> It is a cute debate point, but the basic answer is the same as for how
many animals will die, few more or less
> either way. The ecosystem is set at a particular level by the
> available sunshine and other resources.

Perhaps 99.9% of the billion pigs living on earth today would have to die if
everyone stopped eating bacon.  The lucky few left would have to forgo the
air-conditioned apartments, extended life span, endless food supply ( mostly
human food waste ) and medical attention enjoyed by their domesticated
forefathers.  While they are being devoured alive by a pack of wild
predators, they might also contemplate the gentle death promised by their
human gods who have forsaken them.

Of course their wild numbers would increase if there was less available
sunshine, which would result in wetter conditions in the temperate climate
in which wild pigs live.  Such conditions during the majority of the
Pleistocene produced pig populations that dwarfed our present supply.

The drying of tropical regions resulting from such ice-age conditions would
also benefit another high-fat ( 50% of body weight ) refugee of the
Pleistocene, the camel.  Vast herds would replace the forests and croplands
now dependent on monsoon rains.

Of course for such vast herds to reach their optimal growth potential,
humans would have to take the place of billions of predators who didn't have
the advantage of domestication ( "that deal with Noah" as it's known to
religious animals ) to survive the Pleistocene extinctions brought on by
increased sunshine.  As plague is the alternative to predation, without
human intervention, high density herds would not be possible.

I'm sure the animals are praying that the vegans don't win before the next
ice-age comes.  I'm sure they take solace in most scientists opinions that
it is overdue.  Recent high levels of the most important greenhouse gas,
water vapor, caused by high sunshine levels, have forestalled this event far
more than all the man-made hydrocarbons combined.  The effects of the
variance in atmospheric water vapor has far exceeded the effects of man-made
pollutants on global temperature for every year measured.

Ray Audette
Author "NeanderThin"