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presents |
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Apocalypse Now: |
On the Biological and Linguistic Diversity Crisis |
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A Lecture by Kieran Suckling Center
for Biological Diversity Monday, May 1 |
The loss of biological diversity contributes to the loss of linguistic diversity, and vis versa, because both are aspects of a single differential ecology. The metaphorical, totemic and historical nature of languages is impoverished by the extinction, either in life or experience, of the species which animate them. The loss of linguistic diversity eradicates perhaps the most powerful human experience of finitude, encouraging a sort of perverse Hegelian expansionism that eradicates other species and cultures. Resolution of the biodiversity crisis will require a recognition of linguistic rights, and a sensitivity to the differential, metaphorical nature language. |
Suckling is the founder and
executive director of the Center
for Biological Diversity
in Tucson, AZ, and a board member of the Endangered Species Coalition, the American
Lands Alliance, and
Southwest Trout. The center combines ecological research,
public organizing, and aggressive litigation to protect imperiled
species and ecosystems throughout western North America and the
Pacific. The center has been called the most successful regional
environmental group in the country by Backpacker Magazine, and the Nation's most important radical
environmental group by The
New Yorker. In 1996
he was awarded the Deep Ecologist of the Year Award. He
is a terminal doctoral candidate in philosophy at SUNY-Stony Brook.
Lecture is free and open to the public.
For special
accommodation, call 565-2266.
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CEP - PHIL - UNT - April 29, 2000 |
