Well let me see now, the environmentalist movement has so far killed between
10 and 30 million people, downed two space shuttles and their astronauts and
severely damaged our forests, among many similar accomplishments. To
paraphrase Dr. Bill on TV, how's that working out for us?
One could start believing that the ultimate plan to save the planet is to
kill off all the people.
Denys
-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Wirt Atmar
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 12:03 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT:Mars
Chuck writes:
> Yes I also found Wirt's comment amusing and hypocritical. But posting a
> direct insult like that does not make you look good or him look bad. I
> disagree with much of Wirt's current political philosophy, and suspect
> that much of his shift leftward over the years is due to a desperate
> need to fit into the academic community he appears to frequent, I still
> see no need to descend to that level.
I very much appreciate your comments of unwavering support in this matter,
Chuck, but I thought that I would write and correct just a bit of what you
wrote. My "leftward shift" hasn't really been all that recent.
Because this list is coming to an end, let me describe my alter ego
activities, things I didn't normally speak of while the list was in full
force that may
have given you the impression that my conversion is only recent.
Although I've been a registered Republican since 1966 (when I turned 21) and
a business owner since 1976, I've also been associated with the academic
community for a little longer than that, and have been "trying to save the
planet"
for at least that long. In the early 1960's, I participated in "Green
Revolution" research called Integrated Pest Management. See:
http://aics-research.com/history2.html
In 1976, I earned two doctorates, one in electrical engineering and the
other
in evolutionary ecology. I was actually working on a third at the time in
astronomy (the evolution of galaxies) but I never finished it for no good
reason
other than I got busy. Beginning in 1976, the same year we founded AICS
Research, I also began teaching at the local university in the EE and
biology
departments, and did so for the next 10 years until the company overwhelmed
my
waking hours.
During that time, like a great number of other people, I began concerning
myself with conservation biology, one of the most important crises of our
time.
You can see the results of some of that work here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLOSS_Debate
or if you go to Google, type:
patterson atmar
The work on "nestedness," a phenomenon that Bruce Patterson (Field Museum of
Natural History) and I helped define predicts the extinctions of
populations.
That work has continued for the last 30 years and remains ongoing. Although
pride goeth before a fall, I'm proud to say that it has now been used as one
consideration in the design of parks and reserves all over the world.
Nor is the concern about global warming new. When I taught power engineering
in the late 1970's, I often assigned the concern as one of the topics that I
required of a semester report for junior/senior engineering students:
http://67.41.4.238/ee332-1979-page1.html
http://67.41.4.238/ee332-1979-page2.html
although it was called the "CO2 crisis" at the time.
I'm also quite proud to say that this year's AH Heneken Prize for
Environmental Science was awarded to a good friend and former classmate,
Stuart Pimm:
http://www.knaw.nl/heinekenprizes/prizes_env.html
Indeed, for the last several classes just before we were awarded our
doctorates, Stuart and I were the only two people in the classes.
The bottom line of all this: go see Gore's movie. It would really be worth
your time.
Wirt ("saving the planet since 1964") Atmar
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