Only in Texas V or Dr. Death needs a Vacation

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Dr. Eric R. Pianka and an unidentified woman from the University of Texas at Arlington following a recent speech before the Texas Academy of Science in which Pianka endorsed airborne Ebola as an efficient means for eliminating 90 percent of the world's population. Pianka received an enthusiastic and prolonged standing ovation. Later he received more applause from a banquet hall filled with more than 400 people when the president of the Texas Academy of Science presented him with a plaque naming him 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist. Photograph copyright 2006 by Forrest M. Mims III.


31 March 2006

Recently citizen scientist Forrest Mims told me about a speech he heard at the Texas Academy of Science during which the speaker, a world-renowned ecologist, advocated for the extermination of 90 percent of the human species in a most horrible and painful manner. Apparently at the speaker's direction, the speech was not video taped by the Academy and so Forrest's may be the only record of what was said. Forrest's account of what he witnessed chilled my soul. Astonishingly, Forrest reports that many of the Academy members present gave the speaker a standing ovation. To date, the Academy has not moved to sanction the speaker or distance itself from the speaker's remarks. . . .

Special Editorial: Dealing with Doctor Doom

http://www.sas.org/tcs/weeklyIssues_...l-p/index.html


Meeting Doctor Doom

by Forrest M. Mims III / Copyright 2006 by Forrest M. Mims III.

I watched in amazement as a few hundred members of the Texas Academy of Science rose to their feet and gave a standing ovation to a speech that enthusiastically advocated the elimination of 90 percent of Earth's population by airborne Ebola. The speech was given by Dr. Eric R. Pianka (Fig. 1), the University of Texas evolutionary ecologist and lizard expert who the Academy named the 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist.

Something curious occurred a minute before Pianka began speaking. An official of the Academy approached a video camera operator at the front of the auditorium and engaged him in animated conversation. The camera operator did not look pleased as he pointed the lens of the big camera to the ceiling and slowly walked away.

This curious incident came to mind a few minutes later when Professor Pianka began his speech by explaining that the general public is not yet ready to hear what he was about to tell us. Because of many years of experience as a writer and editor, Pianka's strange introduction and the TV camera incident raised a red flag in my mind. Suddenly I forgot that I was a member of the Texas Academy of Science and chairman of its Environmental Science Section. Instead, I grabbed a notepad so I could take on the role of science reporter. . . .

Saving the Earth with Ebola

Professor Pianka said the Earth as we know it will not survive without drastic measures. Then, and without presenting any data to justify this number, he asserted that the only feasible solution to saving the Earth is to reduce the population to 10 percent of the present number.

. . . War and famine would not do, he explained. Instead, disease offered the most efficient and fastest way to kill the billions that must soon die if the population crisis is to be solved.

After praising the Ebola virus for its efficiency at killing, Pianka paused, leaned over the lectern, looked at us and carefully said, “We've got airborne 90 percent mortality in humans. Killing humans. Think about that.”

How soon must the mass dying begin if Earth is to be saved? Apparently fairly soon, for Pianka suggested he might be around when the killer disease goes to work. He was born in 1939 . . .

Questions for Dr. Doom

. . . The audience laughed when he said, “You know, the bird flu's good, too.” They laughed again when he proposed, with a discernable note of glee in his voice that, “We need to sterilize everybody on the Earth.” . . . .

He spoke glowingly of the police state in China that enforces their one-child policy. He said, "Smarter people have fewer kids." He said those who don't have a conscience about the Earth will inherit the Earth, "...because those who care make fewer babies and those that didn't care made more babies." He said we will evolve as uncaring people, and "I think IQs are falling for the same reason, too."

. . . five hours later, the distinguished leaders of the Texas Academy of Science presented Pianka with a plaque in recognition of his being named 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist. When the banquet hall filled with more than 400 people responded with enthusiastic applause, I walked out in protest.

Corresponding with Dr. Doom

Recently I exchanged a number of e-mails with Pianka. I pointed out to him that one might infer his death wish was really aimed at Africans, for Ebola is found only in Central Africa. He replied that Ebola does not discriminate, kills everyone and could spread to Europe and the the Americas by a single infected airplane passenger.

