The World Economy Is Suddenly Running Low on Everything

[PETRUS]

25. I'm in partial agreement

In "The Sixth Extinction," author Elizabeth Kolbert wrote that the rapid loss of biodiversity is because of "one weedy species" (humans).

What I would say is biodiversity loss is directly linked to human activities (not numbers). There's no doubt that too many people can be a problem in and of itself (and as I wrote before, I suspect there are too many of us). But it's not at all clear that the number of people on the planet is what's driving the problem today.

Food for thought: Since 1980, 48% of new income from global GDP growth has gone to the richest 5%; 28% of new income from global GDP growth during that time period has gone to the richest 1%. Remember (from my post above) that we know it's possible to produce a healthy, well-educated, long lived population using a fraction of the resources that we currently do. That tells me that an enormous amount of our economic activity - resources dug up and harvested, labor expended - is mostly done for the benefit of elite accumulation. Think of how much less pressure on the environment there would be if we put a stop to that.