![]() ![]() “Jack characterized Mouse Utopia as “a critique of human societies for their failure to incorporate the findings of biology, ecology and evolution into their operations” (Vallentyne 2006: 163). This is what mankind may do to itself, Jack was telling us, if it ever gets cold fusion to work or finds some other source of unlimited energy. All in the face of unlimited material resources. The population then declined slowly to 1000 mice by about day 1100, and rapidly to zero by day 1644. Long before that, social strife and physiological dysfunction were evident and survival of newborn mice was poor. The population peaked at 2200 mice around day 560. The population grew, food, water, and nest boxes were always supplied in excess of need, and bedding materials were changed every six to eight weeks. Calhoun (1973) introduced four pairs of mice in 1968. It refers to a nine square meter indoor enclosure into which J.B. ![]() “Mouse Utopia was Jack’s facetious label and metaphor for mankind’s present dystopia. Religions that encourage belief in a personal after-life invite ecological disaster by separating people from their surroundings."" … Most religions encourage war by providing spiritual support for the fighters and consolation for the bereaved. …ost large organizations that control human behavior have misconstrued, ignored or bypassed the most fundamental discoveries that have been made in biology, ecology, and evolution. Further growth will only increase the power and wealth of those who make money from the bonanza. In fact, the reverse is more likely to be true. What made these tragedies particularly disgusting was that most people were unaware of what was going on in their own back yards….Growth is still subsidized on the false belief that further growth will bring wealth and happiness to most people. … People everywhere have tried to reduce the human impacts of the growth of technology and population without fundamentally changing their ways…. …The three primary evils of technological civilization based on demotechnic reasoning are: money, the clock, and forms of advertising and propaganda based on deception. It is ecological madness, pure and simple. …It is a dangerous fantasy to see yourself as separate from nature. Very partially, and not to deny the many positive thoughts and suggestions he offers: "The whole history of technological civilization has been to disengage from nature, to worship money, to covet land as a commodity, to ravage forests, to drain wetlands, and to send wastes downwind and downstream for as long as you can get away with it. … In his last sole-authored work, Tragedy in Mouse Utopia: An Ecological Commentary on Human Utopia (Vallentyne 2006), Jack pulled out all the stops, bearding any remnant of an “inner censor”. “In his later publications, Jack pushed back with ever greater vehemence against individuals and institutions pushing for increased population and demotechnic growth. Only in a book, Tragedy in Mouse Utopia (Vallentyne 2006), published shortly before his death, did this reserved man unleash his “inner censor” and give us the full force of his thoughts.” His writings on the topic were sparse but prescient. … Underlying all of Jack’s concerns for environmental quality and our environmental future, was Jack’s understanding of the threat of overpopulation. “Jack” Vallentyne was one of Canada’s most influential scientists during the latter part of the last century. Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics 12: 21-34) Tribute to an ‘obnoxious’ ecocatalytical demotechnician: Jack Vallentyne on population. Below are excerpts concerning it from a tribute I wrote to Vallentyne’s work a few years after his death. This excellent, deep book deserves more attention than it has gotten. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. Click ‘Customise Cookies’ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This includes using first- and third-party cookies, which store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. If you agree, we’ll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie Notice. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements. ![]() We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie Notice. ![]()
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