Part of me can see how much nicer our world might be without any humans in it. Ecosystems could find their own equilibrium, unhindered by industrial pollution. Species could expand again and diversify, free of competition from the endless growth of factory farms, freeways, and parking lots.
It would take much time, centuries or even millennia, for the sky to regain its natural clarity, the forests to regrow, and the rivers to run clean. Even longer than that, probably, for all of the plastic eventually to degrade and disappear.
But someday, someday… the Earth would once again be a beautiful place.
It’s a lovely vision, and yet I’m torn. Because to get there means the suffering and death of billions of people. I wish there was a way to prevent that.
Love all of this and agree with all of it, except 'the peak of the Industrial Age is near'.
I believe we are already past it, or what I call #PeakCivilisation and are already on the downward slope.
I put the peak at either the 2008 financial crash or the 1973 oil crisis. The current rising food prices and increase in general inflation are not going down as the #ClimateCrisis increasingly makes agriculture more difficult and #ExtremeWeather events cause increasingly serious financial loses worldwide. We are on the downward slope and not going back.
For some properly researched and modelled figures regarding #collapse, the Journal of Industrial Ecology have published some research entitled 'Recalibration of limits to growth: An update of the World3 model'. You can read the whole article here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jiec.13442
Note that food production is less than 50% of the 2024 figure by 2050. Industrial output is less than 25%. Population has declined by about 0.5 Billion.
OK, so maybe 2040 is a bit pessimistic for 'grow your own food or die' but please note that population is less than 50% by 2100.