International Lectures on Nature and Human Ecology
 
 

Aubrey Manning

Aubrey ManningProfessor Manning studied at the University College of London and then earned his Ph.D. in animal behavior at Oxford University under Nobel laureate Niko Timbergen.

In the 1980s he became Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh, where he is currently Emeritus Professor.

Under the guidance of renowned English geneticist C.H. Waddington, he was one of the precursors of the British environmental movement, and among the founders of the Centre for Human Ecology at the University of Edinburgh.

A distinguished broadcaster for the BBC Science Unit, Aubrey Manning received the Zoological Society of London Silver Medal for public understanding of science.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he is currently UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the initiatives of the International Year of Planet Earth.

september 9th / SAVING PLANET GAIA

UNESCO declared 2008 the International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE), an initiative subtitled “Earth Sciences for Society” and aiming to ensure a greater and more effective use by society of the knowledge accumulated by the world’s earth scientists. The IYPE includes a wide range of truly international programs promoting scientific research for the building of a sustainable world. In this lecture Professor Manning will explain how the histories of life and earth have intertwined for about four billion years, and how the danger of them falling out of balance extends well beyond immediate practical issues. Restoring the balance between our single species and the entire system that supports our planet is essential for our lives to continue. Doing so requires not only a better management of earth’s resources, to which the IYPE will certainly make a strong contribution, but also better management of our individual lives.

D I S C U S S A N T S
Silvia Scozzafava / earned a degree in environmental sciences at the university of L’Aquila, and an M.S. at the University of Stirling, in Scotland. She currently works as a naturalist technician for the region of Lazio at the nature reserve of Monte Navegna and Monte Cervia.

Claudio Carere / is an ornithologist and eco-ethologist. He earned his Ph.D. in behavioral biology at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, and later studied the neuroendocrinology of sexual behavior at Liège University. He is scientific writer for the Treccani Encyclopedia, and works as a consultant for ICRAM and the Italian Ministry of the Environment.