[extropy-chat] Meeting Doctor Doom

[BillK]

On 4/5/06, Joseph Bloch wrote:
> I declare myself agnostic on the issue, pending more information.  I'll
> be the first to step to Pianka's defense, should I be convinced the
> account is inaccurate.
>

The original news report that started all the furore is here:
<http://story.seguingazette.com/drudge.html>

"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.

There is a followup article at:
<http://www.seguingazette.com/story.lasso?ewcd=bb5a122cfbeab898>

Kirk Winemiller earned his doctorate from UT in 1987 and worked as a
Fullbright Research Scholar in Zambia in 1988-89. He said alarm over
the professor's lecture is, very simply, "making a mountain out of a
mole hill." Furthermore, he warns that encroaching upon scientists'
freedom could inhibit the important role they play.

"There is no controversy in stating that increasing population density
tends to be followed by increasing rates of disease transmission and
increasing risk that genetic variants of pathogens might quickly
spread from one host to a new one," he said.

"We've seen this happen in recent years with several nasty viruses,
including avian influenza, SARS, etc. I am assuming that Dr. Pianka
was using hyperbole in stating that, in the event that an epidemic
were to wipe out 90 percent of the human population, natural systems
might be allowed to recover in the absence of impacts."


BillK