Empty half the Earth of its humans. It's the only way to save the planet

I think it would be cool to set up some incentives for greater parklands and agricultural lands with the goal of high density metro areas and low density rest.

Although the US already sort of has this with 91 people per square mile- https://www.statista.com/statistics/183475/united-states-pop...

It seems like the lock-in of homes creating anti-density thinking is going to be a big problem. If I was a dictator of urban design, I would just build 100 floor apartments with 2-3 bedrooms and leave everything else as parkland.

Kim Stanley Robinson's works have been steadily drifting in the direction of despair and apocalyptic scenarios. By now he probably regrets writing the Mars trilogy -- his deepest sympathies having drifted more and more towards his few characters who radically opposed the establishment of human civilization there.

On a side note, I find it interesting that he asserts that the ideal level of CO2 is at 350 ppm. I'd like to understand why one should want it so low, since dipping to 150 ppm would cause massive land-based extinction of plants.

I'm a remote coder who lives in a rural county where the population density is 0.5 people per square mile. Today I made an infrequent visit to a big city with a density of over 2,000 people per square mile.

It kinda freaked me out, an effect that has grown over the years. It would be psychologically traumatic to me to be forced to live in a city, to the point where if forced by poor health or poverty I may prefer to die in place. City life is deficient in peace and joy by comparison. I pity the bunnies living in our great rabbit warrens. What a cruel thing to do to humanity, to force them there.

Here's an alternative plan. Wealth appears to depress population growth. The wealthiest countries are generally those bending toward depopulation the fastest. So instead let's get so wealthy that population falls enough that a much larger fraction of us can have the great privilege of a rural life.

"This situation can’t endure for long – years, perhaps, but not decades."

Time will prove this to be nonsense.

Nah, just stop the greedy assholes who consume way more reaources than they need to, redistribute what we have, and kill capitalism not people.

Good point in population being a provlem. Should have told this to the ones leaving many countries in poverty, who then had to have double the number of children to ensure their survival.

Sounds good. I call dibs on being in the half that gets to live.