Is this what happens when

[cilla4progress]

earth's population exceeds its carrying capacity???

[lapfog_1]

1. no... but population density doesn't help

OTOH, there were many less humans around for the black death.

killed something like 30 to 50 percent of the people in Eurasia or around 75,000,000.

[TygrBright]

2. I don't think so. I think it's what happens when...

...our species evolves too slowly to use our gifts of intelligence, imagination, and creativity to build a positive relationship with the interconnected web of life that is our world.

Even now, if we could kick the "I'm first, my family's -MAYBE- next, and fuck all the rest of y'all, yer on yer own while I get what I think I'm entitled to" mentality to the curb, we have the means to survive and thrive.

But it would require us to prioritize collective well-being beyond individual freedumb, quantify 'reward' in terms of human connection, love, and support rather than toy count, encourage critical thinking, creativity, and connection rather than conformity and competition.

And we're not willing to evolve that way, apparently.

sadly,
Bright

[The_jackalope]

3. This is one of the things, for sure.

Climate change, food supply disruptions, extinctions and social collapse are some others.

Have a great day!

[The_jackalope]

4. PS: Everyone should read William Catton"s book "Overshoot"

Essential reading. The most important book I've ever read.

[cilla4progress]

7. Hi, Jack!

Good to see ya! I hope is well with you.

[The_jackalope]

8. Hi! I gots my beans, bourbon and TP stockpile

I think things will go OK. Hope they're going well for you too!

[cilla4progress]

9. Haha.

Us too.

[pecosbob]

5. It may be what happens when it's stupid capacity is exceeded

Am I mistaken in my belief that most viruses are caused by our (humans) living in close proximity with animals? Seems like we would have changed this habit of living around animals with diseases that can kill us by now.

[GopherGal]

10. I wouldn't say that "causes" viruses

... but the expansion of human settlement to bring us in closer contact with a wider variety of animals creates the conditions where we get exposed to new viruses that had previously existed only in animals. And when we put different animals in close proximity with each other we facilitate exchange of the viruses between species and the viruses' adaptations to new hosts.

[Caliman73]

11. No. We aren't at capacity yet.

The projected carrying capacity (what can be sustained indefinitely) is between 9 and 10 billion people. We are currently at 7.8 billion.

Diseases are natural occurrences in human history. The earth was nowhere near capacity when the worst pandemics The Black Death and the Justinian Plague hit.

What can be said, especially with this current virus, is that we need to get much much better about regulating our interactions with wild animals. The corona virus is believed to be the result of the unregulated wild animal markets in China. The reason most of the recent outbreaks have been from China is because there is a HUGE unregulated market for selling wild animals for food.