Syracuse University's Fall 2008 Frontiers of Science Lecture Series will conclude on
Wednesday, Nov. 12, with "Ecosystems and Economics in the African Savanna,"
presented by Mark Ritchie, biology professor in SU's College of Arts and Sciences.
The lecture-from 7:30-8:30 p.m. in the Gifford Auditorium, located in H.B. Crouse
Hall-is free and open to the public. Parking is available in the Irving Garage for
$3.50.
Three great challenges for human society in the 21st century are reducing emissions
of greenhouse gases to slow global climate change, reducing or eliminating human
poverty in developing countries, and conserving the Earth's biodiversity. Natural
ecosystems, in the form of forests and grasslands, have a large potential to remove or
"scrub" greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, from the atmosphere by storing
carbon in the wood of trees or the organic matter in soils. However, widespread
human poverty fosters land use practices that diminish the potential to preserve these
natural ecosystems.
Ritchie's lecture will focus on recent discoveries in the Serengeti region of East Africa
that suggest that wildlife grazing leads to greater carbon storage and how emerging
carbon markets may provide income for rural Africans as well as economic incentives
for wildlife conservation.
The Frontiers of Science Lecture Series is presented by the Department of Science
Teaching in The College of Arts and Sciences and is co-sponsored by several of the
college's departments, the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science
and several engineering departments, SU's School of Education, the SUNY College
of Environmental Science and Forestry, Bristol-Myers Squibb, the Office of the Dean
of Hendricks Chapel and the Syracuse Biomaterials Institute.
