Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego presents the Richard H. and Glenda G. Rosenblatt Lecture in Evolutionary Biology series. Join us as Scott V. Edwards, Professor in the Department of OEB and Curator in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, presents the following lecture:
From 6 June to 20 August, 2020, I undertook a 76-day, ~3800 mile bicycle trip across the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. In this talk I will share some of the birds, people, and landscapes I encountered along America’s “blue highways”. The gradual change in birdscape, both in sight and sound, underscored the sensitive ecological gradients to which birds respond, as well as the ability of some species to thrive in alien agricultural monocultures. Rivers large and small regularly benchmarked my progress as I cycled parallel to the western journey of Lewis and Clark over 200 years ago. The incidents in 2020 involving African Americans as targets of police or civilian violence inexorably drew me into the political realm, causing me to festoon my bicycle with #BlackLivesMatter signs, which served as a Rorschach test for every vehicle and person I passed. Throughout rural America, I learned from farmers, Native Americans and the occasional university professor as I wheeled my way through towns on the brink of collapse, vast private ranches and the occasional city. I will reflect on the lessons learned and connections made between communities that otherwise experience each other only on TV.
Dessert Reception to follow.