Science: Ethanol Critic David Pimentel On the Need to Defeat Bush.

[NNadir]

Inspired by shrill silliness in this space criticizing the respected Cornell Scientist David Pimentel on the grounds he deigns to not march lockstep with the ethanol Lobby, I happened upon a note in the scientific journal Science (Science 29 October 2004 306: 815) about Dr. Pimentel's candidacy 2004 for the Sierra Club's board of directors. None of the controversy around him connected with his criticism of ethanol for fuel schemes, but there was some controversy about his stand on the need for population control.

700,000 members of the Sierra Club are currently choosing five members of the group’s 15- member board of directors. One candidate is David Pimentel, an emeritus professor at Cornell University long known for his warnings that human population growth threatens the planet. Pimentel, 78,who has served on numerous National Research Council panels, says he’s running to share his technical savvy and work to defeat President George W. Bush in November. But opponents allege that Pimentel and several other candidates—including a former Democratic governor of Colorado, Richard Lamm—are actually “front men” for anti-immigration groups eager to infiltrate the 112-year-old club and control its $95 million budget.

http://www.sciencemag.org/ (Subcription required)

Readers in this space may recognize that there has been an attempt here to attach the credibility of the journal with the idea that Pimentel is a demon from hell. If such a scientific finding -that Pimentel is a demon from hell - has been made in this journal, it is not evinced in this particular commentary in that journal.

For the record, Dr. Pimentel was not elected to the Board of Directors at the Sierra Club but that is really of little consequence since the Sierra Club is actually of little consequence.

For the record I happen to agree that population control is the real issue in the collapse of the planetary environment, but I do not agree that the appropriate solution to this crisis is restrictive immigration laws in particular countries. From my perspective all putative "solutions" for problems like climate change - even my own favorite, the rapid expansion of nuclear power capacity - will fail unless the elephant on the table, population and the carrying capacity of the earth - is recognized. From my perspective the ethical solution of this problem (and I have no illusions that the solution will prove ethical) involves application of the liberal agenda, especially the elimination of poverty, but also respect for the rights of women, gays, etc...