Conclusion: We're going to either make this civilization thing work or we will go extinct as a species.

If your parameters are economic collapse leading to social collapse, then I strenuously disagree. If you are including climate change of the +6 degrees C variety, then I agree. A new Ice Age less a snowball Earth scenario also would not lead to the demise of the species. What are your assumptions?

The 6C+, Snowball Earth and global nuclear war are the three scenarios I could see leading to the demise of the species. Other than that, we are too adaptable, too creative and too able to terraform the planet to go extinct otherwise.

In a complete collapse scenario you would still have groups, both large and small, banding together to survive. If the planet can support farming, people will farm. What will NOT be possible until after a massive die-off and some years of regrowth of the ecosystems will be large bands of hunter gatherers. It would be hard in most, but not all, areas for more than small populations to be hunter gatherers for at least some years.

However, fish populations indicate the rebound of animal populations can happen quite suddenly once you leave them alone. But the oceans are relatively intact ecosystems compared to land ecosystems. I suspect they would rebound faster for that reason and because of the sheer numbers of offspring many aquatic lifeforms have. On land, the population growth should be slower for the opposite reasons: the ecosystems are wrecked over a large area of the earth and most lifeforms - animalia, anyways - breed fairly slowly by comparison.

Of course, much depends on the speed (and type, but let's ignore that for a moment) of die-off. A sudden collapse of the human population would remove constraints on flora and fauna quickly and likely result in a relatively fast rebound of life. However, the ecosystems would need time to balance, so any stocks would not be reliable for some time. Still, say one to five years for a stable food supply excepting climate impacts. If die-off is slow, then one would expect the environment to be even more severely degraded by people taking desperate measures to simply survive. Billions of out of control people would spell a massive die-off of flora and fauna, too. With the additional environmental degradation, destruction of ecosystems and depletion of flora and fauna to minimal levels - and the extinction of many - it would take longer for ecosystems to balance and would help drive the human population to very low levels.

Or maybe not. I'm writing this with only my own thoughts to back it up, so...

Cheers

Gee...I read The Road some time ago. I can't recall a bimbo in the novel.

Though I must say Theron is nice to look at but?

This movie if true to the book will be a 'killer'. Scare the shit out of the audience.

The part about the gangs storing the others in cellars to feast off them at leisure was rather disturbing. But the real plotline was about the fathers very real attachment and concern for his son.

Overall it was overpowering and extremely dramatic. Not for the faint of heart.

Airdale

The Road is wonderful and heart-wrenching. A heavy read. It knocks the mercury out through the top of the doomometer--fitting for the mood of our times. I hope and fear that the movie will stay true to the book.