Dr. Richard Vogl speaks at Mt. San Antonio College: April 20, 2006

As part of the earth week lecture series at Mt. San Antonio College, ecologist Dr. Richard Vogl spoke to a mostly student audience on the school's campus in Walnut, CA. Having only recently become acquainted with Dr. Vogl's work, I had yet to discover why so many had enthusiastically crammed themselves into a classroom on such a perfect spring day.

Most of the students knew Dr. Vogl through his book: A Primer of Ecological Principles. When prompted, nearly everyone was able to join in reciting the three-word principal on page 128: "Man is Stupid." Not your typical college textbook, the softbound volume omits the graphs and full color photographs of beaver ponds found in most ecology texts. Instead, line drawings and short quotes break up the loosely organized principals.

It was interesting to observe how closely Dr. Vogl's speaking style matches that of his writing. Never delving too deeply into any one topic, he was able to touch on an exceptional number of ecological concerns. In the interest of conserving server space, I'll include only a few of my favorite moments. While a speech that must be described as disjointed is likely to produce an equally incoherent account, I'll attempt to apply some structure to Vogl's words without diluting his zealous delivery.

Dr. Vogl wasted no time filling the room with a sense of urgency. "Our [western] civilization is in decline and has been since the 1960s." Citing specific dilemmas facing the lumber, mineral, and agricultural industries, he believes we have set ourselves up for catastrophic production failures guaranteed to complicate the not so distant future. In terms of resources, the United States is no longer the richest country in the world. For Vogl, the ongoing depreciation of the dollar is proof positive.

Leading not so gently into immigration policy, Dr. Vogl referred to the trend that's lead to eleven US cities becoming predominately populated by immigrants as the "Asian Invasion." Although we were warned before Vogl stepped up to the microphone that he wasn't P.C., but E.C. (ecologically correct), it was still a bit shocking to hear the often colorful vocabulary of an earlier time. Vogl appeared genuinely discouraged that opportunities for Americans (European descendants) were being snatched up by opportunistic immigrants and their offspring. He related the details of an obviously traumatic event involving a speech to the Junior Academy of Science where 58 of the 61 faces staring back at him were "Chinese." More confusing than disheartening for Vogl is his successful Korean Neighbor with the "better car." He muses aloud how we went from bayoneting Koreans to living next door to them in just a few years.

After a brief backtrack into resource scarcity, Dr. Vogl settled into environmental toxins. His logic: if Teflon is showing up at the top of the animal food chain (walruses in the Arctic), harmful compounds are likely accumulating in us as well. He was adamant about his prediction that life expectancy in this country (77.6 years) will decline from here on out as chemical contamination and cancer epidemics continue to take their toll. If the anti-fungal agent found in the soles of almost every new pair or shoes turns out to be a carcinogen, as he suspects, then he might be right. Drawing from a vast statistical database, he reported that, "twenty percent of female lung cancer patients are non-smokers." Vogl turned up the humor at this phase, physically acting out the absurdity of a woman filling the air in her bathroom with half a can of aerosol hairspray. He exposed senior citizens as "the biggest drug addicts," taking an average of six pills a day and requiring a highly structured system involving little plastic boxes just to keep the doses straight. Only half joking, Vogl predicted we're on our way to creating a world where all men will develop erectile dysfunction. This is of little concern, he added, because the antibiotics we're ingesting through our increasingly recycled water supplies are setting us up for an epidemic of killer bacteria that will eventually destroy us all.

Dr. Vogl's words really began to resonate when he questioned America's policy of unending growth. This lead to his definition of carrying capacity and the possible events that could reduce the earth's ability to sustain life. According to Vogl, carrying capacity is, "the maximum units supported by an environment in a time of stress." Although he doesn't buy global warming, he does see us returning to more climactically erratic conditions. Erratic climate is Vogl's "stress" and his "maximum [human] units" was passed a long time ago. He believes agriculture will be hit hard and our cities, as illustrated by New Orleans, will become death traps. The good Dr.'s advice: "Get ready to take care of yourself."

Dr. Vogl crammed potential solutions to the world's ills into his last three minutes at the podium. He cited a need for continuous education delivered through the mediums of television and the Internet. Everything from how to drive safely in the rain, to the fundamentals of environmental stewardship would be covered. It was here that Vogl put in his plug for conservation: "the only thing we haven't tried." Every benefit derived from conservation in the past has been canceled out by growth. Measures would have to be implemented universally and within an environment where growth has been zeroed if they're to have any effect at mitigating an economic and environmental collapse. These suggestions were among Vogl's most significant remarks.

"Ok, I'm done," is a pretty jarring thing to say in most contexts, but it makes an especially abrupt speech ender. With this said, Dr. Vogl somehow pulled it off, instantly triggering a hearty applause and only a few looks of shock. I think most listeners, myself included, responded to the passionate delivery of Dr. Vogl's words more so than the words themselves. I can almost visualize his animated gestures--arms flailing as he fumes to his wife over something he read in Ecotoxicology. All this just minutes before she expels him from the house to, "get some air."

More than a raving maniac, Dr. Vogl revealed himself as a product of his time. This isn't necessarily bad. In fact, as one of the early founders of ecology, he has a unique historical perspective. When he says we've got twenty years before the biosphere begins its terminal nosedive, I tend to believe him. While I was disappointed that Dr. Vogl somehow failed to mention our growing troubles with energy scarcity, I was glad to hear he still remembered when sewer construction paid a livable wage. The trouble is that he sees the United States as an overcrowded lifeboat but fails to observe the lines fixing us to the deck of a sinking planet. If we can look past their dated language, limited nationalistic view, and tendency to oversimplify problems, first generation ecologists like Vogl have much to offer. We must take to heart what's of value in their words and move forward. Dr. Vogl said it best at least half a dozen times during his speech, "and that's as simple as that."