Carsten Rahbek invited as speaker at Paris exhibition
Is the mass extinction of species worse than climate change? Professor Carsten Rahbek was invited by artist Danh Vo to give a talk about the biodiversity crisis as part of the Parisian exhibition Avant l’orage in the Spring. The talk is now publicly available.
In late April, Professor and Center Director Carsten Rahbek was invited by the renowned Danish-Vietnamese artist Danh Vo to the art exhibition site of Bourse de Commerce in Paris, France, to share his research on biodiversity in a talk titled “Is the mass extinctions of species worse than climate change?”
Here, Carsten Rahbek shared his expert knowledge with the audience on the subject of the sixth mass extinction while addressing the highly relevant questions of the causes of the global biodiversity crisis, the consequences of losing species and ecosystems, and the scope of the problem compared to climate change.
Consequences of biodiversity loss
The continuous global habitat degradation is seen as the main cause driving the global mass extinction of species with climate change intensifying the negative effects. The loss of species and ecosystems consequently raises the risk of losing valuable natural resources, including clean water, foods, and medicinal compounds, also known as ecosystem services.
Thus, although connected, the global biodiversity crisis is emphasized by leading scientists, including Carsten Rahbek, as a greater threat to our future societal stability and prosperity than climate change.
Carsten Rahbek’s talk is now publicly available courtesy of Bourse de Commerce.
Art inspired by nature
Carsten Rahbek was invited to Paris as part of a current cycle of exhibitions during 2023 presented by the Pinault Collection in the historical building of Bourse de Commerce in Paris, France.
Against the backdrop of the climate crisis, selected artists feature installations and works in a cycle of exhibitions titled Avant l’orage (Before the storm). Here, the artists invent “unusual ecosystems containing new seasons” as an adaptive response to the transformed environment prompted by our quest for growth and abundance.
One of the exhibition’s installations is Tropeaolum created by the renowned Danish-Vietnamese artist Danh Vo. The installation displays the trunks and branches of trees struck by lightning, and supported by wooden props.
The work is rooted in the recent years of Danh Vo’s life in his farm studio in Güldenhof, near Berlin, where interactions of nature have become part of his work. Tropeaolum has since moved to Stubbekøbing, Denmark, where Danh Vo lives in part. Together with a group of affiliates and friends, including Carsten Rahbek, Danh Vo is now considering taking over abandoned plots of land in the town’s port, including sheds and silos, and transforming them into places to live and learn.
Read more about Danh Vo’s installation Tropeaolum, curated by Caroline Bourgeois, here.