Univ. of Texas Professor Criticized Over Comments About Pandemic
AUSTIN
A University of Texas biology professor has been targeted by talk radio, bloggers and vitriolic e-mails — including a death threat — after a newspaper article suggested that he advocated death for most of the population as a means of saving the Earth.
But Dr. Eric Pianka says 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 says. “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. The article was widely circulated and quickly became talk radio fodder.
