[Plsfaculty] AAAS Censorship, Population, Vallentyne's Day

[Brian Larkins]

FYI……………

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Schindler <dschindl at ualberta.ca>
Date: Sun, Feb 5, 2012 at 9:05 AM

 

AAAS Censorship, Population, Vallentyne's Day

 

A Letter from Edmonton, Ottawa and San Diego Concerning AAAS

 

Colleagues and Friends in the Scientific Community:

 

As most of you are aware human overpopulation is a great threat to our planet, ourselves and other living things. Essentially no nation can be said to be living in a sustainable way. In all, non-renewable resources are declining and environmental degradation, from rising greenhouse gas levels to species extinctions, outpaces attempts to halt it.

 

Population growth is the main culprit, especially considering that for most of the world we should want the standard of living to be higher than it is now — and that requires increased per capita consumption of resources in those areas.

 

Unfortunately, some segments of the scientific establishment in the US and Canada feel they have the right to suppress, on ideological grounds, discussion of what should be the national population policies in their own countries. This prejudice seems pervasive and deep but normally "flies below the radar" of the busy scientists and leaves little public trace.

 

The three of us recently encountered such censorship when we attempted to organize an exhibitor booth on population issues for the AAAS meeting scheduled for February 2012 in Vancouver, British Columbia, first under the aegis of Californians for Population Stabilization, and then under the aegis of the Population Institute of Canada. Both attempts were denied by AAAS on the shallowest of pretexts. This mailout to thousands of scientists in the US, Canada, and elsewhere is our response.

 

Five new articles, with links to their pdfs, are listed below. The first recounts our battle with AAAS, and includes an appendix with all key correspondence. 

 

The second recounts the first stage of that struggle, but also documents other instances of suppression of information by AAAS as well as by the [US] President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

 

The last three new articles concern the ideas on population, consumption, demotechnics and censorship of the late Canadian limnologist, Jack Vallentyne, and have just come out in Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics. Vallentyne was thinking deeply on these issues starting in the late 1960s. He would be appalled by the behavior of the AAAS directorate and their counterparts in so many other scientific and environmental organizations.

 

Do pass this on to your colleagues and students; 'sunlight' will be the best cure for this disease.

 

With best regards,

 

David Schindler, University of Alberta

dschindl at ualberta.ca

 

Madeline Weld, Population Institute of Canada 

madweld at rogers.com

 

Stuart H. Hurlbert, San Diego State University  

shurlbert at sunstroke.sdsu.edu

 

 

 

American Association for the Advancement of Silence (On National Population Policies) Muffles 'Obnoxious' Canadians Too <http://www.thesocialcontract.com/pdf/twentytwo-two/tsc_22_2_aaas_schindler_weld_hurlbert_combined.pdf> 

Schindler D, Weld M, Hurlbert SH, 2012, Soc. Contract 22(2) :11-25.  

 

Is AAAS Oblivious to U.S. Overpopulation and Its Consequences? Or Is It Just Another Censor? <http://www.thesocialcontract.com/pdf/twentytwo-one/tsc_22_1_hurlbert.pdf> 

Hurlbert SH, 2011, Soc. Contract 22(1):67-71.  

 

Consumption: the other side of population for development <http://www.int-res.com/articles/esep2012/12/e012p015.pdf> 

Mata FJ, Onisto LJ, Vallentyne JR, 2012, ESEP 12:15-20.  

 

Vallentyne was right: achieving sustainability requires accounting for all relevant factors <http://www.int-res.com/articles/esep2012/12/e012p005.pdf> 

Ryerson WN, 2012,  ESEP 12:5-13.  

 

 <http://www.int-res.com/articles/esep2012/12/e012p021.pdf> Tribute to an 'obnoxious' ecocatalytical demotechnician: Jack Vallentyne on population 

Hurlbert SH, 2012, ESEP 12:21-34.  

 

::::DIAMANTE: CAPS: Educating Scientists Project:AAAS:TSC cover AAASMuffles.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

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