I Don't Think That Eric Pianka Really Advocates Genocide

University of Texas professor Eric Pianka ("The Lizard Man," right) has taken a lot of heat in recent days from bloggers and talk radio personalities who suggest that the professor advocates wiping out most of the human race. Intelligent design advocate William Dembski is so mad with Pianka that he reported the professor to the Department of Homeland Security (a move that, in my opinion, was just childish).

So what is Pianka saying that is causing such a fuss? From the Seguin (TX) Gazette-Enterprise:

AUSTIN - A University of Texas professor says the Earth would be better off with 90 percent of the human population dead. . . .

Pianka's words are part of what he calls his "doomsday talk" - a 45-minute presentation outlining humanity's ecological misdeeds and Pianka's predictions about how nature, or perhaps humans themselves, will exterminate all but a fraction of civilization. . . .

Indeed, his words deal, very literally, on a life-and-death scale, yet he smiles and jokes candidly throughout the lecture. Disseminating a message many would call morbid, Pianka's warnings are centered upon awareness rather than fear.

That Pianka is so giddy about his theory that disease will wipe out most of humanity is disturbing, but I can see how his morbid enthusiasm would appeal to college students. At any rate, I see no evidence that Pianka favors genocide, as some have suggested; he just thinks that the human population has gotten too large too quickly and is having devastating effects on the planet. Soon, he suggests, the natural world will get fed up and fight back, probably with a deadly virus. The smaller, surviving human population will then have a much better relationship with the rest of the biosphere. It isn't pleasant, but it's a theory.

(Actually, sending a disease to substantially reduce the human population for the long-term benefit of the whole of creation sounds like the work of an "intelligent designer." There's even a biblical precedent: Genesis 6–8.)

If you don't like Pianka's theory, then explain why it's wrong. Show scientifically that the human population isn't too big or why it will decrease gradually over thousands of years instead of being almost entirely wiped out by a pathogen. Don't condemn Pianka as a heretic and a terrorist just because you don't like his conclusions and the way he presents them—respond with science.