Save the earth; destroy humanity

It is the crusade of the 20th century. A holy war to reverse the ‘destruction of the ecological balance caused by self-serving, ego-centric human activities’.

Is this crusade prompted by a concern for humanity, or the opposite? Let’s ask Biology professor Eric Pianka of the University of Texas…

Professor Pianka just received the 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist award at the Texas Academy of Science's annual meeting. He also gave a very enlightening talk at the meeting. Most enlightening:

"Every one of you who gets to survive has to bury nine," Eric Pianka cautioned students and guests at St. Edward’s University on Friday. Pianka's words are part of what he calls his "doomsday talk" — a 45-minute presentation outlining humanity's ecological misdeeds and Pianka's predictions about how nature, or perhaps humans themselves, will exterminate all but a fraction of civilization.

Though his statements are admittedly bold, he's not without abundant advocates. But what may set this revered biologist apart from other doomsday soothsayers is this: Humanity's collapse is a notion he embraces.

Indeed, his words deal, very literally, on a life-and-death scale, yet he smiles and jokes candidly throughout the lecture. Disseminating a message many would call morbid, Pianka's warnings are centered upon awareness rather than fear.

"This is really an exciting time," he said Friday amid warnings of apocalypse, destruction and disease. Only minutes earlier he declared, "Death. This is what awaits us all. Death." Reflecting on the so-called Ancient Chinese Curse, "May you live in interesting times," he wore, surprisingly, a smile.

So what's at the heart of Pianka's claim?

6.5 billion humans is too many.

In his estimation, "We've grown fat, apathetic and miserable," all the while leaving the planet parched.

The solution?

A 90 percent reduction.

'UT professor says death is imminent', seguingazette.com

Be-a-u-ti-ful. Pianka is sort of the David Koresh of biologists wouldn't you say? (It warms my heart to find another dedicated and committed academic hard at work teaching our best and brightest the skills they need to compete in the 21st century, it really does. Ward Churchill eat your heart out.)

One Global Branch Davidian Compound

The one thread connecting all of the more strident and alarmist proclamations about global warming is in fact this anti-human undercurrent. This disdain and bitterness against humanity. As if human beings were a plague upon the eternal, perfect, and immaculate virgin earth.

This would be amusing if it were not for the fact that there is a real danger involved-- the danger of deception. And it looks more likely every day that the alarmists are gaining traction.

It reminds me of the fire triangle. Just like there are four elements needed to have fire, there are four things needed to produce a global catastrophe:

1. Enough propaganda to sustain outrageous claims,
2. Enough official support of said propaganda,
3. Critical mass of people actually believing the propaganda, and
4. a power ready to use force to enforce the propaganda.

We already have plenty of David Koresh's, like Prof. Pianka, attempting to sway others to their global-warming 'humanity-is-a-disease' death cult. Many governments are ready to go along with the alarmist agenda. We even have a popular belief in global warming, if not quite a critical mass. All we need now is a Janet Reno to send in the tanks and tear gas, setting off the spark and burning everything down to the ground-- in order to save the earth of course.

Indoctrination or education?

Today's prophets of doom aren't disheveled homeless men, pacing sidewalks, wearing placards proclaiming, "The end is near!" No-- Unfortunately they have positions of prominence and authority and are allowed to teach impressionable and apparently gullible young minds in colleges that the end is near.

Mims worries fertile young minds with a thirst for knowledge may develop into enthusiastic supporters of a deadly disease, advocating the fall of humanity.

"He recommended airborne Ebola as an ideal killing virus," Mims said. "He showed slides of the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse and human skulls. He joked about requiring universal sterilization. It reminded me of a futuristic science fiction movie with a crazed scientist planning the death of humanity."

But as confident as Mims is in his assessment, he faces one unarguable fact: Most of Pianka's former students are bursting with praise. Their in-class evaluations celebrate his ideas with words like "the most incredible class I ever had" and "Pianka is a GOD!"

Did you know that David Koresh was supposed to be an incarnation of god to his followers? Pianka too, converts listeners...

Brenna McConnell, a biology senior, said she and others in the audience "had not thought seriously about overpopulation issues and a feasible solution prior to the meeting." But though McConnell arrived at the event with little to say on the issue, she returned to Seguin with a whole new outlook.

An entry to her online blog captures her initial response to what's become a new conviction:

"[Pianka is] a radical thinker, that one!" she wrote. "I mean, he's basically advocating for the death for all but 10 percent of the current population. And at the risk of sounding just as radical, I think he's right."

Today, she maintains the Earth is in dire straits. And though she's decided Ebola isn't the answer, she's still considering other deadly viruses that might take its place in the equation.

"Maybe I just see the virus as inevitable because it's the easiest answer to this problem of overpopulation," she said.

Is this just one lone nutbag spouting extreme environmentalist rhetoric? One might be tempted to think so if it were not for the standing ovation he received at a meeting of Scientists and college students.

David Koresh would be so lucky to receive a standing ovation from any crowd.

