re: #292 Talking Point Detective

but I would guess not at a level that it would cause a very significant drop in population.

You’re overlooking the following “known unknowns”:

1) Migrating disease vectors (which, thanks to the anti-evolution agenda of the GOP & pharmaceuticals who see no profit in new antibiotics, will be resistant as all-hell)

2) Wars over dwindling resources

3) Genetic engineering “fixes” that go horribly, horribly, wrong

In short, it isn’t just one thing, but a perfect storm of several things going wrong at once and acting as positive feedbacks for one another.