Seminar: Prosocial Planet: Guiding the Evolution of Social-Ecological Development with Erle Ellis

Watch the recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K8f_Flv0nw

Abstract: In this time of unprecedented planetary change, including shifting climates and declines in biodiversity, the entire human world may seem broken – the source of only problems, not solutions. Yet the same unprecedented social-ecological forces now shaping human societies and this entire planet for the worse can, and in some ways already are, shaping a better future for people and for the rest of nature. This presentation brings together advances in evolutionary theory, evidence from archaeology and history, and emerging trends in human societies across the biosphere to investigate the prospects for guiding social-ecological processes towards a better future for people and the rest of life on this planet over the long-term.

About the Speaker: Erle Ellis is Professor of Geography and Environmental Systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). A global Highly Cited Researcher, his work investigates the ecology of human
landscapes to better inform sustainable stewardship of the biosphere. He teaches environmental
science and landscape ecology at UMBC and has taught landscape ecology at Harvard’s Graduate School
of Design. He is a Lead Author of the IPBES Transformative Change Assessment, member of the
Anthropocene Working Group of the ICS, Fellow of the Global Land Programme and Senior Fellow of the
Breakthrough Institute. His first book, Anthropocene: A Very Short Introduction, was published in 2018.

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Optional links or pdfs of material that can be read beforehand:

Sharing the land between nature and people
REF: https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.aax2608
PDF: https://anthroecology.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ellis_2019c.pdf

And:
Nature for the People: Toward a Democratic Vision for the Biosphere
https://thebreakthrough.org/journal/issue-7/nature-for-the-people

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