Ecologist calls for 90% of humanity to be wiped out to save the planet

This is disgusting... Thanks to Dennis for discussing it and bringing it to our attention. The speech Mims heard was delivered by Eric R. Pianka, a lizard expert from the University of Texas. It is recounted in detail in the latest issue of the Citizen Scientist. "We're no better than bacteria," Mims quoted Pianka as saying in his condemnation of the human race, which, he claimed, is overpopulating the Earth. The only way to save the planet for the rest of the species is to reduce the human population to 10 percent of its current number. "He then showed solutions for reducing the world's population in the form of a slide depicting the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," writes Mims. "War and famine would not do, he explained. Instead, disease offered the most efficient and fastest way to kill the billions that must soon die if the population crisis is to be solved. Pianka then displayed a slide showing rows of human skulls, one of which had red lights flashing from its eye sockets. AIDS is not an efficient killer, he explained, because it is too slow. His favorite candidate for eliminating 90 percent of the world's population is airborne Ebola (Ebola reston), because it is both highly lethal and it kills in days, instead of years. However, Professor Pianka did not mention that Ebola victims die a slow and torturous death as the virus initiates a cascade of biological calamities inside the victim that eventually liquefy the internal organs." Pianka notes in the online syllabus for his Diversity and Ecology class that the deadly form of Ebola – Ebola zaire – that has killed nine out of the 10 people infected currently only spreads by direct contact with infected blood, while Ebola reston, the close relative that currently kills only monkeys, is an airborne virus. Evolution, he says, will in time result in an airborne form fatal to humans. Mims notes that when Pianka finished his remarks, the audience of fellow scientists and students burst out in sustained applause. During a question-and-answer sessions, the audience laughed approvingly when Pianka offered the bird flu as another vehicle toward achieving his goal. They also chuckled when he suggested it was time to sterilize everyone on Earth. "What kind of reception have you received as you have presented these ideas to other audiences that are not representative of us?" asked one member of the audience. "I speak to the converted!" Pianka replied. Genocide, eh? This isn't science... this is a cult. Claiming the death of 90% of the human population is science is like calling Scientology a religion. It is a total mockery of the truly great things that can be done with science. If an imam was preaching (that's what Pianka is doing here... he's preaching) the death of 90% of the world we'd accuse him of inciting terrorism and ethnic cleansing. If a Christian Minister were to speak this way, he'd be dismissed as cult leader, a wacko, and we'd a think he'd drunk his own Kool-Aid. It also speaks volumes of the academic community... a standing ovation from his peers and students for this? Is this really the sad state of the academia of our colleges and universities? I've heard lectures advocating balancing the population where birth rates match the death rates (you'll also note that several European countries have taken this to further and are actually in a state of declining population. Some have predicted that unless this reverses, these countries and cultures will cause themselves to become extinct), but this is nonsense. What if a professor stood up with research that proved intelligent design? Would academics tolerate these views? No, he'd be laughed off the stage. But this gets taken seriously.