Sensing a theme

I’m sensing a theme in world events these days.

I think I’m going to call it the Tom Clancy factor. Fanatics using airplanes as flying bombs…mad mullahs working to create international outrage and, so, limit U.N. action…and now, Earth-firsters opining that the planet would be much better off if most of the people were dead.

Remember that Tom Clancy book? In Rainbow Six, Clancy writes about a bunch of enviro-whackos who decide to polish off most of humanity by releasing a biological agent, “Shiva,” at the Sydney Olympics. Of course, they don’t include themselves in that little doomsday offering to the Earth Mother; they’re safely tucked away in their little enclave, provisioned with food and antidote to the plague.

University of Texas professor Eric Pianka is not advocating, exactly, a planetary elimination of the human species, but he sounds delighted at the prospect:

That’s 5.8 billion lives — lives he says are turning the planet into “fat, human biomass.” He points to an 85 percent swell in the population during the last 25 years and insists civilization is on the brink of its downfall — likely at the hand of widespread disease.
“[Disease] will control the scourge of humanity,” Pianka said. “We’re looking forward to a huge collapse.”

Note to world: Please keep Professor Pianka away from the infectious diseases lab…just a thought. It might not be a bad idea to keep an eye on some of his students, either:

(An opposing scientist) tells the story of a Texas Lutheran University student who attended (Pianka’s) 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.”

Today, she maintains the Earth is in dire straits. And though she’s decided Ebola isn’t the answer, she’s still considering other deadly viruses that might take its place in the equation.

“Maybe I just see the virus as inevitable because it’s the easiest answer to this problem of overpopulation,” she said.

Somebody PLEASE check Brenna’s lunchbag when she heads home after a hard days work at the old biolab. And read some Tom Clancy…he’ll provide some tips to successfully counter the kill-humanity-to-save-the-planet crowd. After all, he’s already beaten them once.