Language Lost

Neolithic Objects: Ancient Language, Engraved Stones found in Glozel (8000-10,000 BC)

10,000 years ago the population was between 5 and 10 million
Leading anthropologists estimate that nearly 12,000 languages (or more) were spoken at that time.

Today our population is 6.5 billion
Approximately 7,000 languages are spoken today

At this rate in 100 years from now, in the year 2108, only 2,500 languages may be spoken.

One language goes extinct every month.

In lecture you may have heard me comment on these facts: "While it is important, for the sake of biodiversity to have a variety of languages spoken, what about the fact that more people are communicating?" This may not be a fact at all- sadly, we are loosing many indigenous cultures.

What does this mean?
What do you think about this data and the potential future of lost languages?

Restoring Animal Corridors: The Importance of Biodiversity

1. A stream corridor connecting forest and native grass habitats
2. The Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, crucial to the long-term recovery of grizzly bears and other wildlife labeled as one of the most endangered wild lands in the U.S.

Today in Professor Trumpey's lecture we heard about the importance of biodiversity and efforts to restore corridors for animals.

Groups around the world are working to establish "wildlife highways" with varying degrees of success. "In North America, the Wildlands Project is pushing for a huge "Yellowstone-to-Yukon" wildlife corridor. In Central America, conservationists are slowly and sporadically working on the Meso-American Biological Corridor. The dream: A monkey should be able to go up a tree in Panama and not have to climb down till it reaches Mexico," (Windstar Wildlife Garden Weekly)

"The corridor idea is relatively new: conservationists once thought that [preserves were enough. But groups of animals isolated from their species become genetically homogeneous, and don't develop the diversity necessary to adapt to threats- especially that of climate change," (Brandon Keim in Corridors Help Animals Flee From Climate Change).

What are your thoughts on these animal corridors?
They appear in our landscape as green, peaceful and graceful efforts to restore the natural environment and a natural way of life (migration) for animals... what else?

How might artists be a part of these efforts?

How do you imagine these corridors expanding into our world?

How might they extend into our urban spaces?

Also feel free to use this space to respond to the lecture as a whole, focusing on the importance of biodiversity.

Read More:
Corridors for a Healthier Environment
Article: Earth Times, San Diego
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
North Carolina State University Corridor Research