Center for Environmental Research Lunchtime Lecture by Kevin M. Anderson
- 2017 Lunchtime Lectures – Understanding Urban Nature: Ecology, Culture, and the American City
- October 2017 Lunchtime Lecture – Nature Out of Place: Invasive Species, Novel Ecosystems, and Urban Ecology
- A scientific approach to evaluating urban nature holds the potential of an objective, neutral attitude towards organisms which flourish in the city. However, urban ecology in America is caught in a struggle between advocates of a crusade to eliminate nonnative organisms, especially “invasive” species, from cities and advocates of a focus on urban ecosystem functionality and resilience. Culturally, this struggle over native vs. non-native urban organisms contrasts sharply with the cosmopolitan human project of a city, where great urban centers thrive on “nonnative” human diversity. Scientifically, ecology and biology are maturing as sciences and, literally, coming to terms with urban ecology and its “novel ecosystems” that do not match retrospective standards for what is native to a place. This lecture will access the proper place of urban nature in the new ecology of the 21st century.
Oct 11 Wednesday NOON to 1pm at PARD Senior Activity Center Lamar 29th St + 2874 Shoal Crest Ave, South Room
Oct 17 Tuesday NOON to 1pm at the Center for Environmental Research – Hornsby Bend
Oct 19 Thursday NOON to 1pm at One Texas Center 505 Barton Springs Road + South First Street, Room 325, Austin.