Apr. 04, 2006
UT professor criticized over comments about impending pandemic
LIZ AUSTIN
Associated Press

AUSTIN - A University of Texas biology professor has been targeted by
talk radio, bloggers and vitriolic e-mails - including a death threat
- after a published report that he advocated death for most of the
population as a means of saving the Earth.

But Eric Pianka said Monday his remarks about what he believes is an
impending pandemic were taken out of context.

"What we really need to do is start thinking about controlling our
population before it's too late," he said. "It's already too late, but
we're not even thinking about it. We're just mindlessly rushing ahead
breeding our brains out."

The public furor began when The Gazette-Enterprise of Seguin, Texas,
reported Sunday on two speeches Pianka made last month to groups of
scientists and students about vanishing animal habitats and the
explosion of the human population.

The newspaper's Jamie Mobley attended one of those speeches and also
interviewed Forrest Mims, an amateur scientist and author who heard
Pianka speak early last month before the Texas Academy of Science.

After the newspaper's report appeared, it was circulated widely and
posted on "The Drudge Report." It quickly became talk radio fodder.

The Gazette-Enterprise quoted Pianka as saying disease "will control
the scourge of humanity. We're looking forward to a huge collapse."

Pianka said he was only trying to warn his audience that disease
epidemics have happened before and will happen again if the human
population growth isn't contained.

He said he believes the Earth would be better off if the human
population were smaller because fewer natural resources would be
consumed and humans wouldn't continue to destroy animal habitats. But
he said that doesn't mean he wants most humans to die.

But Mims, chairman of the academy's environmental science section,
told The Associated Press there was no mistaking Pianka's disdain for
humans and desire for their elimination.

"He wishes for it. He hopes for it. He laughs about it. He jokes about
it," Mims said. "It's got to happen because we are the scourge of
humanity."

David Marsh, president of the Texas Academy of Science, did not return
telephone and e-mail messages seeking comment. No recording or
transcript of either that speech or another delivered last Friday at
St. Edward's University in Austin was available for review by the AP.
The Gazette-Enterprise said it reviewed a transcript of the original
speech, which was provided on the condition that it not be
distributed.

Allan Hook, a St. Edward's biology professor who heard both speeches,
said Pianka "wasn't so perhaps adamant in his own personal views of
what he thinks might happen" in his second lecture.

But Hook declined to elaborate on what Pianka said in the earlier
speech, which Pianka delivered while being honored as the academy's
2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist.

University of Texas officials don't plan to take any action against
Pianka, university spokesman Don Hale said.

"Dr. Pianka has First Amendment rights to express his point of view,"
Hale said. "We have plenty of faculty with a lot of different points
of view and they have the right to express that point of view, but
they're expressing their personal point of view."

ON THE NET

Prof. Eric Pianka's UT Web site,
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/varanus/eric.html

Texas Academy of Science, http://www.texasacademyofscience.org/

Seguin Gazette-Enterprise, http://www.seguingazette.com/

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