The absence of any predators from the human species

Man is one of the last creatures of evolution. Few predators have had the opportunity to adapt to its characteristics, apart from some parasites such as lice, fleas, intestinal worms, many bacteria, etc.

The black plague, transmitted probably by the fleas of the rats carried by the ships, caused the disappearance of nearly half of the population in Europe in the 14th century. Many other epidemics had already wreaked havoc in ancient times, still in connection with periods of famine weakening people. So it is wrong to say that man has no predator. It can only be said that there is no visible (or macroscopic) predator.

In any ecosystem, the exaggerated growth of a population causes it to weaken due to lack of resources, as well as a greater likelihood of attacks by existing predators, which can also multiply when prey is more numerous. Thus, oscillations occur between periods of growth and decline of the respective populations.

Similar mechanisms regulate the relationship between the human population and bacterial and viral attacks. So far, they do not seem to have been sufficient to regulate population growth according to available resources. Advances in agricultural yields can explain this delay: food abundance has prevented a weakening of organisms, with further advances in immunization techniques, so that no major epidemic has occurred since the Spanish flu, responsible for some 30 million deaths.

Despite the human tragedies that these scourges represent, they are by far not enough to counter the demographic explosion still under way. Spanish influenza, for example, affected only 3% of the world’s population at the time. HIV has so far been responsible for the disappearance of 0.3 per cent of the current population (24 million people).

One can, in the light of these sad moments of history, measure the importance of the human tragedies of a new pandemic that could reduce the world’s population to renewable resources. The scarcity of food resources, this time threatening the entire world population, could lead to shortages leading to an unprecedented disaster. One hardly dares to imagine the suffering of a scourge that is able to adapt the population to what will remain of the environment within a few generations.

It is up to us to do everything possible to exempt future generations…