All Terrain Thinking

A Compendium of things I think are Important

Perspectives We Need to Take Seriously

Meet Dr. Doom, Eric R. Pianka, (Perspective 1)

Professor Eric R. Pianka, an eminent ecologist who studies desert ecologies, with its 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist Scientist award. Professor Pianka used the occasion to champion the notion, apparently without sanction of the Academy, that the Earth can only be saved if ninety percent of the human beings alive today are purged form the planet. He championed airborne Ebola as the most efficient virus to accomplish this. And while he stopped short of calling for terrorist action to bring this result about, he clearly implied that this was a right and proper future for our species and our planet. Astonishingly, after advocating for a future in which more than 5,000,000,000 persons would die a slow and agonizing death, many members of the Texas Academy of Science stood to their feet and applauded.

Consider Pianka's arguments.

Pianka claims that the natural world would be "better off" if there weren't so many humans. To see if that's true, we have to figure out just what constitutes the "natural world"? Human beings are the product of the same natural forces that shaped all other life on earth. Our brains evolved on this planet subject to the same kinds of natural selection pressures as those that shaped peacock feathers. The same can be said of all of our social structures, our religions and every other aspect of what we are that helped us secure resources and propagate our species (the hammer and anvil of natural selection). In short, our institutions and our technology are every bit as much a part of the natural world as elk mating rituals and beaver dams. In fact, by evolving the ability to adapt the world to fit us , human beings have become better at securing resources and procreating than any other vertebrate on the planet. By this measure, we are evolution's most successful creation (amongst vertebrates). If extraterrestrials were asked to select nature's most successful vertebrate on the Earth they would certainly point to us.

Pianka, is an evolutionist who believes that humanity is not part of the natural world. Somehow, the fact our evolution led us to a point whereby we can adapt our environment to our bodies, rather than wait for our bodies to adapt to our environment, puts us in an inferior position in nature. In his mind, Homo sapiens are the despoilers, the corruptors of the natural order. This viewpoint is every bit as anthropocentric as those who would place humans in a superior position, saying that we are the "pinnacle of evolution" or "chosen by God." Only instead of lauding humanity's position in nature, Pianka denigrates it. Evolution supports neither camp.

Pianka believes that humanity is, as he says, the "scourge" on the natural world.

Pianka argues that human beings are now so densely populated that they provide an ideal vector for disease transmission, and he expects that microbes will "ultimately purge the Earth of the scourge of humanity."

Plagues have run rampant through human populations throughout time. Millions have died. Huge fractions of some populations have been wiped out. But the net death rate has never come close to the fractions that Pianka envisions. Virulent diseases that kill quickly tend to burn themselves out. Natural selection creates less lethal varieties because an organism can't spread if it kills its host before it can propagate. The flu pandemic of 1918 (the influenza virus is championed by Pianka) may have killed 50 million people, but that was only about 5 percent of those infected. Moreover, every year sees medical advancements—screening techniques improve, as do our methods of creating new vaccines and treating illness of all kinds. Not only that, a desperate situation would be met by desperate measures, including the implementation of martial law, the halting of all air and ground traffic except for emergency vehicles and so on, to stop contagion.

In short, there is no historical precedent that supports the notion that humanity could be ninety percent depopulated by a single disease. Moreover, as time goes on and our technology and awareness grows, the risk to humanity is steadily falling.

Professor Pianka's Death Wish

But all this begs an important question. How could such an eminent ecologist, as Eric R. Pianka clearly is, be so solidly on the side of absurdity and death? His on online "obituary" is an independent indication of his fascination with death. This document, which is actually a brief autobiography, provides some important clues.

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? Humans are, after all, communal animals. We are biologically programmed to seek out the company—the love and support and companionship—of our own species, and I feel that need very strongly. A happy hermit simply must not strongly feel this basic drive that lies at the very foundation of our sense of community and of our own humanity.

The Piankians

Some simply dismiss Professor Pianka's philosophy as merely the rantings of an old coot; a wild-eyed mountain man who's 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. He hasn't declared that he wants people to bring about the painful deaths of over 5,000,000,000 human beings.

True enough. Professor Pianka has never advocated that human beings should act to bring about the depopulation of the planet. He says only that he thinks that it will happen, that it has to happen if the earth is too survive, and he strongly implies that he thinks it would be a good thing if it did happen. So, is Pianka really a dangerous man?

Remember history. < href="../protocol_zion/0099_AdolfHitler_Bio.htm">Adolph Hitler did not invent social ideologies based on hatred of the Jews. He pulled the core of Nazi philosophy from certain influential German philosophers. Rather, Hitler's "final solution" merely took these perverted ideas farther than those philosophers could have imagined any sane person would take them.

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.

So what if some Piankian disciple, a former student, perhaps, who works in a biological research or weapons laboratory—gains access to a deadly pathogen? What if that person becomes clinically depressed? His wife divorces him, his child dies, he discovers he's dying of cancer… Do you think a depressed and angry Piankian just might convince himself that releasing that agent would be a great service to the higher cause of saving the Earth? Do you think he might be able to infect himself, and then use his own body as the vector to infect others?

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