: Evolution has a neat trick it employs every so often when one species or set of species tip the scales and throw nature off balance: It is called "mass extinction" and has happened several times in the history of the planet. Perhaps you have heard of it....
At the beginning of THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES Charles Darwin discussed, more precisely, the evolutionary situation that arises when a species is too successful at its niche. In that case, Darwin observed, the species in question "eats away" its place in the food chain, overpopulating itself to the point where it must devour every living thing that it can possibly eat in order for its individual members to survive.
The eventual result, of course, is a mass drop-off in the population of species which are too successful at surviving in their niches. Unfortunately, Darwin does not discuss the possibility that the human species may itself be too successful for its niche, and that Darwin's description of the laws of population biology, content today available to any college frosh majoring in bio, may apply to humanity.
If anything will save humanity from the fate Darwin describes, be it advanced agricultural techniques, vigorous application of methods of birth control, or environmental restraints upon capitalism, it will NOT be "greed."
None.
