‘Dodging Extinction’ seminar set in Merced

A seminar, “Dodging Extinction: Power, Food, Money and the Future of Life on Earth,” is planned at 7 p.m. April 14 at the Merced Theatre, 301 W. Main St.

Anthony D. Barnosky, a UC Berkeley professor, will conduct the seminar, answer questions and sign books, according to a press release.

The seminar is free and open to the public. It’s sponsored by the UC Merced Chapter of Sigma Xi, UC Merced Blum Center and Sierra Nevada Research Institute.

The Barnosky seminar is based on his book of the same name released late last year. “Dodging Extinction” argues that humanity is now a force every bit as powerful as the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs millions of years ago.

Barnosky, a paleobiologist, explains how the more than 7 billion people on the planet have already started a severe mass extinction of life on Earth – similar to the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs – and what people can do to stop it.

He presents evidence that argues the way humans generate power, get food and make money will trigger the sixth great extinction of life on Earth, according to a press release.

His seminar also provides strategies to guide the planet away from global catastrophe using already existing technology and know-how, the release stated.

Barnosky is on the faculty at UC Berkeley, where he holds the posts of professor of integrative biology, curator of fossil mammals in the Museum of Paleontology and research paleoecologist in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.

Author of numerous scientific publications and books, he has spent three decades researching past planetary changes, and what they mean for forecasting the changes to come on Earth in the next few decades.

For more on his work, go to his website, http://ib.berkeley.edu/labs/barnosky/adbprofile.htm.

This story was originally published April 1, 2015 at 6:22 PM with the headline "‘Dodging Extinction’ seminar set in Merced."