Posted on 04/02/2006 9:57:25 AM PDT by Kokojmudd
Forrest M. Mims III
Copyright 2006 by Forrest M. Mims III.
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.
If the professional community has lost its sense of moral outrage when one if their own openly calls for the slow and painful extermination of over 5 billion human beings, then it falls upon the amateur community to be the conscience of science.
Forrest, who is a member of the Texas Academy and chairs its Environmental Science Section, told me he would be unable to describe the speech in The Citizen Scientist because he has protested the speech to the Academy and he serves as Editor of The Citizen Scientist . Therefore, to preclude a possible conflict of interest, I have directed Forrest to describe what he observed and his reactions in this special feature, for which I have served as editor and which is being released a week ahead of our normal publication schedule. Comments may be sent to Backscatter . Shawn Carlson, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, Society for Amateur Scientists.
There is always something special about science meetings. The 109th meeting of the Texas Academy of Science at Lamar University in Beaumont on 3-5 March 2006 was especially exciting for me, because a student and his professor presented the results of a DNA study I suggested to them last year. How fulfilling to see the baldcypress ( Taxodium distichum ) leaves we collected last summer and my tree ring photographs transformed into a first class scientific presentation that's nearly ready to submit to a scientific journal (Brian Iken and Dr. Deanna McCullough, "Bald Cypress of the Texas Hill Country: Taxonomically Unique?" 109th Meeting of the Texas Academy of Science Program and Abstracts [ PDF ], Poster P59, p. 84, 2006).
But there was a gravely disturbing side to that otherwise scientifically significant meeting, for 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.
One of Pianka's earliest points was a condemnation of anthropocentrism, or the idea that humankind occupies a privileged position in the Universe. He told a story about how a neighbor asked him what good the lizards are that he studies. He answered, “What good are you?”
Pianka hammered his point home by exclaiming, “We're no better than bacteria!”
Pianka then began laying out his concerns about how human overpopulation is ruining the Earth. He presented a doomsday scenario in which he claimed that the sharp increase in human population since the beginning of the industrial age is devastating the planet. He warned that quick steps must be taken to restore the planet before it's too late.
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.
He then showed solutions for reducing the world's population in the form of a slide depicting the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse . 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.
Pianka then displayed a slide showing rows of human skulls, one of which had red lights flashing from its eye sockets.
AIDS is not an efficient killer, he explained, because it is too slow. His favorite candidate for eliminating 90 percent of the world's population is airborne Ebola ( Ebola Reston ), because it is both highly lethal and it kills in days, instead of years. However, Professor Pianka did not mention that Ebola victims die a slow and torturous death as the virus initiates a cascade of biological calamities inside the victim that eventually liquefy the internal organs.
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.”
With his slide of human skulls towering on the screen behind him, Professor Pianka was deadly serious. The audience that had been applauding some of his statements now sat silent.
After a dramatic pause, Pianka returned to politics and environmentalism. But he revisited his call for mass death when he reflected on the oil situation.
“And the fossil fuels are running out,” he said, “so I think we may have to cut back to two billion, which would be about one-third as many people.” So the oil crisis alone may require eliminating two-third's of the world's population.
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, and his lengthy obituary appears on his web site .
When Pianka finished his remarks, the audience applauded. It wasn't merely a smattering of polite clapping that audiences diplomatically reserve for poor or boring speakers. It was a loud, vigorous and enthusiastic applause.
Questions for Dr. Doom
Then came the question and answer session, in which Professor Pianka stated that other diseases are also efficient killers.
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.”
After noting that the audience did not represent the general population, a questioner asked, "What kind of reception have you received as you have presented these ideas to other audiences that are not representative of us?"
Pianka replied, "I speak to the converted!"
Pianka responded to more questions by condemning politicians in general and Al Gore by name, because they do not address the population problem and "...because they deceive the public in every way they can to stay in power."
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."
With this, the questioning was over. Immediately almost every scientist, professor and college student present stood to their feet and vigorously applauded the man who had enthusiastically endorsed the elimination of 90 percent of the human population. Some even cheered. Dozens then mobbed the professor at the lectern to extend greetings and ask questions. It was necessary to wait a while before I could get close enough to take some photographs (Fig. 1).
I was assigned to judge a paper in a grad student competition after the speech. On the way, three professors dismissed Pianka as a crank. While waiting to enter the competition room, a group of a dozen Lamar University students expressed outrage over the Pianka speech.
Yet 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 .”
The 45-minute lecture before the Texas Academy of Science converted a university biology senior into a Pianka disciple, who then published a blog that seriously supports Pianka's mass death wish.
Dangerous Times
Let me now remove my reporter's hat for a moment and tell you what I think. We live in dangerous times. The national security of many countries is at risk. 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?
Meanwhile, I still can't get out of my mind the pleasant spring day in Texas when a few hundred scientists of the Texas Academy of Science gave a standing ovation for a speaker who they heard advocate for the slow and tortuous death of over five billion human beings.
Forrest M. Mims III is Chairman of the Environmental Science Section of the Texas Academy of Science, and the editor of The Citizen Scientist. He and his science are featured online at www.forrestmims.org and www.sunandsky.org . The views expressed herein are his own and do not represent the official views of the Texas Academy of Science or the Society for Amateur Scientists.
What one says can only have traction with the validity of personal accountability behind it.
When I am wrong, I suffer the greater sting because my name is attached to what I have stated, therefore even when posting facetiously, I attempt to carefully consider the thrust of what I am posting.
