Earth: A Report on the Health of the Biosphere

Additional Information on the September 12, 2009 Meeting

by Neil Schipper, meeting organizer

Reading Up on The Status of the Planet

In preparation for this meeting, some of you may wish to get familiar with some documents which have been recommended by our speaker and others in the field. If you browse through some of these documents, you may have better questions for our speaker (you can also look at the speaker's bio).

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, published in 2005, is considered one of the best recent global assessments of ecosystem health and its impact on human well-being. Their web site contains documents in a number of specific subject areas which you can find from their Guide to the Millennium Assessment Reports page . Two key documents are the Statement of the MA Board (28 pages) and the Overall synthesis report (155 pages!).

Another other well known document is the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) on Climate Change 2007. You can download the full report (about 50 pages), or browse some of their other reports and technical papers.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find what I was really hoping for: a five to ten page document with graphs showing the most significant (and hopefully, uncontroversial) indicators, like trends in population, energy, climate, forest and agricultural land, clean water, biodiversity and such.

If you know of better documents (not too long and not overly technical), send us a comment!

Join Us for Dinner Before the Meeting!

The lecture starting at 7 p.m. is a non-meal event. However, many of us will be dining together beforehand. Meet us at the Deaf Centre entrance at 4:45 p.m.. From there, we'll proceed to one of the many nearby restaurants. (Most have main dishes starting at around $11 or $12).

We may need to break into groups, but either way, you'll have a chance to catch up with some familiar faces or to meet and welcome new humanists. Hope to see you there!

Other contributions

Your suggestions will go here. As Neil's topic is very large, both general and specific references will be accepted. Editorial policy: should be on topic, comments subject to editting, credit if you demand it. If two submissions have essentially the same content, one will be selected. References to polemics may be read but will not be included in the list. How to submit: email Neil, Donna or me (Grant) with the goods. –g.