Under a Desert Sky - Dwight H. Terry Lectures 2018

546 views · Published 6 November 2018 · 51:02 · Indexed 21 September 2026

Channel: Yale University · 2018 · Education

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Thomas Lovejoy, University professor at George Mason and senior fellow at the United Nations Foundation, delivers the first of three lectures on the importance of values and their potential application to solving environmental challenges.

Professor Lovejoy explores the complexity of the relationship between people and the environment. Science illuminates the various ways in which we affect the environment, he says, and science can help us consider which ways might be more or less desirable. He explains the gift of blue-green bacteria, and asks “Are planetary boundaries real? And can they inform us about possible choices?” There are multiple ways in which nature nurtures humanity, he concludes, but are there ways—beyond the utilitarian—to value and consequently respect nature?

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