David Pimentel (scientist)

rdf:langString David Pimentel (scientist)

rdf:langString David Pimentel (May 24, 1925 – December 8, 2019) was a professor of Insect Ecology & Agricultural Sciences in the Department of Entomology and Section of Ecology and Systematics at Cornell University. He made contributions in ecology, entomology, agriculture, biotechnology, conservation, and environmental policy. He was recognized as an international authority on many important interactions between humans and the environment. He published over 700 scientific items, of which 37 are books, and served on many national and government committees, including the National Academy of Sciences, the President's Science Advisory Council, the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. State Department, and the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, and Health, Education and Welfare. Pimentel served on committees for many national and government organizations, including the Secretary's Commission On Pesticides And Their Relationship To Environmental Health (United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare) which issued a report in 1969 that recommended the banning of DDT and led to the creation of the EPA. Pimentel was an agronomist and entomologist, but he had a broad ecological perspective on agronomy, which usually is focused narrowly on yields and production. In the early 1970s he pointed out the energy intensiveness of modern agriculture. He followed that with several important papers on soil erosion. In 1999 Pimentel published estimates detailing the economic losses of invasive species. He estimated an annual economic loss of $123 billion. In most of his studies he attempted to generate quantitative estimates, even of quite difficult and large scale issues. Pimentel calculated that the policy of growing maize to produce the ethanol, as well as other biofuels, cost more energy to maintain than it actually produced. These conclusions were met with hostility from some quarters.