Rattling Around

Dr. Pianka is a lizard researcher at the University of Texas. (Go Horns!) Recently he has gotten a lot of attention due to his views on human population growth. Some people seem to think that because he is predicting lots of deaths from germs, that he is an advocate for the destruction of mankind. Or even that he is secretly plotting to release deadly viruses to carry out his evil plans. What some folks seem to miss is that human overpopulation will also result in more deaths from starvation, earthquakes, landslides, fires, wars, terrorism, spousal and child abuse, tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, accidents, food contamination, drug overdoses, lightning, and perhaps meteor strikes. There will also be more poverty, and the general quality of life will go down. Not all causes of death will go up... there will be fewer deaths from maneating tigers, snake bite, sharks, or being gored by buffaloes; because as we destroy the world's forests, wetlands, rivers, oceans, and other habitats, there will be fewer and fewer animals to bite, crush, trample, sting, and swallow us. But if we don't take steps to control the size of our population, we will continually have to adjust our notions of what constitutes a "disaster". 100 deaths? 1000? No indeed, mass deaths won't even hit the news unless 10,000 or 100,000 die; or maybe someday not unless a million die. Do you appreciate the fact that even with the colossal number of deaths in the tsunami of 2004, that the population was replaced by births in those countries within three days at the most? (I think that maybe Sweden took a couple of days longer than that to replace their losses...) So rather than depicting Eric as a closet terrorist, perhaps you should think about what he is saying.