Seattle Stop Planned for Conservationist’s Wildlife Crusade
By Sandi Doughton, Seattle Times
May 6–Richard Leakey has battled to save Africa’s wildlife from poaching, war and neglect. But the veteran conservationist is more worried than he’s ever been.
“I think climate change may be the biggest threat we’ve ever seen,” he said. “And not just to animals. To people as well.”
Rhinos, lions, gorillas and other species that persist mainly in parks and protected areas are vulnerable, Leaky said. If their habitat is transformed, the creatures will have no place to go.
“They can no longer migrate, because they are surrounded by farmland and cities and development,” he said. “If the parks do become much drier … many species won’t survive.”
Leakey will bring his latest crusade to Seattle on Tuesday with a multimedia presentation, “Climate Change and the Future of Life on Earth.”
His concern over global warming grew out of his work as a paleoanthropologist and a conservationist.
As a child in Kenya, Leakey reluctantly accompanied his famous parents, Louis and Mary, on their fossil-digging expeditions. While his parents rooted around in the dirt, young Richard staved off boredom by teaching himself to follow animal tracks.
He eventually embraced the family profession, going on to make significant discoveries about humankind’s earliest ancestors. Turkana Boy, a 1.6-million-year old hominid skeleton unearthed by Leakey in 1984, will go on display for the first time later this year in Nairobi.
What for most people would be a career was only an opening act for Leakey. He went on to lead Kenya’s Wildlife Service, where he helped close the ivory trade and protect elephants from poaching. His efforts earned him death threats, and when the plane he was piloting crashed in 1993, Leakey suspected sabotage. His crushed legs were amputated below the knees.
He later served as a top official in Kenya’s government, then formed his own political party with an anti-corruption platform.
Now, the 62-year-old Leakey divides his time between Stony Brook University in New York and his ranch and vineyard in Kenya. But his fervor for wildlife protection is not diminished.
The fossil record clearly shows how species are affected by major climate shifts, Leakey said by phone recently. Some adapt, but many others become extinct when their environments are turned upside down by changes in rainfall or temperature.
He’s pushing to expand many of Africa’s wildlife parks and to create corridors that will allow animals to move when water sources dry up or prey vanishes.
“We’re already seeing permanent rivers become seasonal, and increasing pressure from outside the parks by people affected by the drought,” he said.
Leakey’s Africa Conservation Fund has launched an effort to highlight the continent’s conservation crises and introduce the people who patrol and run the parks — often for low pay and with inadequate equipment. WildlifeDirect (www.wildlifedirect.org) allows individuals to donate money directly to parks and programs.
Recent tales of rebels slaughtering gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo led to an outpouring of support and donations through the Web site, Leakey said.
While wildlife almost inevitably suffers as a result of climate change, prehistoric evidence suggests some of mankind’s most profound developments — such as the use of tools for hunting and the domestication of crops — came in response to climate shifts, Leakey pointed out.
“So if the coming change forces us to abandon our existing technologies, particularly the burning of fossil fuel, and forces us to think about better ways to power vehicles and airplanes and generating plants … it could be very positive for humanity.”
Sandi Doughton: 206-464-2491 or sdoughton@seattletimes.com
Richard Leakey talks climate change
The noted conservationist discusses climate change Tuesday at Meany Hall on the University of Washington campus.
The program begins at 7:30 p.m. with a presentation by photographer and safari leader David Anderson, chairman of Focus on Planet Earth.
General admission: $40. To purchase tickets: 800-927-4647 or www.focusonplanetearth.com.
More information: 206-543-5590 or www.burkemuseum.org
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Copyright (c) 2007, Seattle Times
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