amateurs on
every aspect of the biosphere.
(Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, CA.)
Duration: 24:21)
Starre Vartan
Starre Vartan is founder and editor-in-chief of Eco-Chick.com and the author of the Eco-Chick Guide to Life. She's also a freelance science and environment writer who has published in National Geographic, CNN, Scientific American, Mental Floss, Pacific Standard, the NRDC, and many more. She lives on an island in Puget Sound with her partner and black cat. She was a geologist in her first career, and still picks up rocks wherever she goes.
