A scarier thought is that it has been hard to convince people to wear masks to save themselves, so what hope do we have of getting them to save the planet or even just some species that share it with us? (read a tweet to this effect, but didn't keep a ref)
Please, please consider your privilege first, before beying condescending about the world population.
Helping the Earth is very, very high on Maslow's pyramid, just appreciate that you are that high on it and think how to bring more people at thay level.
Plagues and wars cannot help the environment, but the bettering of the condition of man kind can, and is the only way forward.
In order to help the Earth, we first have to help man kind.
Let’s be a bit more pragmatic about it: what are the typical characteristics of the “loads of people” that would be dying? Here’s a hint: it’s not the young and healthy.
OP is advocating killing half a million sharks to save the sick and elderly as something that “shouldn’t even be up for debate.” A few of us happen to disagree.
How is my tinnitus and now vertigo helping save CO2?
Covid has massive painful ramifications throughout the world population and economy.
Surely we can do better than a plague to save the Earth.
This will most likely be over in a year or two after massive vaccinations and synthetic antibodies, but the economic impact will linger for a loot longer.
And guess what will happen when this is over and the world wakes up in a major economic crisis -- that's right, the world won't give a damn about the environment, it will all be about efforts to restart the world economy and cleanup the fallout.