Sir David Attenbourgh calls humanity

[Racket_Man]

a plague on the Earth.

Following along the lines of Agent Smith in the first Matrix movie,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Na9-jV_OJI

Sir David makes about the same case.

[Andara Bledin]

We're only a plague in the same manner as a plague of locusts.

But otherwise, the comment isn't wrong.

We're an inherently invasive species, and if nothing is done to control our spread, we will wipe out our own ecosystem, as well as the ecosystems for thousands of other species. Unfortunately, there's not much quick profit in ensuring that humanity has a future, so I suspect that progress towards sustainable resource use will continue to be far slower than it should be.

I am heartened (and not particularly surprised) that education is the considered primary remedy for population control, followed by reproductive rights for women.

^-.-^

[crashhelmet]

This would take some serious number crunching, but I wonder how much of our dwindling resources are due to materialism and/or greed compared to necessity?

How many forests are being cut down for a company profit and someone's additional house rather than for expansion?

Same goes for other resources like oil and coal.

[Rapscallion]

Depends on your definitions. Is it an acceptable loss of resources to invest them to invest in technology that reduces or removes the need to use that resource?

Shades of grey, methinks, and there will be as many opinions touted as there are pressure groups.

Rapscallion

[draco664]

We're an inherently invasive species, and if nothing is done to control our spread, we will wipe out our own ecosystem, as well as the ecosystems for thousands of other species.

I call bollocks. We are not a plague. Not even close.

It's a delightful delusion for the self-hating amongst us. But the facts are that as human societies become more wealthy, educated and healthy, birth rates plummet. Historical evidence suggests that even the most primitive societies manipulated their ecosystems to make it cleaner, with latrines and whatnot. Hell, the Chinese had toilets thousands of years ago. The romans had plumbing.

Yes, there are plenty of companies/people who undertake environmentally damaging acts, generally for profit. But it's never in their backyard, always someone else's. And as the people in those societies become more wealthy, those practices will need to stop.

I've posted here before that of all the problems facing humanity, overpopulation is not one of them. Birth rates on all continents are falling, and only Africa and parts of asia have higher than replacement numbers. The rate of population growth is slowing, and within a couple of generations, it will begin to fall.

[Mytical]

I am not so sure about that. I mean a cancer multiplies until it's host cell can no longer support it, burst the cell and spreads to other cells. So..I can see the parallel here. There is only so much room and only so many resources. We invade every single space we can, use up everything we can, and spread outward. How long before our supporting cell can no longer support us?