In his last e-mail, Pianka wrote that I completely fail to understand his arguments. So I did a check and found verification of my interpretation of his remarks on his own web site. In a student evaluation of a 2004 course he taught, one of Professor Pianka's students wrote, "Though I agree that convervation [sic] biology is of utmost importance to the world, I do not think that preaching that 90% of the human population should die of ebola [sic] is the most effective means of encouraging conservation awareness." (Go here and scroll down to just before the Fall 2005 evaluation section near the end.)

Yet the majority of his student reviews were favorable, with one even saying, “ I worship Dr. Pianka.”


Dangerous Times

. . . Science has become tainted by highly publicized cases of misconduct and fraud.

Must now we worry that a Pianka-worshipping former student might someday become a professional biologist or physician with access to the most deadly strains of viruses and bacteria? I believe that airborne Ebola is unlikely to threaten the world outside of Central Africa. But scientists have regenerated the 1918 Spanish flu virus that killed 50 million people. There is concern that small pox might someday return. And what other terrible plagues are waiting out there in the natural world to cross the species barrier and to which scientists will one day have access?

http://www.sas.org/tcs/weeklyIssues_...l-p/index.html

02 April 2006

Dealing with Doctor Doom

. . . Do academic institutions like the Texas Academy of Science have a duty to provide Professor Pianka a forum to advance these ideas? And what might the consequences be of allowing him to do so? My answer to the first question is a resounding "no." Furthermore, I am convinced that continuing to allow Professor Pianka unfettered access to impressionable students could one day lead to a loss of life that could make the Killing Fields of Southeast Asia look like a picnic ground. . . .

So it seems very strange to me for an evolutionist to identify one of evolution's most successful creations as somehow operating outside the natural order. To do so is to deny this undeniable truth of evolution.

Pianka is, of course, free to ignore the evidence and believe that humanity is, as he says, the "scourge" on the natural world. But this is a political opinion based on some vision he holds in his mind about the way the world ought to be. It is not a scientific fact. Indeed, it is a glaring scientific fallacy. . .

Pianka also argues that human beings are now so densely populated that they provide an idea vector for disease transmission, and he expects that microbes will "ultimately purge the Earth of the scourge of humanity." (Personal correspondence with Forrest Mims.)

The data stand utterly against this idea. . . .

Since neither of Pianka's foundational assertions are consistent with the best interpretation of the scientific evidence, his opinions on these matters are merely political rants. They therefore do not deserve protection under the doctrine of academic freedom, and scientific institutions like the Texas Academy of Science should have no problem refusing to provide speakers of his ilk a platform to publicly advance these positions. . . .

Professor Pianka's Death Wish
. . . How could such an eminent ecologist, as Eric R. Pianka clearly is, be so solidly on the side of absurdity and death? . . .

Professor Pianka describes himself as both a "hermit" and a "desert rat" who has spent years living in total isolation in various deserts while devoted to his studies of lizard ecology.

Now, what kind of man could forsake the company of his own kind for years? I certainly couldn't. Humans are, after all, communal animals. . .

The Piankians

Some of my friends would prefer to simply dismiss Professor Pianka's philosophy as merely the rantings of an old coot; a wild-eyed mountain man whose compassion and judgment have deteriorated with age and long exposure to the torments of the desert sun. After all, they point out, the good doctor hasn't actually called for acts of terrorism. . . is Pianka really a dangerous man?

Sadly, I think he is. . . . Will Pianka one day have his own "family" of followers living in the wild with him? Who is to say? But for an interesting take on this question, consider this blog post (scroll down to 9 March) by a new and young Piankian who became converted at his Texas Academy of Science lecture.

The "Scourge" of the Earth

The more people who believe Professor Pianka's philosophy that humanity is the "scourge" of the earth, and that the earth would be better off if 5,000,000,000 of us were to die a painful death, the longer men and women of conscious allow this idea to go unchallenged, the greater is the likelihood some disturbed people will take it upon themselves to try to help realize that vision.

And there is plenty of precedent. . . because of some misguided notion that they were serving a higher cause. . . . we cannot afford to ignore when academics stand and applaud a man who they just heard openly advocate that the world would be better off if over 5,000,000,000 human beings were to die as a result of a horrible disease.

Only in Texas...