2007 TED Prize winner E.O. Wilson on TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Talks:
As E.O. Wilson accepts his 2007 TED Prize, he makes a plea on behalf of his constituents, the insects and small creatures, to learn more about our biosphere. We know so little about nature, he says, that we're still discovering tiny organisms indispensable to life; and yet we're steadily, methodically, vigorously destroying nature. Wilson identifies five grave threats to biodiversity (a term he coined), and makes his TED wish: that we will work together on the Encyclopedia of Life, a web-based compendium of data from scientists and amateurs on every aspect of the biosphere.
Wilson did not coin the term "biodiversity", he merely edited the first book that used the term in its title. It was coined by Walter Rosen in the title of a conference held in 1986, as a neologism for biological diversity, and was popularised by E. O. Wilson in the title of the proceedings of that conference (Sarkar 2002)
Sarkar, Sahotra. 2002. Defining "biodiversity"; assessing biodiversity. Monist 85 (1):131-155.
Thanks. I e-mailed a person from TED.
In any case, his book "The Diversity of Life" is a great read. See excerpt here: http://trinifar.wordpress.com/2007/04/04/biodiversity/
Sorry, I'm reading that 1992 book now and reveling in Wilson's knowledge, writing style, and obvious passion for his subject. We need more science writers with those attributes.