EXPLORING BIODIVERSITY AS CULTURAL VALUE

An interesting seminar to be hosted by the University of Sydney next month

16 June, 2014
12:00-2:00pm

ALL WELCOME
This is a Free Event.
RSVP Essential

Seminar Featuring John Miller and Robert McKay 

http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research/harn/news_events/events.shtml?id=2785

From their website:

To whom does extinction matter, why, and how? Answers to these questions often rely on a principle of concealed usefulness. In this outlook, biodiversity represents a vast data bank of genetic information that contains an array of undiscovered possibilities for medicine or industry. A striking contrast to this hard-nosed, market-driven approach resides in the emotional attachment to certain species, or to the natural world more generally, that motivates many conservation campaigns. Such reasoning, though widely on show, has the disadvantage of appearing vague, sentimental and under-theorized. What it highlights is the urgent need for a humanities perspective on the question of biodiversity loss as a key part of the global challenge of responding to climate change.