Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 4, 1994 TAG: 9404020084
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Probably not nearly as exhausting as running the lecture circuit of college campuses throughout the United States every spring and fall, stumping for the environment.
Based at Oxford University in England, Myers is touted as a world-renowned environmentalist and credited with sounding the alarm in 1979 of massive species extinction - or at least he made the most noise about it.
Myers will be at Virginia Tech for two presentations this week:
Today Myers will speak on tropical deforestation. Immediately following, Robert Schneider, a World Bank economist and expert on Amazonian deforestation, will offer a rebuttal.
Tuesday, Myers's talk is titled "Population, Environment and Development: The Great Challenges of Our Age."
Both talks are at 7 p.m. at the Donaldson Brown Continuing Education Center.
Myers received the 1992 Volvo Environment Award - environmental science's equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
He's been called the Paul Revere of the environmental movement, advising heads of state, international development and scientific organizations, multinational corporations and United Nations agencies.
Add to the list the pope, Vice President Al Gore, Prince Charles and rock musician Sting.
And what does he advise them about? You name it - global warming, resource economics, deforestation, environmental security, sustainable development and more.
A self-described "eco-gun for hire," he's worked in more than 90 countries and specializes in linking the habits and lifestyle of one country with destructive ecological consequences in another.
In the 1980s, Myers irked fast-food corporations by helping publicize the "hamburger connection," linking the spread of cattle ranching in Central America and deforestation there.
By the same token, he's angered animal-rights activists and others of a liberal bent by stating wildlife should be exploited and commercialized in many areas to benefit indigenous people.
"If it pays its own way, some of it will survive. If it can't, it won't," he was quoted as saying.
The son of an English sheep farmer, Myers, 59, grew up with neither electricity nor indoor plumbing and learned to make the most of scarce resources.
After graduating from Oxford, he went to Kenya as a civil servant and worked closely with the Masai people, who eventually made him an honorary elder. While in Kenya, Myers developed a fascination with wildlife that became his passion, and his new career.
He took up photography, spending the better part of four years in the field, observing lions, giraffes, gazelles, zebras, warthogs and other animals. Myers began lecturing and showing his photographs, and soon decided to enroll in the graduate wildlife biology program at the University of California at Berkeley.
In the late 1970s, his work on deforestation catapulted him into the international spotlight.
"He is the single individual most responsible for calling world attention to the loss of species through deforestation," said William Hyde, a professor and head of the forestry department at Tech.
At that time, most scientists believed the global extinction rate was one species per year.
But Myers predicted the rate was closer to one per day. And after more research, he figured it was more like 20 to 50 species a day, with the loss of 1 million species by the end of the century.
Activists frequently cite his figures in fund-raising mailers and elsewhere, while some scientists have questioned his methods and dispute his findings.
U.S. News & World Report wrote last year that: "the Atlantic coastal forests of Brazil have been cut to about 12 percent of their original size, yet a team of Brazilian zoologists that combed the forests recently could not confirm a single case of extinction. Instead, they rediscovered several birds and six species of butterfly considered extinct 20 years ago."
Hyde, who has know Myers for some years, said the environmentalist doesn't balk at criticism or nay-sayers.
"Anybody who's a leader in anything gets identified with the extremes of that, whether he's extreme himself or not. Norm gets his share of that, particularly on tropical deforestation."
He said that Myers is as energetic now as ever, running competitively, lecturing constantly, taking notes on everything he sees - a "19th-century renaissance man."
Myers has written more than 200 papers for scientific journals, and several hundred more for popular magazines. He's also written about a dozen books, and received 14 significant awards for his work.
As more scientists, policy wonks and activists enter the growing debate over species extinction, global warming and other environmental morasses, the issues won't get any easier.
It's safe to assume, however, that Myers will be in the thick of things.
by CNB