Without societal change, even a die-off as extreme as half of everyone dying will have absolutely no effect beyond the immediate term. Just look at the Black Death as an example: about half of Europe among others died over its period and yet we are still facing overpopulation issues not 7 centuries later.
The general populace just needs to learn and understand that maybe staying well above replacement level is not good, actually.
Of course, when the Black Death happened, the world in general was much smaller. People weren’t quite as aware as to what was happening elsewhere. And given that things like infant mortality were much higher, life expectancy was lower, no real contraception etc… people really had no real incentive not to procreate again. So they did.
These days we’re generally more aware and more in control. I like to think that if corona HAD wiped out half the planet, the survivors would see clear benefits: less overcrowding, nature is restoring, the air is cleaner, etc etc. You saw some of that during the pandemic when, for example, the canals in Venice turned crystal clear because of lack of humans.
I’d flip that coin right now. Whoever lives inherits a paradise. Use it wisely and learn from previous mistakes.
Maybe I’m just a cynic but I don’t think mentality has really changed since then. If that were the case we would see more rapid population decrease instead of it just being due to financial pressure
Stop down voting him, he’s right. Earth day is on April 22, so we would need to shrink earths population to a third in order to make our current way of living sustainable… (Shrink the rich first)
Without societal change, even a die-off as extreme as half of everyone dying will have absolutely no effect beyond the immediate term. Just look at the Black Death as an example: about half of Europe among others died over its period and yet we are still facing overpopulation issues not 7 centuries later.
The general populace just needs to learn and understand that maybe staying well above replacement level is not good, actually.
Of course, when the Black Death happened, the world in general was much smaller. People weren’t quite as aware as to what was happening elsewhere. And given that things like infant mortality were much higher, life expectancy was lower, no real contraception etc… people really had no real incentive not to procreate again. So they did.
These days we’re generally more aware and more in control. I like to think that if corona HAD wiped out half the planet, the survivors would see clear benefits: less overcrowding, nature is restoring, the air is cleaner, etc etc. You saw some of that during the pandemic when, for example, the canals in Venice turned crystal clear because of lack of humans.
I’d flip that coin right now. Whoever lives inherits a paradise. Use it wisely and learn from previous mistakes.
Maybe I’m just a cynic but I don’t think mentality has really changed since then. If that were the case we would see more rapid population decrease instead of it just being due to financial pressure
Stop down voting him, he’s right. Earth day is on April 22, so we would need to shrink earths population to a third in order to make our current way of living sustainable… (Shrink the rich first)
While I appreciate the sentiment, my whole point was that this action would probably not be an effective solution :D