[tt] Foundation For the Future Press Release

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Kathy Carr [mailto:kathycarr at futurefoundation.org]
Fri 5/25/2007 8:12 PM

Contact: Jean Gilbertson, Public Relations Manager
Tel: 425-451-1333, ext. 1013   Email: jeangilbertson at futurefoundation.org

Proceedings Now Available of UNESCO/Foundation For the Future Seminar
³Humanity and the Biosphere: The Next Thousand Years²

BELLEVUE, WA, May 17, 2007‹The Foundation For the Future (Bellevue, WA) 
and the Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences of UNESCO (Paris, 
France) have published the proceedings of a jointly sponsored seminar 
³Humanity and the Biosphere: The Next Thousand Years,² which convened at 
UNESCO in Paris in September 2006 with scholars from five continents 
participating.

The purpose of the seminar was to provide a forum for dialogue amongst 
academics, scientists, conservationists, resource managers, and 
practitioners in international environment relations to explore critical 
components of the human-environment relationship with significant 
implications for the future of Planet Earth.

The core issue determined by the scholars to be the most critical, going 
forward into the far future, was the overarching goal of influencing 
change to foster the well-being of the biosphere ­ a goal with four main 
facets: (a) evolution of consciousness, (b) exploration and research into 
the driving forces of change, (c) education and communication for 
dissemination of knowledge, and (d) ethics/equity, including intra-species 
equity, inter-species equity, and intergenerational equity.

The proceedings is a full record of the seminar including transcripts of 
all presentations, commentary, and discussion sessions. The Division of 
Ecological and Earth Sciences will distribute the proceedings widely 
throughout the 192 Member States of UNESCO, targeting key individuals in 
Ministries of Science, Environment and Forests as well as UNESCO National 
Commissions and MAB (Man and the Biosphere) National Committees. Hundreds 
of Foundation For the Future constituents, including scholars and academic 
institutions around the world, will also receive the proceedings, which is 
available for immediate download from the homepage of the Foundation For 
the Future website, www.futurefoundation.org.

Seminar presentations on ecological and biospheric themes were given by 
ecologist Dr. Daniel B. Botkin, founder of the Center for the Study of the 
Environment, New York; astrophysicist Dr. Eric J. Chaisson, who holds 
directorial and professorial posts at Tufts and Harvard universities and 
MIT, Boston; Albert de Haan, Commercial Director of the European Climate 
Exchange, Amsterdam; oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle, founder and Chairman 
of Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, Alameda; Dr. Ricardo Guerrero, 
Professor of microbiology at the University of Barcelona; Dr. David 
Macdonald, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford 
University; geneticist Dr. Lynn Margulis, Distinguished University 
Professor in geosciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; 
environmental planner June Marie Mow, Director of Providence Foundation, 
Bogota; Dr. Magnus Ngoile, Team Leader for the Marine and Coastal 
Environment Management Project, Dar es Salaam; and Dr. Shekhar Singh, 
Convenor for the National Campaign for People¹s Right to Information, New 
Delhi.

The seminar combined the focus of UNESCO¹s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) 
Programme with the Foundation For the Future¹s emphasis on the long-term 
future of humanity. MAB is part of UNESCO¹s Division of Ecological and 
Earth Sciences (www.unesco.org/mab). Since 1971, MAB has worked 
continuously for the sustainable use and conservation of biological 
diversity and an improved relationship between people and their 
environment globally. It is a pioneer international program for 
co-operation on research, training, education, and information- and 
knowledge sharing on all problems that straddle the human-environment 
interface. MAB is taking into consideration the four-faceted goal 
recommended by the seminar participants as the most critical issue for 
humanity¹s thousand-year journey into the future in its current efforts to 
reform and reinvent its agenda in line with UNESCO mission and mandates.

Foundation For the Future (www.futurefoundation.org), established in 1996, 
conducts a broad range of programs to promote an understanding of the 
factors in the social, genetic, biological, medical, psychological, 
physiological, cultural, technological, and ecological fields that may 
have an impact on human life during coming millennia. It regularly hosts 
workshops, seminars, and symposia, bringing together scholars from all 
over the world to discuss these factors, then publishes the resulting 
discussion transcripts for use by the public in making important decisions 
for the present and the future.

Foundation website link: 
http://www.futurefoundaiton.org/publications/index.htm