The Block Island Maritime Institute is thrilled to announce the return of award-winning author and scientist Carl Safina to speak on July 27, at 7 p.m. Safina will speak about “Minds and Cultures of Non-Human Animals,” combining the messages of his last two books, “Beyond Words” and “Becoming Wild.” Along with new current information and events, Dr. Safina will discuss the conscious awareness, emotional capacity, and cultural lives of other animals. He will explore the conservation implications and what is at stake for our imperiled co-voyagers on this planet, and ask whether humans have the intellectual and emotional capacity to simply let the other living beings on this planet continue to exist.
Safina’s lyrical non-fiction writing about the living world has won a MacArthur “genius” prize; Pew, Guggenheim, and National Science Foundation fellowships; book awards from the National Academies, the Lannan Foundation, and Orion Magazine; and the John Burroughs, James Beard, and George Rabb medals. He grew up raising pigeons, training hawks and owls, and spending as many days and nights outside and on the water as he could. Safina’s studies of seabirds earned him a PhD in ecology from Rutgers University. He is the first Endowed Professor
