Is Mass Extinction of Life on Earth Inevitable? May 26, 2011

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2011/05/03/Tim_Flannery_Here_on_Earth

Is it a natural characteristic of life on Earth to be self-destructive? Tim Flannery, author of Here on Earth, argues against Peter Ward's "Medea Hypothesis," which proposes that multicultural life is inherently suicidal.

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Humans now engage the Earth at Gaian scale. How did Earth and humans get to this state? Given how we got here, how should we proceed? Tim Flannery finds that the evolutionary perspective of Alfred Russell Wallace offers better guidance than the more familiar Darwinian version of evolution.

Australian biologist Tim Flannery is the renowned author of The Weather Makers, The Future Eaters, and a great ecological history of North America, The Eternal Frontier. His current book is Here on Earth: A Natural History of the Planet. - The Long Now Foundation