A few years ago, I crossed the country on foot with my sons. They were both pretty meh about a lot of the dangers we faced. Wild boars heard at night in parts of Texas was the only thing that really got my oldest son concerned and I got regaled with how dangerous they can be.
So, that is entirely possible.
I'm optimistic that technology advancements will cap energy usage per person and still enable us to advance society.
I think we need to aggressively promote passive solar, basically. Just skip the energy use entirely, where we can. But I get dismissed as a loon. (shrug)
I didn't mean to imply that the world is coming to an end. I simply hadn't realized how coupled pollution (lead in this case) & economic progress have been. IIRC the rate of species extinction has been accelerating especially for sea life (too lazy to lookup citation). That's real, irreparable harm, at least to those species.
But that's backward looking. I'm optimistic that technology advancements will cap energy usage per person and still enable us to advance society.
And FWIW... my few hunter friends claim boars would dominate North America if humans weren't around. Surprisingly smart, powerful, and aggressive creatures.