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What do you think ?

Personally I think the guy who wrote this up missed the point.

Seems to me all this Pianka character was saying was that Nature has a habit of kicking back. We're too numerous as a species. Pandemics could be seen as Nature's response. The way he presented his lecture was clearly to create a stir, and his argument that we assume a God-given right to the planet above all other species is right. We are not more important in the scheme of things, but because we're clever little apes we do as we like powered by aggression and greed.

He's also right that the wrong people are breeding too much, and by wrong I mean merely those who don't put the effort into their kids to make them reasonable citizens. The few can't support the many indefinitely. The answer lies in incentives to stop people having too many kids, (ie more than one or two), unless they can afford it. Personally I think voluntary sterilisation's the only realistic solution: you pay someone a fee for getting sterilised, so that they, the state and society, is saved from the burden of their kids. Everyone wins.

In the West we live in societies where we all believe that we deserve to have whatever we want. That ain't great for the survival of the species or the running of balanced societies.

Here endeth the sermon.

who says he's a Top Scientist!

Well, if he's right, I can think of no better place to start the cull than in his own country!

But can we really believe what we're told by these "experts" anymore. Not 10-15 years ago the scientific comunity was panicing about the forth coming ice age yet here we are today being told the worlds getting hotter. If they can't make up their minds whether we're going to get really hot or really cold then should we trust them on other matters?

Science is not a constant as it is always changing!

Humanity is beyond redemption.
I know what is needed - LOVE - and by that I mean love of oneself and surroundings and life, acceptance of others, knowing right from wrong and RESPECT... but these things do not sit with the constant growth demanded by society, or the hate preached by most "powers" (religions, which do not promote love but intolerance and oneupmanship, western lawyers promoting hate and intolerance, their political paymasters making sure everyone is sucked in).
A society that promotes "work for works sake" (...i.e. have a baby, go to work - pay tax, pay someone else to look after your child, they pay tax so on so forth) is not going to thrive, we are all pushed into work to pay for the ever-increasing underclass. Like the economy, we cannot just keep on "rapid growth", it isn't realistic or sustainable and unfortunately if we (or rather, "the system") doesn't pull the rug from under our feet (and that is looking ever likely) then nature will work it out.

I like the 'Day after tomorrow' thory from the film

Anyone else think of 12 Monkeys when they read the article?
It could happen!

Sounds like a good candidate for a Horizon programme. They love doom & gloom on that BBC series.

Seriously though, I would agree that the current level of human population is not sustainable in the long run.

But I think the regulatory forces will be famine and war, not a plague - and I don't share that scientist's lack of faith in the population-reducing powers of war.

dynatech wrote:

SNIP

Like the economy, we cannot just keep on "rapid growth", it isn't realistic or sustainable and unfortunately if we (or rather, "the system") doesn't pull the rug from under our feet (and that is looking ever likely) then nature will work it out.

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In the mid 60's one economist was already warning us about the life we all seem to be leading today... it's a good (if sometimes slightly heavy) read... E J Mishan "The Cost of Economic Growth" (the Pelican copy I have cost me 75p back in about 1979!).

Chapter 10 on "The myth of the consumer's sovereignty" is particularly eye-opening in these days of Tescos receiving one in every eight retail pounds spent in the "high street".