A program that may be of interest to mocosocoBirds readers takes place at the Morristown and Morris Township Library one week from this coming Tuesday, April 26, 2016 at 7 PM titled: Man and Nature, Indivisible.

Sam Taylor, educator and director of natural history collections, will discuss how science needs a new understanding of man-made and the natural environments. They no longer work in parallel; they are inseparable in today’s global community.

Mr. Taylor’s premise is that mankind is the dominant force throughout the modern world, not only through physical building but also by driving events once considered “natural” and independent. Mr. Taylor will address several studies that have measured human influences on climate change, on rates of evolution world-wide, and on fundamental geological processes. Scientists call the current geological epoch the Anthropocene, contradicting a world view that distinguishes the man-made from the natural. Rather, on Earth today, the natural world IS the man-made.

A marine biologist and science educator by training, Sam has worked for more than 35 years in leadership and advisory roles at natural history museums and science centers, overseeing educational programs, scholarly publishing, television programs, and interactive multimedia.