Contra the “humans are a virus” discourse that’s popular among eco-fascists and, unfortunately, a sizable segment of the left that likes to imagine other people (but never them) are The Problem, humans have a long history of sustainably and often *beneficially* interacting with their environments.
“Even 12,000 y ago, nearly three quarters of Earth’s land was inhabited and therefore shaped by human societies, including more than 95% of temperate and 90% of tropical woodlands. Lands now characterized as ‘natural,’ ‘intact,’ and ‘wild’ generally exhibit long histories of use, as do protected areas and Indigenous lands, and current global patterns of vertebrate species richness and key biodiversity areas are more strongly associated with past patterns of land use than with present ones in regional landscapes now characterized as natural.”
In other words, much of the wilderness we imagine as pristine reservoirs of biodiversity is in reality the product of human effort.
@HeavenlyPossum "Contra the 'humans are a virus' discourse" As this discourse isn't adequately described, I'm taking liberty to assume it's about expressions of overpopulation more than the inevitability of greed (and therefore, wasteful consumption). If my assumption is true, then the lines depicting population density contradict any belittling of the effect of overpopulation.
@lwriemen
I don’t know what your last sentence means, but one way you could rectify my inadequate description is by learning about this discourse yourself.