Environmental Science, Policy, and Management professor Erica Bree Rosenblum shared a lesson on the importance of interconnectedness during a TEDxBerkeley Talk on January 28.
Titled “The Last Frog and the Next Human,” Rosenblum’s presentation recounted the day she spent in a Panamanian rainforest where she was introduced to a frog that was likely the last of her species. Rosenblum compared holding the frog, who only had a few days left to live, to “holding extinction in [her] hands.”
“Interconnection is the fundamental nature of our reality,” Rosenblum said, emphasizing the importance of understanding our place within a larger ecosystem. “It is written into our biology at every level.”
As a professor of global change biology, Rosenblum researches shifts in biodiversity and how ecosystems respond to those changes. Our suffering and isolation are symptoms of our increasingly disconnected world, she said, and our worldview of materialism contributes to a grim existence in disconnection.
As dark as this sounds, Rosenblum said there is still hope for humans. Watch the full talk below to find out three ways she feels more connected to our global ecosystem.