Have they all failed though? We feed billons of people based mostly on massive changes we've made to the growable parts of the world. We've drained most of the Netherlands and they seem pretty happy. England is treeless because of our work and they seem pretty ok. Idk it's more like we got burned and now have decided to never try cooking again. I think it's quite easy to convince me we should try to structure life in a way that minimizes the interventions we need to do and that any particular thing we could do is bad, but just saying it ins't natural or that we've been wrong before won't cut it for me, not when we need to make big changes not when doing nothing doesn't actually mean the world stays the same.

Humanity is not just eating our seed corn, we're burning it for heat. If you think we can get away with that indefinitely, you are far more optimistic than I will ever be.

Well it seems like we're going to need some more corn then right? The idea that we can and should go back to the natural carrying capacity of earth would if implemented result in billions dying and we don't make a bigger pie without flexing our muscles a bit