Peter D. Ward | |
|---|---|
| Born | Peter Douglas Ward (1949-05-12)May 12, 1949 (age 76) Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
| Known for | co-originator of the termRare Earth[1] work on theCretaceous–Paleogene extinction event[2] |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Paleontology |
Peter Douglas Ward (born May 12, 1949[3]) is an Americanpaleontologist and professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, and Sprigg Institute of Geobiology at theUniversity of Adelaide. He is also an adviser to the Microbes Mind Forum.[4] In 2000, along with his co-authorDonald E. Brownlee, he co-originated the termRare Earth[1] and developed theMedea hypothesis alleging that multicellular life is ultimately self-destructive.[5]
His parents, Joseph and Ruth Ward, moved toSeattle followingWorld War II. Ward grew up in theSeward Park neighborhood of Seattle, attendingFranklin High School, and he spent time during summers at a family summer cabin onOrcas Island.[2]
Ward's academic career has included teaching posts and professional connections withOhio State University, theNASA Astrobiology Institute, theUniversity of California,McMaster University (where he received his Ph.D. in 1976), and theCalifornia Institute of Technology. He was elected as a Fellow of theCalifornia Academy of Sciences in 1984.
Ward specializes in theCretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, thePermian–Triassic extinction event,[2] andmass extinctions generally. He has published books onbiodiversity and thefossil record. His 1992 bookOn Methuselah's Trail received a "Golden Trilobite Award" from thePaleontological Society as the best popular science book of the year. Ward also serves as an adjunct professor ofzoology andastronomy.
His bookThe End of Evolution was published in 1994. In it, he discussed in three parts, each about an extinction event on earth. This book was rewritten and published in 2000 asRivers in Time.
Ward is co-author, along with astronomerDonald Brownlee, of the best-sellingRare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe, published in 2000, thereby co-originating the termRare Earth.[1] In that work, the authors suggest that the universe is fundamentally hostile to advanced life, and that, while simple life might be abundant, the likelihood of widespread lifeforms as advanced as those on Earth is marginal. In 2001, his bookFuture Evolution was published, featuring illustrations by artistAlexis Rockman.[6][7]
Ward and Brownlee are also co-authors of the bookThe Life and Death of Planet Earth, which discusses the Earth's future and eventual demise as it is ultimately destroyed by a warming and expanding Sun. The book picks up whereRare Earth leaves off, this time talking about how and why the Earth and its ability to support complex and especially intelligent life is actually not just rare in space, but also in time. See alsoFuture of the Earth.
According to Ward's 2007 book,Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future,[8] all but one of the major mass extinction events in history have been brought on by climate change. The author argues that events in the past can give valuable information about the future of our planet. Reviewer Doug Brown goes further, stating "this is how the world ends." Scientists at the Universities of York and Leeds also warn that the fossil record supports evidence of impending mass extinction. Recently, Ward has slowly started to shift his interest toward climate change because of his experiences with studying mass extinctions, as well as justifying why intelligent life, including humanity, is especially even rarer than complex life in general in terms of both space and time, as intelligent life only lasts for just a few thousand years before finally collapsing and going extinct, as seen in the bookThe Flooded Earth: Our Future in a World Without Ice Caps, which documents the effects of ongoing and futureman-made climate change. However, in 2014, Ward returned to his roots as a paleontologist with his bookA New History of Life, co-authored withJoe Kirschvink, and in his 2018 book,Lamarck's Revenge.
Ward is the father of indie musician and producer Nick Ward of the Seattle bandHey Marseilles.
TheMedea hypothesis is a term coined by Ward for a hypothesis that contests theGaian hypothesis, proposing thatmulticellular life, understood as asuperorganism, is self-destructive orsuicidal, allowing a return to simpler life-forms.[5][9][10]
Peter Ward was featured in thePBS'sEvolution series (2001) to discuss the evidence for evolution in the geologic record and has appeared onNOVA scienceNOW.He was also one of the scientists onAnimal Planet'sAnimal Armageddon(2009). Ward is also a guest onCoast to Coast AM, a radio program that mostly specializes on paranormal activity and other unexplained phenomena.[11]
Origins: The term "Rare Earth" takes its name from the book Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe (2000), by Peter Ward and Donald E. Brownlee ... As the authors describe it, the Rare Earth argument comes down to two central hypotheses ... making Earth a very special place
After initially doubting that a comet killed the dinosaurs and allowing that an impact might have ended the Permian age, he reconsidered both stands — coming up with a non-comet ending to the Permian and then producing some of the clearest fossil-record evidence (the extinction of a marine creature called an ammonite) to prove the dinosaur calamity actually happened.
