The world is changing radically, at lightning speed, on every level. We face a host of urgent problems - terror, poverty, illness, hunger, and war. Yet there is another newly emerging threat that makes these and every other human crisis pale in comparison: Life itself is vanishing. All over the world, animal and plant species are disappearing at an unprecedented and alarming rate. This accelerating loss of life has become so acute that scientists are now calling it a mass extinction event. Experts predict that half of all species on Earth may become extinct within the next 50 to 100 years. No one can know for sure what this will mean for humanity, but the implications are shocking - and difficult to accept.
Species Alliance is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization formed in 2005. Our mission is to raise public awareness of the impending mass extinction and the threat to Earth's life support systems due to this loss of biodiversity. Through our films and other media, website, and outreach, we seek to ignite a new sense of community empowerment and purpose, in order to stimulate creative and effective changes in public policies and human behavior that will assure a healthy future for all life on Earth.
(Executive Director, Film Producer) is a psychologist, educator, and filmmaker. In each of these roles, she focuses on understanding the interconnection between psychology , culture, and the environment. She has taught at the University of California at Davis, Stanford University, and Skidmore College.
Her courses frequently integrate the role of film in creating understanding and change individually and collectively. She co-founded a software development company that created multimedia educational tools in 2000 and co-founded a film production company in 1998. Her films have been shown at film festivals and educational conferences worldwide, including the United Nations Conference on Global Warming in 2007.
Chera 'at' speciesalliance.org
(Founder, Film Executive Producer) is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is the creator and webmaster of massextinction.net, the Web's oldest and most comprehensive source of information on the current mass extinction crisis. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and has taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Boston University, Barnard College (Columbia University), the University of Vermont, and Princeton University. He is the author of The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries (Oxford University Press), and has published articles in Scientific American and numerous other scholarly journals.
David 'at' speciesalliance.org
(Creative Director, Film Director) has been working professionally in video production since 1983. For ten years he was on staff at San Francisco Production Group, an award-winning design and post-production company, where as senior designer/director he created video communications for a wide variety of broadcasters, ad agencies, corporations, and independent producers. In 1997 he opened his own motion graphics and effects shop. He has worked with national and international clients such as CBS, MTV, Warner Bros., J. Walter Thompson, Visa International, the California Academy of Sciences, and Stanford University.
Monte 'at' speciesalliance.org
(Film Co-Producer) comes from a family of political activists dating back to the Boston Tea Party. She has worked in the photography industry for 20 years. As a photographer and digital artist she has worked with ad agencies, corporations, writers, musicians, and artists on everything from national ad campaigns to fine art projects. Her fine art photography has been shown in galleries and museums and is collected worldwide.
Susan 'at' speciesalliance.org
(Film Co-Producer, Editor) has 17 years experience in film, television, and video. He has worked on independent features, cable movies, documentaries, educational films, corporate videos, and television commercials as a writer, director, producer, editor, cinematographer, assistant director, assistant editor, grip, and electrician. His feature-length drama "The Distraction" is available on DVD and has been distributed internationally. He holds degrees in cinema production from the University of Southern California and in philosophy and religion from the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Greg 'at' speciesalliance.org
(Film Production Consultant) is Co-Founder of Free Range Studios where he wrote and directed numerous animation and video productions, including the 2003 hit, The Meatrix, which earned him top honors at film festivals and awards ceremonies around the globe, including South By Southwest, Media That Matters, The Holland animation Festival, The Webby Awards, Resfest, and the Annecy International Animation Festival. Louis' innate sense of story and ability to translate important and often difficult messages into entertaining media has motivated millions of web users to take actions that better the world.
(Graphic Designer) has worked professionally as an art director, designer and motion graphics artist for 25 years, and presently runs her own design firm, Hive Studio. Ms. Hoppe has worked on a wide variety of projects for broadcast, print, online, interactive media, and performance. Clients include Fox Network, Sun Microsystems, Scripps Institute, TechTV, Bank of America, and the Tibetan Nuns of Katmandu. Ms. Hoppe was formerly Senior Graphic Designer for the San Francisco CBS affiliate KPIX, where she was awarded multiple Broadcast Designers Association Awards and shared an Emmy Award for the show 'Freedom'.
Maggie 'at' speciesalliance.org
(Webmaster) began designing and coding websites in 1997 and has since focused her web-work on sites for educational institutions, artists, and non-profits. Her current clients include the Student Alliance at CIIS, saciis.org, where she received her M.A. in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness, as well as her department's website, pcc.ciis.edu. She also holds a B.S. in Mathematics from Mary Baldwin College and is currently the Dean of Mathematics, Science, and Technology for a brand new high school in New Hampshire that will open in 2009. Mary's interests include the nature of reality, painting, and dance.
Mary 'at' speciesalliance.org
(Director of Development, Special Projects) has worked in the New York media and fashion industries for 18 years and has extensive experience both in front of the camera as a celebrity spokesperson and behind it as a producer, editor, and stylist for print and television, including work for Lifetime Television, The Disney Channel, and The Rosie O'Donnell Show. She has also done fundraising and other volunteer work with numerous non-profits including The Hunger Project, Youth at Risk, and various animal rescue organizations, and also volunteers with her dogs for Therapy Dogs International.
Rhea 'at' speciesalliance.org
(General Consultant) is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies and Director of the program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness. He has taught religious studies at the University of Windsor, the University of Ottawa, and Carleton University (Canada). He has published numerous journal articles in the areas of transpersonal psychology and integral theory and is the author of Individuation and the Absolute: Hegel, Jung, and the Path Toward Wholeness and co-translator of Edgar Morin's Homeland Earth: A Manifesto for the New Millennium.
Sean 'at' speciesalliance.org
(Outreach Coordinator) is a life-long activist and educator. As part of an activist theatre troupe Vox Femina, she shared in the writing, directing, and performing of shows that consistently packed the Boulder Theater in Colorado. There she also hosted a radio show on social and environmental justice (Making Waves) and helped create an award-winning regional newspaper focused on similar issues (The Silverton Mountain Journal). After coming to California she played a key role in building the 1500-member Marin Peace and Justice Coalition and served as its elected secretary for two years. She is a skilled facilitator, with experience guiding up to 100 people at a time in decision-making by consensus. She is currently helping Charlene Spretnak, co-founder of the Green Party, with research and editing for her upcoming book on the sustainability movement. She also teaches part time at an environmental charter school.
Kelly 'at' speciesalliance.org
(Outreach Coordinator) received her B.S. in Genetics and Plant Biology from the University of California at Berkeley. As a Research Assistant in an ecology lab, she worked on many different projects studying the dynamics of plants interactions and growth patterns within ecosystems, resulting in publications in Ecologia and other scholarly journals. She began working as a grassroots organizer with the Not in Our Name Project, to raise awareness of the injustices of the war in Iraq. Currently, she remains active in the community working as an artist and environmental educator to help bring her vision of peace, sustainability, and justice to life.
Jessica 'at' speciesalliance.org
We gratefully acknowledge the photographic contributions to our site. The generosity of the photographers, as well as their insightful imagery of the creatures with whom we share this planet, provide an endless source of remarkable joy and surprise. We offer our utmost admiration and appreciation to:
And the photographers of the website, onsafari.info: