Harrison Ford recognized for environmental advocacy at Field Museum ceremony

Framed by dinosaur fossils and elephant taxidermy, Harrison Ford recalled his childhood in suburban Chicago, spending his weekends at the Lincoln Park Zoo and wandering outdoors during his free time.

It was on one of those adventures in his neighborhood that he came face-to-face with a red fox, and that encounter led to a revelation, the actor and environmental activist said during a Field Museum conversation Wednesday evening.

“Then the fox left, and I walked away having discovered a connection to nature,” Ford said. “I knew that I was a part of nature.”

Ford, known for his roles as Han Solo in “Star Wars” and Indiana Jones, has long been one of Hollywood’s most vocal advocates for the environment.

On Wednesday, he became the inaugural recipient of the Transformative Conservation Leadership award from the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, named after the renowned biologist known for his study of ants and human nature and for pioneering the field of biodiversity. Wilson died at age 92 in 2021.

The 83-year-old Ford has, since the 1990s, frequently lent his voice and platform to promote the protection of the environment and, in recent years, addressing climate change. He has appeared in and narrated documentaries and commercials on climate change and conservation, including a 2008 film on the biologist Wilson’s life.

“I’d like to see a new politics of nature, a politics for life,” Ford said. “An approach that is apolitical, intensely focused on the preservation of nature and confronting the challenge of climate change.”

Ford also serves as vice chair to the Virginia-based Conservation International, where he worked with Wilson. The organization works to preserve biodiversity worldwide, which Ford said on Wednesday helped him find his “real purpose.”

In recognition of that work, Wilson in 2002 named a new ant species Pheidole harrisonfordi after the actor.

“Harrison’s life is a conviction,” said Paula Ehrlich, the CEO and president of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.

The evening award ceremony also recognized David Willard with the Field Museum’s Parker/Gentry Award, which is given each year to individuals or groups for their on-the-ground work on preserving biodiversity and natural heritage.

Willard, a long-time bird researcher and curator at Field, has been documenting and studying the biodiversity of birds for decades, including compiling a database of migratory bird species along the Chicago lakefront. He has also been a fierce advocate for the city’s buildings to reduce bird strikes.

Willard’s work at Field, curating its bird collection, “has given him an exciting knowledge of the world’s birds, which he has shared in a humble, generous, and unmitigated fashion,” said Lesley de Souza, a conservation biologist at Field, who announced the award. “It is said that he has prepared more stations of birth specimens in his lifetime than any other person on earth.”

The award ceremony came after an afternoon of panel discussions on conservation and environmental leadership as part of the E.O. Wilson Foundation’s annual Half-Earth Day event, which started in 2017.

The “Half-Earth” principle, from Wilson’s 2016 book, proposes setting aside half of the Earth’s land and seas for nature. His foundation has supported research and projects toward this goal.

“For [Wilson], ‘Half-Earth’ was not just about solving the immense problem of extinction,” Ehrlich said. “It was also about finding an angle of repose. An angle of repose, where, having solved the problem, we could relax. An angle of repose between ourselves and nature.”