Social Disease

Nothing says loving like irate e-mails and death threats. A UT professor has been getting both after that venerable news source, the Drudge Report, linked to a pair of his recent speeches on population.

In his speeches, Dr. Eric Pianka suggested that the planet might be better off with fewer people -- like, 90% fewer. How exactly Pianka said this and whether or not his comments were taken out of context is debatable.

Regardless, we're feeling a little sorry for the guy. Even if he did say that disease will "control the scourge of humanity," we tend to take that whole "free speech" thing pretty seriously. We're ok with people saying any crazy thing they like. It's not like Pianka was running around handing out samples of SARS at the supermarket.

The good folks over at The Citizen Scientist and Armadillo Podcast beat the mainstream media to this story by a few days. You can also read more about the ~~witch hunt~~ controversy at the Statesman and the Star Tribune or go watch 12 Monkeys.

*Image (c) Seiya235 of on Flickr.*

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By Carly Kocurek in News on April 5, 2006 3:18 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Carly

I think it's largely an issue of how people phrase things. Most of the stuff I've read bashing him has been pretty reactionary and stupid.

triSARAtops

I know this professor, and a number of my good friends work with him. He's not a kook; some of his work in the last 30-40 years innovated the field of Ecology, and his contributions to Ecology and a number of his publications have won awards. What he said is not outrageous, in terms of population dynamics and sustainability. Should he have shared with the class, so to speak? Maybe not. People don't want to hear that kind of thing. But before you write him off, ask any Ecologist about Eric Pianka and see what they say.

Decent link about human pop growth (http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.... here.

odam

and Keith Richards

odam

and Keith Richards

dave

"Or go watch 12 monkeys"

priceless.

don't worry mother nature will dispose of us at her whim; all that will remain are the roaches and possibly Cher.

john

if there weren't so many christians/mormons having baby's like it's going out of style (which it is), population might not be such an alarming problem (at least) in this country.

my math prof. mentioned this yesterday during a lecture on population growth rates but I couldn't find it online. does anyone have a link to the speaches/articles?