Extinction and human behaviour: past, present and future
Speakers
Chair
Today, a growing number of scientists warn of a sixth mass extinction, driven by the accelerating loss of animals, plants and the diversity of life on Earth. Alongside this dramatic loss of nature, tech executives warn that artificial superintelligence may drive humanity to extinction, but also bring back mammoths and dire wolves, if not dinosaurs, from the dead. In short, extinction, and the role of human action in causing and solving it, is on the cards.
In this session, we take a step back and ask: what is extinction? How did "extinction" come to be understood as we understand it today, and what did it have to do with empire? How do we, now, engage the public with a loss on this scale, and what turns concern into action? And what can species already brought back from the brink teach us about the way forward, from de-extinction science to conservation policy?
This conversation brings together historian Sadiah Qureshi, author of Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction, Richard Sabin, Principal Curator of Mammals at the Natural History Museum, and behavioural scientist Ganga Shreedhar, to trace where the idea of extinction has come from, and where we go from here.
Meet our speaker and chair
Sadiah Qureshi is Chair of Modern British History at the University of Manchester and a historian of science, race and empire. Her second book, Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction, was shortlisted for the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize and named a book of the year by the Guardian, Telegraph and Waterstones. She has written for the London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement and New Statesman, and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Richard Sabin is a Principal Curator of Mammals at the Natural History Museum in London. His work focuses on the study of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) using the NHM’s world-class research collections. Richard collaborates internationally, generating new data from Museum specimens. He is currently exploring how cetaceans interact with their environment, each other and us. He supports wildlife conservation, UK and international law enforcement and is NHM advisor to the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme. He works closely with the arts and humanities exploring ‘hidden’ histories of collections, enjoys writing, giving talks and is dedicated to diversifying museum audiences.
Ganga Shreedhar is an Assistant Professor in Behavioural Science at LSE and Co-Director of the MSc in Behavioural Science. Her research spans behavioural and ecological economics, environmental psychology and public policy.
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