McConnell said the TAS audience, unlike Mims, was in awe of Pianka's words. They offered a standing ovation, and enthusiastically applauded Pianka's position, Mims said.

"There was a good deal of shock and just plain astonishment at what he had to say," the student said. "Not many folk come out and talk about the end of the human population in as candid of a manner as he did. Dr. Pianka received a standing ovation at the end of his talk, if that says anything. What he had to say was radical, no question about it, but that is not to say that at least some of what he had to say is not true."

Though Pianka turned down requests for a sit-down interview, he maintains he is not advocating human death.

Does he believe nature will bring about this promised devastation? Or is humanity's own dissemination of a deadly virus the only answer? And more importantly, is this the motive behind his talks?

Responding to these very questions, Pianka said, "Good terrorists would be taking [Ebola Roaston and Ebola Zaire] so that they had microbes they could let loose on the Earth that would kill 90 percent of people."

'By the time we have proof it will be too late!'

Was there any real reason to believe that the world was flat? Or that the sun revolved around the earth? Or that communism would bring about a utopian society of equality and love? Not really. They were merely consensus beliefs which were not supposed to be questioned.

Every day the stories get more pronounced. More apocolyptic. Decidedly more extreme.

The climate is crashing and global warming is to blame. Why the crisis hit so soon -- and what we can do about it. "No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth. Never mind what you've heard about global warming as a slow-motion emergency that would take decades to play out."

Climate Change: Countdown to Global Catastrophe
"Report warns point of no return may be reached in 10 years, leading to droughts, agricultural failure and water shortages... The global warming danger threshold for the world is clearly marked for the first time in an international report to be published tomorrow - and the bad news is, the world has nearly reached it already."

'Millions more starving by 2015'
The world will have 100 million extra hungry people by 2015, scientists say. ...Despite great improvements in food availability in the 1960s and 1970s, these trends are reversing in many developing countries, they say.

Weather of mass destruction bigger threat than terrorism
Citing a Pentagon report... "It envisions the need to turn the US and other rich western countries into "fortresses," armed against an angry tide of people displaced by rising sea levels or unable to grow food, and running for their lives."

Solving the Earth's environmental problems means addressing the size of its human population, says the head of the UK's Antarctic research agency.
"A number of studies suggest that humankind is consuming the Earth's resources at an unsustainably fast rate. Even so, the issue of population is hardly ever discussed at environmental summits or raised by green lobby groups. Professor Rapley, Director of the British Antarctic Survey, acknowledges it is a thorny question, invoking the spectre of forced population control and even eugenics.

..."Unless and until this changes," he writes, "summits such as [the recent climate change meeting] in Montreal which address only part of the problem will be limited to at best very modest success, with the welfare and quality of life of future generations the ineluctable casualty."

If you believe these kinds of doomsday warnings are unprecedented, you're wrong.

Anatomy of Supposititious Lupine Declarations

Dr. Paul Ehrlich is still considered 'an expert' even though his every prediction has failed to materialize. The man who cried wolf said, in his Book, The Population Bomb (A Sierra Club Book):

The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970's the world will undergo famines-- hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.

(First page of prologue, paragraph 1) Ehrlich, P. (1968). The Population Bomb. New York: 'Sierra Club' -Ballantine Books.

I think part of the problem with doomsday predictions is that we never follow up on them. Maybe if we did, we might be able to achieve some perspective on what kind of predictions should be taken seriously or not. When dire predictions are espoused today about global warming, overpopulation, environmental destruction and doom there is usually a radical remedy espoused along with it. A program of action that share common characteristics.

They key to the whole business, in my opinion, is held by the United States. We are the most influential superpower; we are the richest nation in the world. At the same time we are also just one country on a shrinking planet. (pg. 132, paragraph 1)

...We of course, cannot remain affluent and isolated. At the moment the United States uses well over half of all the raw materials consumed each year. Think of it. Less than 1/15th of the population of the world requires more than all the rest to maintain its inflated position. (pg. 133, paragraph 1)

...The "selfless" actions necessary to aid the rest of the world and stabalize the population are our only hope for survival. The "selfish" ones work only toward our destruction. Ways must be found to bring home to all the American people the reality of the threat to their way of life--indeed to their very lives.

Obviously our first step must be to immediately establish and advertise drastic policies designed to bring our own population size under control. We must define a goal of a stable optimum population size for the United States and display our determination to move rapidly toward that goal. (pg. 135, paragraph 1)

(Chapter 4, 'What needs to be done?' Pages 132-135) Ehrlich, P. (1968). The Population Bomb. New York: Sierra Club-Ballantine Books.

Remember Professors Pianka's glee. His final solution? A 90 percent reduction in population.

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Some related links:

A more complete account by Mims
Pianka: What nobody wants to hear, but everyone needs to know
A description for one of Pianka's classes
Pianka's Obituary
Thomas Malthus
Thomas Malthus (wikipedia)
Out of the Malthusian Trap

[H]egemonic Word count: 1999

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