Pruning

Grape growers prune branches, in part to eliminate disease, but also to limit the number of grapes grown to insure they have the proper moisture and nutrients.  It got me to thinking.  Does Nature prune populations? Yes, but.  It may be that with people living in more different places, before not habited, nature will take them out, not so much on purpose, but because, well, the people are there.  We pretty much know where earth quakes are going to happen.  But we don't move.  San Francisco is an example.  It is especially weird, because knowing that the earthquake is coming, the housing costs are very high.  People want to live where they will be taken out by an earthquake.  When the "Big One" comes, it will be called a "disaster."  But is it really?  People had a choice but stayed.  A disaster to me in nature's activities would be something that is not expected, such as a drought.  Droughts are a slow process and people make adjustments where they can.  They migrate.  They irrigate.  Is a hurricane a disaster?  You live on the coast of Florida and know that you will get hit eventually, because that is hurricane alley.  But you stay, pay high housing costs and flood insurance, if you can get it.  I live in San Francisco and the East Coast of Florida, so I have to consider that Nature could and will take me out, should I live that long.  I am rolling the dice.  Yikes!