MADNESS!!!

It has likely been dreamt of only in nightmares... but here's a scenario:

Perhaps the avian flu could save the world.

Most of the problems of this world are due simply to the fact that there are too many people on this planet, and no one can get along sufficiently to address looming global threats.

What if the avian flu wiped out, let's say, 9/10 of the population of the world?

1) instant reduction of carbon dioxide production, of course from all industrialized nations, but also in countries like Brazil (?) where they burn all of those tropical rainforests to produce grazing land...

2) the end of the "war of cultures," and the "wars of religion." The looming possibility of extinction as a race, hopefully, would wake people up enough to stop trying to kill each other... (then again, the inhumanity of humanity is terribly stubborn and recurring...)

3) Of course, other "benefits" would be: sudden abundance of drinking water, abundance of food resources, etc.

This all is an extension of that old exercise in island ecology. An island is a closed ecosystem, as is this planet. When the demands placed upon the island ecosystem exceed resource availability, then one of several scenarios occurs, none of them exactly good. One, you could have a war, or a "self-inflicted" and internal purging, to reduce the population, and therefore, reduce the demands upon sparse resources (this, perhaps, is the underlying mentality operating in countries like Sudan; I'm not justifying it, I'm just attempting to understand it). Two, the population could diminish "naturally," due to starvation, thirst, sickness, etc. Or Three, you could have a diaspora, in which groups leave the island to search for another place, a "promised land."

Now, our space program is such that it doesn't seem likely we will be setting up colonies on the moon or on Mars anytime soon... And it doesn't seem like we can "pull the magic rabbit out of the hat" and somehow magically reverse global warming WHILE AT THE SAME TIME maintaining our current level of industrial dependence (and, politically, it is impossible to demand our populace to give up our cars, our rapid rate of consumption), nor can we somehow simultaneously "solve" the encroaching and problems of water shortage, food shortage, etc... So, really, what other answers are there?

GODS, am I crazy or what!!?

AVIAN FLU!!??