first of all if you haven't watched Avengers infinity war or endgame there
will be spoilers ahead in recent years our exponential population growth has
left an irrefutable ecological footprint every year more than 100 million new
human beings populate the earth and very soon we will reach 8 billion humans
living at once clear population growth is not dispersed evenly throughout the
world while Africa certain parts of Latin America and Asia are growing at a
breakneck pace European and North American countries are beginning to
experience a population decline the United Nations estimates that at some
point the human population will eventually stabilize by around 2050 or
2100 when it reaches approximately 12 billion human beings which is 45% more
than the current population the earth's resources are finite and in fact every
year we consume resources faster than the earth can replenish in 1970 on
December 29th humanity had consumed all available resources on earth for the
year and we had an ecological deficit of 3 days currently the ecological deficit
for this year will be reached on July 31st therefore by the end of 2019 you
will have consumed more than twice the ecological resources that Earth can
replenish in one year in the Marvel Avengers infinity wars saga the
supervillain and economist Thanos raises a simple equation eliminate half of all
living beings in the universe thus bringing stability and balance in the
movie he gathers the Infinity stones and practically kills trillions of living
beings eliminating half of the universe's population including half of
humanity although economist Thanos would never be elected for his campaign ideas
many fans have been left with a question what would happen if half of humanity
disappears small spoiler this has actually happened before in human
history and without the need for any Infinity stones so what would be the
economic political social scientific and above all environmental implications of
such an events that's what we'll discover today let's begin
although the Infinity stones in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
has the power to do pretty much anything that US was determined to wipe out half
the universe instead of using the stones to double the universes space and
resources he was a firm believer that overpopulation was the universe's
greatest threat and Thanos put his plan into motion
after his homeworld collapsed due to overpopulation before he had access to
the stones he was going planet to planet reducing the population by half the
earth and humanity were victims of Stannis's snap and in a matter of
seconds about four billion people disappeared from the planet so if this
were to happen in real life thanassis snap would have made four
billion people vanish in an instant although the scene of the people
disappearing was shown at the end of infinity war as well as the beginning of
endgame which showed how the world looked when 50% of the population
disappeared we didn't really see how lives were affected on a day-to-day
basis first of all let's take a look at some basic statistics such as the total
human mass we are about seven point eight billion people each with an
average mass of 60 to 65 kilograms this would mean that all humans combined on
this planet would weigh a total of 370 million tons so if half of us
disappeared it would imply that around 180 million tons would vanish and the
planet would weigh slightly less but with the scale of our planet that's
almost nothing if half of humanity disappears the loss of mass would be
equivalent to the weight of the Burj Khalifa which would not make much of an
impact on the rest of the world physically humanity represents
practically nothing on the planetary scale in fact scientists have even made
calculations that indicate that all the ants on the planet would easily exceed
humanity's total mess so the immediate real-world effects as it happens in the
movie would be a large post-traumatic shock evidently there would be many
accidents with cars trains boats and airplanes Chuck would leave entire
countries virtually without leadership in an instant millions of people will
also die due to the abrupt consequences of the disappearance even if they did
not dust away for example there could be accidents at nuclear power plants due to
the lack of personnel there would also be the problems of blackouts and planes
falling out of the sky with no pilot the most populated nations on earth such
as China India and the US would see their population shrink the 700 690 and
160 million people respectively the political shocks of such large nations
would lead to the implementations of curfew and possible civil wars breaking
out after the disappearances of their leaders so economically what would be
the implications could we calculate the possible effects and how would this
distort existing economic models well it wouldn't be entirely unprecedented there
was a time when this seemed to be a reality in Europe the era of the Black
Plague the Black Plague was a global pandemic that occurred between 1346 and
1361 which killed 40 to 60 percent of the European population but also
affected the African and Asian continent as well it is estimated that the black
plague took over 50 million lives and at the time the population of Earth was
around 350 million so this equates to approximately a reduction of 15% of all
people but there's a strong belief that the plague killed half of Europe the
economic demographic and social effects of the black plague are still a very
strong field of study as it was an event that certainly left a mark on the
