Our climate and ecosystems. See any introductory 101 ecology class where you learn all about the trivial ways populations can grow, fluctuate and crash. Disease, access to "energy", reproductive strategy and potential, population demographics, ecosystem stability, all existed with out humans around.
Perhaps the big reason to have fewer humans around is that we inject "chaos" into many of these well understood dynamics, creating instability in them, which does, and will, continue to produce a lot of suffering. Assuming humans (animals) are somehow immune to what the rest of life on this world has to deal with (we can invent our away around these problems) is akin to believing in gods, and perhaps that might not end well.
Will "Our climate and ecosystems" have human representatives who relay these decisions and enforce them?
"akin to believing in gods, and perhaps that might not end well"
Mankind has believed in gods since essentially the beginning, hundreds of thousands of years and during that time has risen to become the dominant species on the planet. During this rise, human quality of life, and life expectation have continues to improve reaching its current high point. Anyone telling you different is a victim of political propaganda. There are always hot spots on the earth but overall we are doing great.
Note: There have been a couple of empires that were openly athiestic, the USSR and Communist China. How did that work out for its peoples?
> Will "Our climate and ecosystems" have human representatives who relay these decisions and enforce them?
You mean things like earthquake detectors, disease monitoring, our weather services, climate predictions, air-quality testing, lead in your water testing? Then yes.
> has risen to become the dominant species
How do you define "dominant"? Homo sapiens is not not dominant in many ways: 1) in numbers; 2) in evolutionary lifespan (not even remotely closer there); 3) in genetic diversity; 4) our ability to independently produce our own food (photosynthesis, fungal detrivores), 5) lifespan; 6) ability to communicate via chemicals; 7) etc. etc. Perhaps you mean "in our ability to destroy"?
> this rise, human quality of life, and life expectation have continues to improve reaching its current high point
I say this to every single evangelical who comes to my door and says "You have to admit things are getting worse."
Acknowledging that we are better off than ever (I'd literally be dead multiple times over if not for modern science) doesn't have to be logically inconsistent with "we're going to hit a limit with how much better we can be if we don't stop messing up our ecosystems, in fact I suspect that the places that are "the best" have their hands in both pies.
I'm not going to disparage human religion, but when push comes to shove I'm going to look to science, technology and a better understanding of our world as a whole, particular how evolution led to species interacting with one another as the route to maximize our "greatness".
"I'm not going to disparage human religion, but when push comes to shove I'm going to look to science, technology and a better understanding of our world as a whole, particular how evolution led to species interacting with one another as the route to maximize our "greatness"."
We are on the same page here. I fully believe that no matter what happens we will be able to figure it out. I have essentially zero concern for global warming because of that. We will adapt. I am very optimistic on our future as a species.
We cannot stop fossil fuels currently as the third world has not yet reaped the benefits of cheap fuel that the first world has. We would be asking them to cripple their potential. Technology will eventually make renewables as cheap as coal / oil and then globally we will switch. Just a matter of time.
Perhaps the big reason to have fewer humans around is that we inject "chaos" into many of these well understood dynamics, creating instability in them, which does, and will, continue to produce a lot of suffering. Assuming humans (animals) are somehow immune to what the rest of life on this world has to deal with (we can invent our away around these problems) is akin to believing in gods, and perhaps that might not end well.