Now consider this, This doctor "Doom" fellow is not the first to advocate the wholesale destruction of vast swaths of Humanity in the name of XXXX(pick your ideology). Again, a misuse of Science is advocated in the name of some type of evoltionary imperative. This is why evolutionary theory is looked upon as suspect by a great many religious folk. You can say this guy was a nut...but so was a certain mustached greating cards illustrator in the 1920's and thirties! Evolutionary theory may have some validity in describing the processes of life and its change over time, but it is constantly getting hijacked by those with more of a revolutionary anti-religious bent...who take the science into realms of thought it was never meant to go!
Certainly this fellow has pondered upon this. Then again...
"What one says can only have traction with the validity of personal accountability behind it."
Actually, the only thing that matters is the logic of the argument put forth.
"When I am wrong, I suffer the greater sting because my name is attached to what I have stated, therefore even when posting facetiously, I attempt to carefully consider the thrust of what I am posting."
Your personal guilt over faulty claims is irrelevant when examining your arguments.
"some type of evoltionary imperative"
Sorry meant to say "revolutionary imperative"!
Its not so much about guilt...just about accountability...regardless of all that Dr. "Doom"....real threat or just a nut?
"Its not so much about guilt...just about accountability..."
The arguments you make speak for themselves. Providing your real name (so you say) won't make them any better or worse.
He might be nuts, but he's using his credentials to prop up his nuttiness. And it seems, as usual, when "practical" scientists embarass the profession, the profession deals with it by pretending it didn't happen."
You noticed this as well. I was wondering how long before some members of the MMS (If you want to know what that acronym means, let me know and I'll freepmail it ) would show up.
For so-called 'guardians of science', you do get a lot of crickets chirping when nutcases like this guy pop up and tout their credentials to bolster their argument ( I can think of a few others where things get really quiet, like Dawkins and Peter Singer. Reminds me of the Muslim quiet after 9/11 ).
And, you'll notice the cynical irony of posting 'everybody be nice' or 'no personal attacks'on certain threads, and then no more than several posts later, there is the inevitable wisecrack about people of faith ( most of the time, Christian ).
At least one guy had the integrity to call this guy's flight of fantasy for what it was (Quark2005).
And if you haven't guessed, my level of disgust is pretty high. I think its pretty obvious who is making science look bad here. Some of those folks should engage in a little introspection instead of narcissism (although I doubt that capability exists).
Look I agree with you about the arguements part...I just use my own name when I put forth my own,....now about the subject at hand..."Dr Doom"...is this guy a nut and an afront to science or what...or is he a real threat? Could such a move to misuse science to kill billions really be feasible? What is your view?
The evo crowd is not restrained by this humility, and it is overly optimistic to expect its behavior to conform to conservative norms.
However, I'll buy your a beer if you ever come to the Carolinas, especially for one of our FReeps!
"The international soldier is almost always very much disliked by internationalists"
That is a very provocative statement...I shall have to ponder what Chesterton meant by it. Today's internationalists at the UN seem very much to want an international army...at least in the case of Darfur,...with the American military and treasury at the UN's disposal!
Scientific conferences are a lot like three ring circuses, except nerdier. :)
He likely wasn't the only guy giving a speech that day, or even at the same time. I could be wrong, though.
Jeepers, the inmates are running the asylum these days! And the writer of this piece doesn't seem all that healthy himself....
We do live in interesting times. It seems we are no longer able or willing simply to call an insane person insane, clear off his rocker, anymore. Instead, we give them "professional" awards -- e.g., "distinguished scientist" of the Texas Academy of Sciences. Man, are those guys and gals drinking the Kool-Aid or what??? Jeepers, it's embarrassing....
Go figure.
Thanks so much for writing, editor-surveyor, and for the ping!
I'm unsure why you've pinged me, but if you've stalked me enough to keep my screenname in mind for this, then surely you must realize that:
1) I quite firmly and stridently believe that there is a difference in kind between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom; and that the principle difference in kind is situated in our sentience.
2) In my view it's quite clear that humanity is the crowning achievement of evolution; indeed, that all of terrestrial evolution to date has been for the purpose of producing a species such as ours.
3) That not only has all of evolution to date been but a prelude to our emergence, but that moreover we will imminently rise altogether above evolution, as masters of earth's biological destiny.
In short, you would be extraordinarily hard-pressed to find anyone more 'anthropocentric' than me, not least amongst your smug theistic cohorts, who presumably view humanity as nothing but vile, sinful maggots defiling the sight of an angry God.
So, do me a favor, and leave me out of your little parodies in the future. Thanks!
He, Ward Churchill, and Peter Singer could serve as charter members of the faculty of the University of Hell.
People like the Professor mentioned have a tendency of telegraphing things they are involved in by talking around them in an arrogant fashion.
From the CDC website, here are symtoms of avian flu in humans--The reported symptoms of avian influenza in humans have ranged from typical influenza-like symptoms (e.g., fever, cough, sore throat, and muscle aches) to eye infections (conjunctivitis), pneumonia, acute respiratory distress, viral pneumonia, and other severe and life-threatening complications.
Please note the Professor's allusion to bird flu and recent publicity assoicated with bird flu's risk of mutating into an uncontrollable pandemic.
Couple this this "chemtrails" and the disappearance/deaths of numerous world-league microbiologists during the Clinton Administration as an interesting/unnerving conspiracy theory begins to emerge.
First of all, this is the path to madness. Do yourself a favor and make a u-turn! ;)
Second, the odd demise of multiple world-league microbiologists wasn't during the Clinton administration, but rather in the year following 9/11.
A more sure path to madness is to deny God.
Ummm.. That makes no sense at all. The path that you're on -- of chemtrails, staged deaths (or whatever you mean to imply), and engineered bird flu mass murder conspiracy -- has a 100% certainty of madness. So, you can't get any "more sure" than that. It also doesn't do much for your credibility or your cause, BTW.
Hear, hear!
Cheers!
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