Thomas Lovejoy

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Thomas E. Lovejoy (2010)

Thomas Eugene Lovejoy (born August 22, 1941 in New York City , † December 25, 2021 ) was an American ecologist . He was considered a leader in the field of biodiversity .

Life

Lovejoy graduated from Yale University , where he received a bachelor's degree in biology in 1964 and a Ph.D. in 1971. attained. He was part of the advisory group of Biosphere 2 , an attempt in the 1990s to recreate the living conditions of the earth in a steel and glass construction and to completely forego outside help, for example with the air supply. Lovejoy held the Chair of Biodiversity at the Heinz Center for Science in Washington, DC from 2008 through 2013, when it closed. In 2010 he was elected Professor at George Mason University . He was a member of the Big Cats Initiative , which aims to save big cats from extinction.

He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (2001), the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards (2008) and the Blue Planet Prize (2012). He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996, and to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021 .

Works

Lovejoy coined the term biodiversity ( "biological diversity"). He compared the man-made situation of the planet with the extinction of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago, described them as harbingers of the sixth mass extinction in the history of the earth and assumed catastrophic consequences for mankind if no ambitious efforts to reverse direction are made . One of Lovejoy's research topics is the tipping point of ecosystems. These are properties of these systems, and when exceeded, unstoppable processes begin. Lovejoy assumed, for example, that if around 25 percent of the Amazon rainforest were destroyed , such a tipping point would be reached and the remaining primeval forest would then inexorably turn into savannah without human intervention . In 2019, more than 20 percent of this primeval forest had already been destroyed by human interference. Lovejoy was the initiator of the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project in the Amazon rainforest.

Lovejoy emphasized the connection between the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis early on . Overheating of the climate system threatens in particular plant and animal species that are adapted to narrow ecological niches. For example, the Bengal tiger would disappear as soon as its habitat, the Indian mangrove swamps, were taken over by the sea. Lovejoy assumed that the two-degree target is insufficient for overcoming the climate crisis and, on the basis of new findings, called for a radical change in climate policy , in which the survival of nature must be the top priority. He once said: “The 2 degrees that should be agreed in Copenhagen as the upper limit for global warming are too much for nature. A world that is 2 degrees hotter will be a world without coral reefs. "

Lovejoy advocated including land loss in a carbon tax model . He summarized this idea as follows: "If it is only levied on fossil fuels, then the loss of forests will inevitably increase because more renewable raw materials are cultivated." When such a tax is introduced, according to Lovejoy, the loss of land must also occur the cultivation of raw materials for biodiesel should also be taxed in order to restore nature.

Web links

Commons : Thomas Lovejoy  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lovejoy, Thomas Eugene. In: Who's who in the East. 19th edition. Marquis Who's Who, Chicago 1983.
  2. ↑ n.v. (1993). Advisory staff of "Biosphere 2" dissolves. TAZ, February 17, 1993. Accessed: August 16, 2020. https://taz.de/!1629762/
  3. ↑ a b c https://esp.gmu.edu/faculty-staff/faculty-bios/thomas-lovejoy/
  4. ↑ Renate Nimtz-Köster (2013). Species protection: King without a kingdom. Spiegel, May 6, 2013. Access date: August 16, 2020. https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-94139386.html
  5. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter L. (PDF; 1.1 MB) In: amacad.org. American Academy of Arts and Sciences , accessed June 16, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b c d Marc Engelhardt (2010). UN Report on Biodiversity: Warning of Mass Extinctions. TAZ, May 10, 2010. Access date: August 16, 2020. https://taz.de/!5142895/
  7. ↑ Jens Glüsing (2019). Jair Bolsonaro's campaign against science: Numbers war for the Amazon. Spiegel, September 29, 2019. Access date: August 16, 2020. https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/amazonas-jair-bolsonaros-feldzug-gegen-die-wissenschaft-a-1287486.html
  8. ↑ n.v. (1992). Climate: danger for polar bears. Spiegel, March 16, 1992. Access date: August 16, 2020. https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-9275570.html
personal data
SURNAME Lovejoy, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lovejoy, Thomas Eugene (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ecologist
BIRTH DATE August 22, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 2021