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From: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Newsgroups: net.sci,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Population control & Freedom
Message-ID: <564@gargoyle.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Sep-86 20:21:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: gargoyle.564
Posted: Tue Sep 23 20:21:19 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Sep-86 21:17:02 EDT
References: <11700397@inmet>
Reply-To: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Organization: U. of Chicago, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 34
Xref: watmath net.sci:1598 talk.politics.misc:313

>>The worst thing that can happen -- will happen [in the 1980s] -- is
>>not energy depletion, economic collapse, limited nuclear war, or
>>conquest by a totalitarian government.  As terrible as these
>>catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a few
>>generations.  The one process ongoing in the 1980s that will take
>>millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species
>>diversity by the destruction of natural habitats.  This is the folly
>>our descendants are least likely to forgive us.  --Edward O. Wilson,
>>*Harvard Magazine*, Jan.-Feb. 1980
>
>Tosh:  the other disasters he mentions are worse, and less rever-
>sible.  Genetic diversity can be increased very fast by creating
>*artificial* habitats, by genetic engineering and cross-breeding.
>[janw]

Utter nonsense.  Jan, please provide one shred of scientific support
for your claims.  (This means:  document your statements by
references to a scientific author or journal with authority to speak
in this area, e.g., E.O. Wilson.  Quotes from *National Review*,
*Time*, or *Gung-Ho For Freedom* do not count.)  

One has to admire Jan's chutzpah in implying that the distinguished
population biologist and behavioral ecologist Edward Wilson doesn't
understand the facts about genetic diversity.  But of course it's
entirely possible that Jan has a better understanding of this
subject.  So please give us a lecture on this subject, Jan, and
explain where Wilson goes wrong.  Explain what genetic diversity is,
how it is quantified and measured, and the nature of the present
threat, if any.  It shouldn't take you very long.

If time permits I will post some passages from Wilson that support
and amplify the passage I quoted.

Richard Carnes