University of Texas professor Eric Pianka’s enemies say he advocates wiping out 90 percent of the population and that his seemingly giddy obsession with death and disease coupled with power over young minds is dangerous and disturbing.
Professor Eric Pianka’s speech that was mentioned here a couple days ago has since earned him the attention of the FBI
Professor’s population speeches unnerve some
For Kindle and with free ePub version. Only $9.49 Great reading.
Here is what Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said: Dvorak's writing sings with insight and clarity. Whether or not you agree with John's views, he will get you thinking and is never boring. These essays are worth the read!
Subscribe to Main Blog feed here:
Subscribe to Comments too (below):
Bad Behavior has blocked 4655 access attempts in the last 7 days.
A father symbol for eco-terrorist, how quaint.
It never ceases to amaze me that someone who already occupies space on the planet wants to stop others from doing the same. Responsible reproduction is a concept that should be the domain of the parents themselves. If the professor’s parents had shared his beliefs, this story might never have been written.
I actually find myself agreeing with him – to a point. Human being are just like any other animal on this planet, and let’s face it, the more people and the more crowded together we are, the more potential for us to succumb to a contagious/deadly virus.
Most people exist in their little cubicle of life, the here and now. What about 10, 20, 100 years from now? Just in my lifetime my small town has gone from slightly rural to totally overcrowded. Ask anyone from NYC or Philly how much things have changed over the last 20 years. Exponentially, there is such a thing as population critical mass.
I don’t see where pointing out the obvious is equal to eco-terrorism.
Uuhh…having read the article, it all seems a bit overblown to me. He didn’t advocate wiping out any of the Earth’s population…all he said was that humans were reproducing like bacteria (essentially true, the pattern is similar over the long term) and we – like bacteria overgrown on an agar plate – were at risk of a pandemic.
In the process he offends “Mims, an author and amateur scientist” who found the talk “degrading” – why, because he compare humans to bacteria? Mims is “one of dozens of bloggers who have expressed displeasure with Pianka’s point of view.”. Well, that clinches it…dozens of bloggers are displeased. It must be true then.
It kind of makes me wonder about the three first posters above – did you guys actually read the article, or is the headline enough detail for you to make statements of authority?
I am more inclined to see the decline in critical thinking demonstrated by the comments above as a grave risk to the future of the species, rather than a provocative professor.
And Matt, I happily exclude you from my diatribe. I knew someone would post something sensible before I got my comment lodged.
The Earth is self-correcting. If the population is too big then Earth will fix it by earthquakes, natural disasters, less oxygen, etc. We, humans, are smart enough today to be aware of this happening such as global warming and the ice caps melting. Are we smart enough to balance out these occurences without killing humans? Contrary to the belief, knowledge is NOT power. APPLIED knowledge is. There are people in the world who are bent on stopping knowledge from being applied. They do this by keeping the masses dumb so that whatever the masses apply, it is without knowledge and therefore no threat to those *with* knowledge AND POWER. David Icke’s books cover these.
david,
I was with you right up until “David Icke”. Sheesh.
I think killing eco-geeks is a great idea.
Looks like I got more out of the story than anyone else.
Alphgeek you are proceeding on the presumption that people are rational. The professor may have thought provoking commentary, but it’s how some people will spin it that may cause damage. There are a lot of people on the fringe of society and sanity. They don’t need a rational figure to lend credence to their irrational thoughts. Ivory towers are wonderful places to live, but 99.99+ % of the world don’t dwell in them.
Mims is an idiot, probably just trying to spiff up the click throughs on his blog. Pianka makes a valid point; humans collectively act like viruses, damaging their host (Earth) and reproducing beyond sustainable numbers.
Cool, this was my story
I don’t think Pianka is trying to be or foster any type of terrorism. If so should we consider Tom Clancy a terrorist or one who incites terrorism.?(no) After all he had a book about this very thing and it sold millions of copies. (Rainbow 6) Mr. Clancy also wrote about a person piloting a 747 into the Capitol Building and killing much of our Congress.
He sold millions of books, should the FBI question him?
No, it is rather silly. Professor Planka is stating what could very well happen and pointing out we need to control our own population to attenuate the possibility that it will happen.
Mims, has a position that encourages more children so the Professor is seen as antethical to his point of view.