[gleeaikin]

"A mad scientist who said he wants to kill 9 out of 10 people with the Ebola virus."

I just went back and reread the entire article. I am not sure he actually wants to kill 90% of the human race. He may be trying to shock people into becoming aware that we have some serious problems that are coming to a head.

Regarding ebola, he points out that ebola has a 90% kill rate, at least where there is poor medical care. Currently ebola can be stopped fairly easily with proper medical sanitation--rubber gloves, masks, etc. I have read a couple of books about past outbreaks. He says the big danger is that there is a form call Ebola Reston, which monkeys can spread in the air like the flu. He says that if terrorists can engineer Ebola Reston to infect humans by air transmission then we are in big trouble.

Are we really prepared to deal with such an epidemic?

[Tribune7]

It is here that some say Pianka ventures from provocative food for thought to, as Wilkins said, “very extreme material” that violate many people’s views — including his own — about the treatment of human life. While many praise Pianka’s boldness and scientific know-how, others say he crosses an ethical line in his treatment of Ebola’s viability as a killer.

In an evaluation of Pianka’s course — performed anonymously in keeping with university policy — one student offered:.

“Though I agree that conservation biology is of utmost importance to the world, I do not think that preaching that 90 percent of the human population should die of Ebola is the most effective means of encouraging conservation awareness.”.

Mims says he’s seen countless doomsday predictions come and go. But Pianka’s is different, Mims said. Pianka, he insists, exhibits genuine cause for alarm..

Mims worries fertile young minds with a thirst for knowledge may develop into enthusiastic supporters of a deadly disease, advocating the fall of humanity..

(snip)

Mims counters their ovation with the story of a Texas Lutheran University student who attended the Academy of Science lecture. Brenna McConnell, a biology senior, said she and others in the audience “had not thought seriously about overpopulation issues and a feasible solution prior to the meeting.” But though McConnell arrived at the event with little to say on the issue, she returned to Seguin with a whole new outlook. An entry to her online blog captures her initial response to what’s become a new conviction: “[Pianka is] a radical thinker, that one!” she wrote. “I mean, he’s basically advocating for the death for all but 10 percent of the current population. And at the risk of sounding just as radical, I think he’s right.”