Word: earthwatch
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Environmental concerns such as this one, cited by Paul H. Forestell, director of research and education at Hawaii's Pacific Whale Foundation, were the subjects at hand at Harvard this past weekend as Forestell and nearly 100 other environmental scientists met of the 12th annual interdisciplinary Earthwatch conference...
...environmentalists and two economists squared off last week in a debate at the Earthwatch annual meeting at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences...
...organization has the respect of the normally suspicious conservation community. Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International, says Earthwatch fills a unique role, "allowing people to get involved with science or conservation without stepping on anybody else's toes." Michael Deland, chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, says Earthwatch is "precisely the kind of innovative concept that needs to be built upon in the coming decades...
Would-be EarthCorps members, who range in age from 16 to over 80, complete an application form listing their skills and interests, a process that allows Earthwatch to match volunteers with appropriate projects. Living conditions vary from camping out to comfortable dorms. About 1 recruit out of 20 turns out to be a problem (a scientist working underwater in the Canary Islands discovered that one self-styled scuba diver could not even swim), but many others become Earthwatch regulars. Biologist Wynne-Edwards says 70% of her volunteers last year were repeaters...
Anthropologist Jane Phillips-Conroy, who studies baboons in Ethiopia, claims that volunteers often contribute expertise as well as grunt work. She says the best tooth casts she ever collected were made by a dentist who had joined the expedition. But perhaps the greatest benefit of Earthwatch is the commitment that its volunteers acquire in the field. Says Tundi Agardy, a marine biologist who started Earthwatch's turtle programs: "The immediate benefit is to help save a generation of endangered turtles, but the real value is that volunteers themselves become the seed corn of the conservation movement, spreading the word when...