The Population Bomb is Still Ticking

In this interview, one of the world's best-known biologists, Paul R Ehrlich, answers questions from Dr John Richard Schrock.
Ehrlich is Bing Professor of Population Studies and President of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University. He received his PhD from the University of Kansas. As co-founder with Peter H Raven of the field of co-evolution, Ehrlich has pursued long-term studies of the structure, dynamics and genetics of natural butterfly populations.
He has also been a pioneer in alerting the public to the problems of overpopulation and in raising issues of population, resources and the environment as matters of public policy. A central focus of his group is investigating ways that human-disturbed landscapes can be made more hospitable to biodiversity.
The Ehrlich group's policy research on the population-resource-environment crisis takes a broad overview of the world situation but also works intensively in such areas of immediate legislative interests as endangered species and the preservation of genetic resources. A special interest of Ehrlich's is cultural evolution, especially with respect to environmental ethics.
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Source: University World News, Issue No: 0105 13 Desember 2009

Military of Indonesia Seeks Help from Top Universities

David Jardine
In an attempt to boost their professionalism, Indonesia's sometimes notorious armed forces - the TNI - have agreed to cooperate with the Ministry of National Education. The ministry will direct TNI to top state universities that it hopes will aid the military in achieving its aims.
Sceptics have pointed out the TNI has yet to be taken to account for the late 1990s killings of demonstrating university students in Jakarta and the disappearance of some 14 activists at the hands of the Army Special Forces, Kopassus.
Colonel Guntur Wahyudi, a spokesman for the military, said the planned co-operation with the national education ministry would be part of a TNI drive "to be more professional and innovative". "It is the ministry that will direct us to universities that fit our needs," Wahyudi said.
Under the plan, some university lecturers from top state institutions will teach at the Indonesian Military Staff and Command College in West Java. Among the areas Wahyudi has pinpointed are management skills, technology and human rights.
Given the abuses for which the TNI is known, the latter reference can either be seen as a breakthrough or a cynical ploy. Whether inclusion of human rights on the proposed scheme of co-operation brings about an improvement in the TNI's abysmal rights record remains to be seen. It most certainly poses a challenge to the academics charged with teaching the programme.
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Source: University World News, Issue No: 0104 06 Desember 2009