Dr. Guy McPherson - If you really think that the environment is less important than the economy, try holding your breath while you count your money. - quote. Guy McPherson is Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. An author, blogger, and parallel universe version of Bjorn Lomborg, McPherson theorizes that runaway climate change constitutes a near-term human extinction event due to species interdependence and the current Holocene extinction rate of 200 species per day caused by human activity.