The pioneering conservation biologist Thomas Lovejoy awakened the world to the threat posed to life on earth by the loss of irreplaceable natural habitat, and has devised ingenious strategies to apply third world debt to the preservation of endangered ecosystems. Dr. Lovejoy's studies of the Amazon rain forest began in the mid-1960s. Over the years he observed the effects of human intrusion on this unique resource, home to countless species of plant and animal life found nowhere else in the world. In 1980 he introduced the term "biological diversity" to express the incalculable value of environments such as the Amazon. He pursued his environmental advocacy as an officer of the World Wildlife Fund and the Smithsonian Institution, and as the creator of Nature, public television's most popular documentary series. In recent years, he has served as biodiversity adviser to the presidents of the World Bank and the United Nations Foundation. He is a University Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University, as well as President of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment. He developed the concept of the "debt-for-nature swap," in which environmental groups purchase the debt of Third World countries at a discount, redeem it in the local currency, and purchase biologically sensitive tracts of land in the debtor nation for environmental protection. In this podcast, recorded at the Academy of Achievement's 2003 Summit in Washington, D.C., Dr. Lovejoy tells the Academy's student delegates some of the ways they can contribute to the preservation of the Earth's diversity.