Institute of Advanced Studies

Biodiversity, poverty, and climate change

Global poverty is increasingly in the news as food prices increase and shortages spread, and extreme weather events overwhelm inadequate infrastructure in developing countries.

Likewise, biodiversity is in the news as rainforests are destroyed by illegal logging and the demand for biofuels, and iconic species face the threat of extinction.

Why is it that the problems of poverty seem to be greatest in the areas with the most biodiversity?

Some economists consider poverty to be the consequence of the injustices of capitalism, while others argue that the problem is that capitalism is not allowed to operate efficiently. There is another alternative that must be considered.

This presentation will demonstrate why poverty and biodiversity are inextricably linked, and why the global patterns of poverty and biodiversity are the inevitable result of the interaction between the earth's geology and the structure of the solar system.