Theoretical Physicists Say 90% Chance of Societal Collapse Within Several Decades

[NickB79]

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/akzn5a/theoretical-physicists-say-90-chance-of-societal-collapse-within-several-decades

Two theoretical physicists specializing in complex systems conclude that global deforestation due to human activities is on track to trigger the “irreversible collapse” of human civilization within the next two to four decades.

If we continue destroying and degrading the world’s forests, Earth will no longer be able to sustain a large human population, according to a peer-reviewed paper published this May in Nature Scientific Reports. They say that if the rate of deforestation continues, "all the forests would disappear approximately in 100–200 years."

[Drum]

1. It was a contributing cause of the loss of the culture of Easter Island, I heard somewhere....

I'm checking here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island

(However, I'm learning, people captured for slavery elsewhere and smallpox brought to the island also contributed to the decimation of the population.)

But to be clear, I think that any sensible person would/should avoid killing off our plant life, ruining our soil, air, and water.

Alas, so much nowadays is driven (destroyed) by people who are not sensible.

[Laffy Kat]

2. I'm reading "The Coming Plague" for the first time.

Garrett points out that there has never been a guarantee that humans will survive on our own planet. There have been at least five mass extinctions that we know about. We remain vulnerable to micro-organisms: parasitic, bacterial, and viral.


Adding my two cents to what Garrett observes: We also seem to be quite stupid.

[Thekaspervote]

3. Not surprising...

I see kinds of articles about how the collapse of human population growth will be our demise..
This is much more the likely scenario

[soothsayer]

4. I'll take decades. It'll be months if drumpf isn't run out of town.

[mahina]

5. IF

Let's do the opposite.

[bluedigger]

6. This civilization, maybe.

Humanity has a few more millennia in it, at least.