The Friends of San Pedro Valley Park welcome Dr. Krista Kemppinen for a talk on “Biodiversity and the Extinction Crisis” on Tuesday, October 12th at 7pm. We hear the term biodiversity and use it, but do we really know what it means? Do we realize how many species we have lost and continue to lose? Do we understand the consequences of these losses? Join Dr. Kemppinen, a scientist in the Endangered Species Program at the Center for Biological Diversity who will take the time to clarify these questions and much more.

Register in advance for this webinar by clicking here.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

About the program: Biodiversity loss is occurring at unprecedented rates, with around 1 million species threatened with extinction, including 41% of amphibians, 36% of sharks and rays and 26% of mammals. This talk will give a brief overview of the extinction crisis, what is causing it and why it matters. We will also discuss some of the global criteria used to determine if a species is imperiled, as well as how a species may come to be listed under the Endangered Species Act. While this talk will be global in nature, we will present some examples of at-risk species from the United States.

About the speaker: Dr. Krista Kemppinen is a scientist in the Endangered Species Program at the Center for Biological Diversity. Her main focus currently is imperiled aquatic and riparian species in the southwest. She has also worked on global extinction risk assessments of tunas, billfishes and reef corals, and conducted research on reforestation, endangered species recovery and past climate change. Dr. Kemppinen also spent two years working with Arizona State University and Conservation International on primarily terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystem services conservation. She holds a Ph.D. in climate science and a bachelor’s from the University of Cambridge.