CfP: Planetary Futures: Rethinking Extinction and Conservation in the Anthropocene. 18-19 September, at the University of Manchester
We are so familiar with extinction that it is hard to imagine a world where nothing was believed to be extinct. Up until the eighteenth century, well-known losses, such as the Mauritian dodo, were attributed to human actions. In the later eighteenth century, scientific research helped establish the notion that extinction was inherent in the natural world and quickly underpinned new ideas about loss and endangerment. In the twentieth century, the emergence of ecology and new conservation movements heightened awareness of anthropogenically-induced species loss. Concerns about the growing rates of extinction from the 1960s onwards, coupled with the realisation that not all endangered species could be saved, prompted questions about conservation priorities and why some animals are valued more than others. More recently, enthusiasm for rewilding and the serious prospect of de-extinction have created new conservation strategies and the prospect of redefining extinction itself, reflecting hum...