In his long and accomplished career, University Research Professor Emeritus at Harvard and this century’s most eminent biologist Edward O. Wilson (E.O. Wilson) spearheaded efforts to preserve the world’s biodiversity. He has led scientific expeditions to the far corners of the globe to document and advocate for the protection of the world’s “hot spots” of highest biodiversity, including the wild preserve of Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, where he joined with Massachusetts philanthropist, Greg Carr, in working toward the park’s recovery after years of civil war.
Dr. Wilson’s work has earned him more than 100 awards, including the National Medal of Science and two Pulitzer Prizes for Non-fiction. In 2000, he was named one of the century’s 100 leading environmentalists by Time magazine.
E.O. Wilson’s new, highly-acclaimed book, Half-Earth, proposes an achievable plan to save our imperiled biosphere by devoting half the surface of the Earth to nature, thereby protecting 85 percent of species from extinction. Half-Earth offers an attainable goal we can strive for on behalf of all life. Our survival is inextricably entwined with the survival of all species that call our planet home. Yet, our current destructive trajectory is resulting in mass extinction of species and irreparable damage to our world. With his Half-Earth call-to-action, E.O. Wilson has inspired a “moonshot” and created the groundwork for one of the grandest conservation efforts of our time, the Half-Earth Project (https://eowilsonfoundation.org/).
