I expected avenger : Infinity Warto be very fun . I did not expect Thanos , the moving-picture show ’s central villain , to be a nuanced fictional character ride by a cold , Malthusian logic any conservationist will be uncomfortably familiar with .
balmy spoilers for Avengers : Infinity War ahead .
For the naive , Infinity War is the brassy culmination of a ten ’s worth of Marvel movies that pit the enfranchisement ’s many heroes — including the Avengers , Black Panther , Dr. Strange , Thor , and the Guardians of the Galaxy — against Thanos , a giant purple warlord on a seeking to garner all six Infinity Stones , which will grant him the index to rein the entire universe . If you ’re already deep confused , this movie likely is n’t for you .
Still ! Whether or not you ’re a devotee of the franchise , Infinity War bears a message — or , perhaps , a warning — for all who like about the surroundings . As the film unfolds , it becomes clear Thanos ’ pursuance for omnipotence is n’t driven by greed , hunger for major power , or lust for revenge . He merely require the power to kill half the lifeforms in the galaxy in one vicious swoop . Ostensibly , he ’s motivated by a desire to still hurt and ensure there are enough resources for succeeding generations to thrive .
In other language , Thanos embodies the classic fear that uncurbed population growth is a marching toward destruction .
More than the movie ’s heart - wrench stopping point , this revelation is what left me troubled long after the destruction credits had rolled . To me at least , it came across as a clear denunciation of a sure breed of solution - orient environmentalism that center planetary “ balance ” over citizenry .
The other history of environmentalism is festooned with warnings of a population Revelation , get down with eighteenth one C assimilator Thomas Malthus ’ An Essay on the Principle of Population , which concluded that rising human numbers game would inevitably lead to widespread poverty and famine . As Thomas Robert Malthus ’ pessimistic predictions failed to materialize , he was declareda false prophet . But his ideas pose around , re - come forth with effect in the mid-20th hundred follow the viral popularity of works like Paul Ehrlich ’s The Population Bomb ( 1968 ) , which predicted “ hundreds of millions of people are rifle to thirst to death ” in the seventies , and The Limits to Growth ( 1972 ) , an MIT research report that concluded “ The basic behavior of the globe scheme is exponential growth of population and capital , followed by prostration . ”
So yeah , Thanos ’ concern about astronomic population control ? Definitely something we ’ve thought about here on Earth . And while the most dire doomsday anticipation have n’t hail genuine — thanks for the most part to industrialization and the green revolution in agriculture — this school day of intellection has had real - world consequences , includingracist campaignsto sterilize millions of women in the train world , andChina ’s pregnant one - tike insurance .
societal consequences away , the fundamental problem with the population bomb theory is that we ’re now well past 7 billion humanity , on our mode to perhaps 10 billion by mid - century , and still , nobody ’s sure if it ’s right . As Charles Mann lay out in his late bookThe Wizard and the Prophet , the link between growth and mass famishment turned out to be wildly oversold , and even the connection between human numbers and environmental harm is n’t as clear - cut as overpopulation doomsdayers ask it would be . More peopledoesn’t necessarily mean more pollution .
At the same metre , many scientists and environmentalistsare still very worriedabout the consequences of unchecked maturation . In the age of climate change , not have a kidis considered the biggest affair you could do to reduce your lifetime carbon copy footprint . It ’s complicated .
All of which is to say , the problem with Thanos ’ plan to wipe out half of all life story — aside from it being evil as fuck — is that he ca n’t possibly know it ’ll restore “ balance ” to the cosmos . But when Tony Stark rightly points out this inconvenient truth during their confrontation , Thanos has no stake in debate , assert that he ’s the only one ballsy enough to do what ’s needed .
Is he , though ? Our own account of attempts to “ fix ” overpopulation intimate otherwise . So does our eagerness to debate quick technical school - answer to climate change thatcould have unintended consequencesfor hundreds of millions of multitude in the develop world .
Thanos - like major power may be pure fantasy , but the motivation to use them is as genuine — and terrifying — as ever .
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