April 03, 2006

One Wacky Scientist

The University of Texas pays a reptile and amphibian scientist who thinks it would be peachy-keen if Ebola were to wipe out 90% of all humans. See, Dr. Eric R. Pianka doesn't particuarly like what humans are doing to the planet. He doesn't think Man is special. Thinking that way is anthropocentrism. On one of his web pages he asks, "What good are lizards? Indeed, what good are you?" During a presentation to the Texas Academy of Science he declared, "We're no better than bacteria!" I'm waiting for that great novel written by some streptococcus.

Pianka hast stepped into David Hume's is-ought problem. It's what separates objectively examining the world from advocating what should be done. It's what allows economist Stephen Levitt to discover legal abortion had an effect on crime rates while not taking a stance on abortion. There's a difference between understanding how the world works and deciding what course or policy should be taken.

The Texas Academy of Science didn't have a problem with Pinka's views. They gave him a standing ovation and an award. How nice and anti-human of them.

Reason's Ronald Bailey writes,

Professor Pianka is apparently a brilliant herpetologist, but like brilliant Stanford University entomologist Paul Ehrlich who wrote The Population Bomb nearly 40 years ago, he is completely ignorant of economics and demography. Pianka might start alleviating his ignorance by reading some of the analyses by Jesse Ausubel, head of the Human Environment Program at Rockefeller University. Relying on human creativity and wealth creation, Ausubel foresees the 21st century as the beginning of the Great Restoration of the natural environment.

Then Andrew Sullivan decides to lump Pianka with anyone who believes in the end of the world. He's not very humble. He seems to think the end times aren't near and will discount anyone who thinks otherwise. Not very humble of him. I don't know when the world will end. It could be tomorrow or centuries from now.

"Meeting Doctor Doom"