Hope in the age of extinction

“Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction” is the topic of a September 28 lecture by author and citizen scientist Mary Ellen Hannibal.

In the presentation at Quarryhill Botanical Garden, Hannibal will explore the drivers of extinction and how citizen science today is uniquely situated to provide the platform for making the changes necessary to grapple with the complex issue.

“I consider it my job to understand the science, then translate it for more general readers,” she says. “This frequently involves contextualizing science within a framework of art and literature. But I’m always trying to find a coherent way to break past the false divides that have so fatally set us on a collision course with nature.”

In addition to my books, she writes for Bay Nature, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, Nautilus, Science, Anthropocene, and many other publications.

Involved for decades with environmental nonprofits, she serves on the board of the San Francisco Botanical Garden, and also in various capacities on behalf of:  The Smith College Botanical Garden, Stanford University’s Jasper Ridge Biological Reserve, Voices for Biodiversity, the American Geophysical Union, and Wildlands Network’s Rewilding Leadership Council.

Awards and fellowships include the National Society of Science Writer’s Science and Society Award, Stanford University’s Knight-Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism, and a Stanford University Media Fellowship. Hannibal is an adjunct professor at the California College of the Arts, in the Design Graduate Program.

The lecture will be held September 28 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Quarryhill Botanical Garden, 12841 Highway 12, in Glen Ellen. 

Gates will open at 5 p.m, lecture will begin at 5:30. $25 for members, $35 for non-members. Refreshments will be available for purchase. For information and all the details, click here.