Five Years to Make a Difference

We're back. The World Cup has come and gone.
Summer was hot. September has all but
disappeared. It's still The International Year of
Biodiversity and we still definitely have work to do.

Here at BU, we had a terrific festival for Sustainability
just over a week ago with all the campus green groups
trying to get their information out. I manned a table for
the Ecolympics and many people came by to claim
our lovely poster, or some pamphlets and pins that
I got from the Secretary of the Convention on
Biological Diversity in Montreal. (The US, along with
Andorra and the Holy See, are the notable countries
who have not ratified the convention.)

Last week, the Director General of the International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Julia Marton-
Lefevre, spoke to the UN and warned that we have five years
to make a difference.

Five years!

If we don't significantly slow down the rate
of species loss within five years, our ecosystems will not
recover in our lifetimes and our quality of life will
suffer. It's an incredibly small window for us not only
to educate ourselves but to act.

We are gearing up for another Ecolympics next
spring, which is going to be bigger and better than
this year. We are looking for ideas that will galvanize
people -- people everywhere -- to act positively to
reduce the rate of species loss locally and globally.
We are also looking for organizers to help us plan
a suite of interesting and fun activities to raise
awareness about the importance of biodiversity
so please get in touch if you want to be involved.

Daniel