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Original poster

Natures way of culling the population

229 replies

ExD1938 · 15/04/2020 15:48

Am I being unreasonable to be shocked by a neighbour's remark that this pandemic is natures was of reducing the overpopulation of the planet?
I was gobsmacked at first, then I began to wonder ................?. .

OP posts:
TheCountessatHotelCortez · 15/04/2020 16:20

@HappyLemonSadLemon I shouldn’t laugh but I have obviously embarrassed myself! I get mixed up with the numbers but my point is the same worst case scenario it still doesn’t even dent UK population numbers

OmgThereAreNoPlanesAboveMeNow · 15/04/2020 16:20

What is it now. Nearly 8 billion people? There will be pandemic which will bring it down. A lot. Is it this one? I don't think so.

juneybean · 15/04/2020 16:22

Of course it is, but we're a clever bunch and we come up with vaccines. But the sad fact is, the world is overpopulated and we are killing it.

TheCountessatHotelCortez · 15/04/2020 16:22

I think it has really made us all look at our own mortality. I know some younger people are dying but it is still a very low very rare number. Back before there were treatments/vaccines for pneumonia etc that would kill a large number or older people naturally etc but we have become so accustomed to artificially keeping people alive past their time now

Devlesko · 15/04/2020 16:22

Some people think it's natures way, others think it's sent from God.
Some think it came from a meat market, some from a lab.
We all have opinions, and the world is vastly over populated.

GREATAUNT1 · 15/04/2020 16:22

Don’t get watching The Hunger Games .... then OP.

OhCaptain · 15/04/2020 16:24

What shocked you?

It’s a bit silly because it would need to kill at least a few million to make a dent anywhere close to a cull.

I don’t know what you were shocked by specifically, though.

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 15/04/2020 16:25

I think it is a reminder that we haven’t mastered nature and that for all our successes as a species we can’t control the environment.

OmgThereAreNoPlanesAboveMeNow · 15/04/2020 16:25

Some people think it's natures way, others think it's sent from God.
Some think it came from a meat market, some from a lab.

All of these are acceptable. And then there is 5g....

Astoatora54 · 15/04/2020 16:26

@Reginabambina Thanks for the sarcastic ffs - here it is back at you. Pandemics don't just spread because "they do" like a sunrise. Certain conditions exacerbate and facilitate the spread. One of those conditions is natural habitat loss, another is overcrowding. A pandemic is not "just a natural occurrence", initially it may occur naturally but the way in which it spreads and thus becomes a pandemic is very much a result of human activity. Just because you don't like the answer, doesn't mean it isn't true.

WoollyFoolly · 15/04/2020 16:29

@TheCountessatHotelCortez, the death toll won't make a dent In 70 million because of the drastic action being taken and modern medicine allowing us to even give ventilated patients a chance. If it was left entirely to nature for the virus to spread, and 80% of the population became infected, the death toll would be staggering. Even with a mortality rate of 2%, it would be over a million people.
The difference between this pandemic and previous ones is that we have ways of a)managing it and b) researching it that weren't available in the past. Without that, the death toll would almost certainly be like that of the Spanish Flu pandemic.
I don't think it's a disgusting opinion, it's just an opinion. Nature doesn't give a damn if we (the human race) survive or not, the earth will go on happily without us.

Alsohuman · 15/04/2020 16:29

Survival of the fittest is hardly a new concept. Why would anyone be shocked?

OmgThereAreNoPlanesAboveMeNow · 15/04/2020 16:29

It's also a good reminder to check if your meat is cooked all the way throughGrin

On a serious note. The lowering emissions reminded it me of Genghis Khan. He reportedly killed so many people on his voyages it noticeably lowered the carbon dioxide in the air!

SarahTancredi · 15/04/2020 16:29

Its It's not that big a leap is it.

I mean survival of the fittest/natural selection is how things go with wild animals.

We are destroying the planet. We chop down trees and pollute the atmosphere and fill the sea with chemicals on a daily basis. There was always going to be a day where the perfect storm of destruction occurred causing something to happen even if it's not this.

Plenty of things that happen that kill animals happen because if what humans have done.acid rain, oil slicks etc really it's not that far fetched

RubbishG3nericUsername · 15/04/2020 16:32

The philosopher Malthus theorised about how the population will naturally 'check' itself.

OhCaptain · 15/04/2020 16:33

There’s no denying that the planet is doing well out of it, too...

geekone · 15/04/2020 16:34

Even through this pandemic the global population is growing by almost 300,000 people per day. If it is natures way of culling it’s not doing a good job.

Yes it’s a vile thing to say and a vile thing to repeat on a post.

AuldAlliance · 15/04/2020 16:35

OmgThereAreNoPlanesAboveMeNow
Can you explain about the bug hotels, please?

alloutoffucks · 15/04/2020 16:36

Nature does not care about humans at all. If we were all wiped out tomorrow it would not matter to the planet. In fact the planet and nature would be better off. That does not mean it is okay for humans to be wiped out.

blacksax · 15/04/2020 16:37

It does happen naturally to other species, doesn't it? Nobody can argue with that.

BiBabbles · 15/04/2020 16:38

I think if 'nature' has enough sentience/will/ability to purposefully create a virus to cull us, then it's taken a real round about and inefficient way of doing so. Even if one believes nature to be a force with the ability to have a motivation, I really don't get the desire to make it an antagonising force out to punish all humans.

Mutating, replicating, and transmitting is what viruses do. The virus mutating as it has is naturally random, but it isn't nature way of doing anything. Nature doesn't have the capacity to do something that intentional. Even with mothers who kill their young, not all within any species do that to the weak and when they do, it isn't always the weakest - some animals mothers will care for all of them and some will let them all starve or eat all of their young or lash out while weaning resulting in death. Nature involves many systems, how they work or don't in any individual's favour isn't really about being nice or malicious, the systems have no intent other than continuing as variables change.

alloutoffucks · 15/04/2020 16:38

@SarahTancredi That is not what survival of the fittest means. It refers to species not individuals.
And you do know we try and save endangered species? We don't just let lions, tigers and polar bears be wiped out.

OhCaptain · 15/04/2020 16:39

Is it a vile thing to say? Confused

OneForMeToo · 15/04/2020 16:40

I’m shocked your shocked.

Nature is thriving while we are locked away. Animals reclaiming land, pollution down etc.

Humans are horrible for the Earth as we are greedy and want it all and to be everywhere. Every so often we will find something within or on the earth that will cause humans great harm. Illness that once affected only one country now spreads worldwide because of humans greed.

YeahWhatevver · 15/04/2020 16:40

There's lots of examples in nature of populations growing to unsustainable numbers and then dying back.

We grow to unsustainable numbers, in densely populated centres, and something comes along and thins the population back until transmission from very close proximity can't happen and the cycle starts again.

The faux outrage/disgust/shock on here is nonsense

Biscuit