| 10/10/2007 3:00:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Leakey: We must work to understand the world we live in
Pat Whitney
Courier Staff Writer
Searching for answers to humanity's past and future, about 900 people flocked into a Hanover College auditorium to hear paleoanthropologist and environmentalist Richard Leakey on Monday and Tuesday.
Both afternoons Leakey engaged in round table discussions with Hanover students, covering such topics as climate change, biodiversity, inequities of wealth, AIDS and sustainable development.
Leakey, the son of scientists Louis and Mary Leakey, has been credited for some of the most significant fossil discoveries of the 20th century. He is the author of more than 100 articles and books including "Origins," "The Sixth Extinction" and his memoir, "Wildlife Wars: My Fight to Save Africa's Natural Treasures."
Leakey is a native of Kenya and served the country as a senior government official, opposition political activist, conservationist, museum director, scientific researcher and farmer. He became director of the Kenya Wildlife Service in 1989 and led a movement to end elephant poaching in Africa that all but eliminated the international ivory trade.
His lectures covered the topics "Climate Change and the Future of Life on Earth" and "Why Our Origins Matter."
"Whether you like it or not, we, as a species, have all come from Africa," he told the audience as he outlined the evolution of man dating back 60,000 years to the eastern part of the African continent.
"For once, Africa has something to take real pride in," he said.
The Stony Brook Human Evolution Workshop, which he convened in 2004, brought together many of the world's leading anthropologists and archaeologists. The workshop shed light on when and how our lineage acquired modern human anatomy and behavior. Despite losing both of his legs in a plane crash, Leakey continues his fight for democracy in Kenya.
Leakey has been an outspoken critic against governments around the world that are not taking global warming or mutating viruses seriously enough. AIDS and the bird flu pandemic are real threats to civilization, he said.
While much of the population is helpless in the face of climate change, Leakey charged that politicians around the world who could make an impact are failing society by refusing to take on such an unpopular issue.
"Facing these serious times, I don't think we can afford to underplay it," he said during an interview before his presentation Tuesday night. "We are talking about losing coastal areas and entire countries like Bangladesh. That's 160 million refugees from one country when we can't even deal with 11 million illegal immigrants."
The challenge, as he sees it, is raising public awareness.
"Somehow, we have to stimulate others to be curious, intrigued to seek additional information to understand the world we live in today," he said. "The climatic changes on the economy, poverty and hunger will have a more dramatic impact than our species has ever known."
He also pointed out that the imminent changes could actually attract a new era of inventiveness and adaptiveness.
Paul Hassfurder, who inherited Payne Hollow, a prime example of sustainable living in the area built by the late Harlan and Anna Hubbard, attended one of the round table discussions with Leakey.
"He told us that the coming climate changes are going to have an effect on us and the way we live more than we all realize," Hassfurder said.
Leakey is considered one of the foremost authorities on wildlife and nature conservation, and continues to educate others about the dangers of environmental degradation. He is developing a $500 million endowment for wildlife preservation for the National Parks of East Africa.
Leakey recently founded WildlifeDirect, an online charity that provides support to conservation with the use of blogs, making it possible for anyone, anywhere to play a direct and interactive role in the survival of some of the world's most precious species.
Time magazine has named Leakey one of the 100 greatest minds of the 20th century.
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