continent in the first instance by reducing the population by over half
over a period of a few years there would be certain economic changes in European
countries for example in England wages were increased by 50 percent due to
labor shortage people now had more opportunities to access positions or
classes that were previously unavailable people from less fortunate backgrounds
also had better access to health and good quality food this resulted in a
better overall health of the surviving population that raised the life
expectancy at least for a while so there was a growing availability of labour and
more expensive labour his fight evidently lower demand as you can see in
this graph real wages increased considerably during the plague and was
reduced when the demographic recovery started to begin after the plague prices
during medieval Europe actually rose during the beginning of the plague and
then fell for several decades but not to a level that could show a sudden
depreciation of values the reason is that the plague itself dragged more than
half of the European population but it did not destroy capital goods
or resources while the GDP decreased dramatically there was an increase
between the ratio of monetary reserves and the population as the stock of money
remained unchanged in other words there was the same amount of money in property
but half the people therefore the prices that fell for a couple decades rose
sharply after the demographic recovery the economic and demographic recovery of
Europe would take a couple of decades but would then halt with the European
discovery of America by the end of the late 15th century now in our current
context if half of the population disappeared it would be logical to
expect an economic crisis similar to that of 2008 or even the Great
Depression this is due to the current interconnectivity of today's world and
it is what differentiates now and the age of the Black Death the Black Death
took half of Europe over the span of 40 to 50 years but if Thanos were to exist
and execute his plan then the economic shock would be abrupt and catastrophic
not to mention the psychological consequences of the survivors for having
lost family and friends leaving aside the psychological consequences
the prices of property would fall dramatically in many metropolitan areas
of the world overnight Mexico City would go from 20 million to
10 million inhabitants and Tokyo from 38 to 19 million economists would surely
see that as a result of the 50 percent brutal demand drop supply would take
time to adjust because prices are rigid in the short term with a small exception
that demand would also be reduced by another 50% in other words both supply
and demand would be reduced instantaneously
therefore production companies will decrease instantly all around the planet
evidently a great economic crisis were directly shake humanity but wealth would
be safe the amount of property cars and real estate will still be there there
would be more money and property for the remaining population this evidently
lowers the price of property especially in rural areas however the opposite
effect might also happen with the price drop in great metropolitan areas around
the world such as New York Tokyo and Paris millions of the rich left over
will try to take advantage by buying many properties in terms of health there
would be a better quality of life with the drastic reduction of the population
pollution that millions suffer from each year will begin to dissipate
during Avengers end game when Hawk snaps his fingers to bring back half of the
universe you begin to hear the chirps of birds which means that half of animals
were also wiped from existence so by this logic billions of chickens cows
pigs and other animals for human consumption also disappeared which means
much of the food supply also decreased however with the disappearance of
billions of cows this would also mean that there would be
less methane in the air which is one of the biggest culprits of climate change
and if half of all humans disappears it is clear that this would be a positive
ecological occurrence for the planet carbon levels would be reduced over
nights millions of cars would never be driven again millions of planes would
never take off and millions of factories would never produce again so we wouldn't
necessarily reverse or stop climate change but climate change will
definitely slow down instantly millions of companies investments construction
and infrastructure projects would be stopped and potentially billions would
be instantly unemployed so Thanos with his snap wouldn't necessarily give the
surviving population of better life as it would initially provoke a global
economic crisis that is potentially worse than the Great Depression but over
the following years and decades the world will recover to the previous
states the population growth rate would remain at the same level
after the semi apocalypse at least in the short term thus there would be no
reason to reproduce at a different rate than before
unless of course humanity might consider the depopulation of 4 billion human
beings as the perfect opportunity to make another baby boom it would be quite
possible that there would be a massive growth just a couple decades after the
semi apocalypse if the demographic trend stays constant and by 2100 humanity will
reach a population of about 6 billion human beings so in the end was the snap
even worth it if its implications would only last a century well that's another
issue so I hope you liked this video and don't forget to Like and subscribe for
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